A group of cross-party members of the Scottish Parliament have urged Glasgow-headquartered ScottishPower to stop its practice of back-charging customers with token meters, the BBC has reported.
The group of MSPs has written to the Scottish utility asking it to follow the example set by its rivals and scrap the policy of back-charging.
The unpopular billing policy sees some utilities sending out bills to cover the unpaid charges that accrue in the period between a tariff increase and the appropriate adjustment of meters. Customers dislike the practice because it results in often unmanageable one-off bills being issued to account holders.
The MSPs have pointed out to ScottishPower that it is the last major utility operating in Scotland to still issue the ‘unfair’ backdated bills. Most of the UK’s energy providers have now pledged to scrap their schemes in the face of strong public opposition. In Scotland, Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Gas have agreed not to issue such bills in future.
In its defense, ScottishPower said that it was installing smart meters that recognize tariff changes straight away, which will remove the problem. However, currently, the utility has around 100,000 customers exposed to the potential sting of backdated bills.