I thought I had submitted earlier posts following my decision to migrate to Scottish Power last year. It seems not.

I had a satisfactory and faultless experience with this energy supplier for about 2 years. Every 90 days I was reminded to supply meter readings and paid on line in full. When I moved house (December 2006) I researched the market and decided to resubscribe to SP. How things seem to have changed in a very short time period.

My former arrangement - that worked so well - was no longer available. To benefit from the most advantageous tariff I'd have to service it on line and enter into an agreement to pay by monthly variable direct debit (VDD).From my previous consumption history, I had a reasonable idea of the appropriate level to pay each month.

There have been a catalogue of errors spanning several months, which I hope may have at last been straightened out.

Within days of moving and several weeks prior to approaching SP, the gas meter was exchanged. It still has the yellow sticker showing the date of exchange and details of the meter swapped out, closing and opening readings.

June 2006 - first quarterly bill. Wrong tariff for both electricity and gas. I had not been asked to supply readings. This was not too surprising as I had at least 2 visits from Accuread during the early summer months. Despite this, the bill was prepared on estimates. Gas usage was assessed on the old meter.

Several phone calls and emails followed during the summer to correct the gas meter serial number and the tariff. The proposed increase in my VDD in excess of 40% was also challenged, successfully.

Towards the end of the second quarter I had another visit by Accuread. Apart from readings for electricity and gas, I checked and corrected the gas meter serial number in their handheld unit. So, we were now on track to generate an accurate bill.

The second quarter bill showed correct 'Actual' consumption for electricty and zero usage of gas.

In trying to sort out these troubles I have 'fallen out of the 90-day cycle' of billing. An estimate was generated at the end of September followed by a further correction in the VDD to take effect from December. My next bill is due today - 28th January 2008.

On 18th January I received 'we need your readings' email. Please do so within 10 days. Fine, that is what I expected to do.

26th January - a reminder email about readings was generated at 05:17; please do so within the next 3 days (72 hours, if you prefer). Fine, I have not forgotten and expect to submit readings when due.

26th January - 10 hours into the 72 hours, an estimated bill is generated!

Well, I have submitted my own readings that has made a marginal difference to the amount I am in credit.

In the next few days, I'll log on to see the details of my current bill looks like.

Apart from the variable and poor level (IMO) of customer service my other gripe is with the SP website. You are asked or required to 'Accept' a bill before it is produced. Anyone else have a view on this?

Unfortunately I can see both sides of the argument here.

Scottish Power do not control the records held with regard to Gas Meter serial numbers. Nor do they own any of the gas meters installed in any property within the country. So they cannot be held responsible for the details held against said Gas meters.

Transco (or National Grid) are the organisation responsible for updating and maintaining accurate details of all gas supply meter numbers with regard to someone's account.

Scottish Power can certainly contact Transco on your behalf to correct the meter serial no via a process called "Dispute". However Transco can refuse to change the details, and there's nothing Scottish Power (or any other energy company) can do about it.

To me it seems that Scottish Power only attempted to base reads on old Meter Supply No because that was the one that National Grid held for your property. It can sometimes take 28 days for this to be updated with National Grid, and energy companies are bound by law to accept the data held by National Grid as factual and correct until a dispute is raised by the customer.

Having said that, they really should have looked at the supply numbers you gave them and used a bit of initiative! :D

You may find that the bill was produced before the 10 day mark as the month end billing cycle had been reached. SP normally produces bills approx 3 days before month end so it could be you were caught out by this.

As for the online acceptance of bills before they are produced. As you are the customer supplying reads via the online service, the company is interpreting that as you are happy with the reads entered and that you believe all information to be correct. If you look at the terms, your right to dispute the bill is unaffected by this acceptance.

Don't get me wrong, SP are not whiter than white (I should know), but they're by no means the worst when it comes to resolving issues with customers.

Thank you for your interesting post to this forum. You sound like someone with insider knowledge.

Things appear to have stabilised and I am pleased to say my meter reading submissions and billing seem to be running OK. I am frequently hounded by other energy suppliers cold calling and claiming they can offer a better deal. When checking on-line, I usually find this is false and am not tempted to move away from SP at this point in time.

I admit I am somewhat impatient when seemingly simple things are not resolved or responded to in a timeframe I would expect.