Contacting Scottish Power - Mission Impossible

[zico]

Currently trying to contact them to register my father's death and take over payment for his account.
Tried phoning them. Due to that old chestnut "Particularly high demand right now" aka "Chronically short-staffed" they are only accepting phone calls for priority customers. They do have a lot of automated options where whichever option you pick, it ends with "look at the website, byeeeee".

Tried their chatbox. An auto-bot replies, and you have to select options which are nothing to do with your query in order to continue. You then get the message "Scot Power will reply as soon as they can" followed by "6mins ago - message not seen yet" which gets updated to "272 hours - message not seen yet" followed by "Chat closed".

Maybe I should just freeze my dad's bank accounts and leave it to them to make the next move!

I did try their Bereavement phone number. The first 10 times it said "That number has not been recognised", the 11th time it rang. I got through to somwone, but she said Scottish Power are having trouble with their phones, and her speech became so interrupted, it was impossible to continue with the call.

[Arborbridge]

I had the same trouble - Scottish Power are impossible to contact. In the end, I just gave up and switch to Octopus.

Have you tried messaging on FB? (assuming they have an FB page.)

Arb.

[zico]

I'm trying now to make a complaint, but there isn't any way of getting through to make a complaint!
Nice idea about Facebook, may try that.

[Arborbridge]

I'm trying now to make a complaint, but there isn't any way of getting through to make a complaint!
Nice idea about Facebook, may try that.

I had a similar problem with a telephone company, and a message through Facebook, much to my surprise, resulted in their calling me.

[DrFfybes]

Maybe I should just freeze my dad's bank accounts and leave it to them to make the next move!

Erm, haven't you done that already?

[Lootman]

Maybe I should just freeze my dad's bank accounts and leave it to them to make the next move!

Erm, haven't you done that already?

It can be useful to keep open the bank accounts of deceased persons. It may remain the best way of meeting existing and ongoing debts and liabilities. And even more so if there are incoming credits that are due.

In my experience banks are very aggressive when you inform them of an account holder's death. So I would be circumspect about informing them. There is plenty of time for that later.

In this situation I would simply cancel the direct debit that pays for this item. And/or switch to another provider.

[BullDog]

Maybe I should just freeze my dad's bank accounts and leave it to them to make the next move!

Erm, haven't you done that already?

It can be useful to keep open the bank accounts of deceased persons. It may remain the best way of meeting existing and ongoing debts and liabilities. And even more so if there are incoming credits that are due.

In my experience banks are very aggressive when you inform them of an account holder's death. So I would be circumspect about informing them. There is plenty of time for that later.

In this situation I would simply cancel the direct debit that pays for this item. And/or switch to another provider.

Absolutely that. Cancel the direct debit. I am sure they'll be in touch when they want paying. Bereavement is tough enough without having to suffer total incompetence from a company.

[MickR]

I'd use twitter at this point FB is OK but the messages are private. However, twitter is for all to see so usually prompts a response

Mick

[scotia]

Back in the bad old days, English workers received two holiday days at Christmas, while Scottish workers received two holiday days at New Year . Yes, Dad used to rage about going to work on Christmas day. "And they call this a Christian country" he would complain (although he was a humanist). As the years have passed, the number of days have increased, and now many workers in both countries have an extended holiday which encompasses both Christmas and New Year. So staffing levels at Scottish Power will probably be very low on 30th December - especially for non-urgent communications. My advice would be to try again in about a week's time.

[stevensfo]

I had the same trouble - Scottish Power are impossible to contact. In the end, I just gave up and switch to Octopus.

Have you tried messaging on FB? (assuming they have an FB page.)

Arb.

Why on earth do people waste their valuable hours on the phone?

Simply send a polite but authoritative letter via registered post. Keep letter on computer as template for other letters.

Life's too short.


Steve

PS Threatening to send dog turds to the CEO is 'not' polite! .....as a magistrate explained to me.

[DrFfybes]

Why on earth do people waste their valuable hours on the phone?

Simply send a polite but authoritative letter via registered post. Keep letter on computer as template for other letters.

Agree about the letter, but never send recorded delivery to an organisation unless there is a named recipient. Rather than going in the general mail system and reaching the correct dept as addressed, it get signed for by the night security guard/cleaner/whoever who then put it to one side and forgets about it for a week, or sends it on the the main office so it takes another day or 3 to get sent to the correct dept.

Paul

[88V8]

Currently trying to contact them ...

We were with SP at our previous house... fine.... then here... fine until I needed an engineer to come out and do... I forget what.
Five failed appointments.
They were using an address database with the wrong address, or at least the right address if you already knew where we were... the Post Town, no street name... their engineers faffed around five miles away... apparently no satnav that could use the postcode that would have done the job.

Anyway, they refused to change the address, so after making a complaint and getting five 'compensations' for the failed appts, I left them for Ovo.

Ovo changed the address on the database in a couple of weeks. Their customer service is very good, always a quick reply. Not that I've needed an engineer, as yet.

Customer service... one of those imponderables that doesn't matter until it does.

V8