Young mum left ‘in tears’ over £2,500 energy bill trauma

Crewe mum Shannon McBarron, 18, with her 15-month-old son (Image: McBarron)A mum has told of her despair after being charged nearly £2,500 in erroneous energy bills during a saga that caused her to “break down in tears”. Shannon McBarron, from Crewe, Cheshire, claims she received the shocking update on her Scottish Power account on Thursday morning (November 10).According to CheshireLive, the 18-year-old, who lives with her 15-month-old son in a small council flat, had already made a complaint on Monday, November 7, when she was charged £996 for October, leaving her account £886.41 in the red. This was despite her monthly bill never usually being more than £45.She called Scottish Power and was eventually told over the phone the issue had been sorted. On Thursday, she logged into her account to see it had been updated but, to Shannon’s horror, she saw the amount she owed had increased even further to £2,496.75.Speaking to Cheshire Live, Shannon said she would have been left “bankrupt”, adding that the whole saga came after her son had been in hospital. Due to her son being “too young for nursery”, and his dad working away in the Royal Navy, she is a stay-at-home mum on Universal Credit and also works part-time in a chippy at weekends.She said: “When seeing the bill on Sunday, I broke down in tears and called my mum who has had troubles herself with Scottish Power in similar circumstances regarding bills. I barely slept that night, not only because of being paranoid over my sick son, but also worrying that I wouldn’t be able to take care of him if I was left with no money to pay for his basic needs for the month.”I had never felt so panicked before. His father is in the Navy and is the one to usually help me figure out the best solutions to financial and home issues, keeping me calm and helping me understand the jargon.” Shannon MacBarron was first told she owed more than £800 before the debt increased (Image: Shannon MacBarron)She explained the underlying cause dated back to when she first moved into her flat. She said she had “a lot of issues” when setting up her account with Scottish Power, which she tried to get resolved in April. According to Shannon, the incorrect address was logged with her account twice by Scottish Power. She was told at the time it was an issue with the app and it would “soon update”.She had no issues for the next few months and as recently as two weeks ago, her account was £81 in credit. But on Sunday, November 6, she saw the £996 bill for October, leaving her “over £800 in debt”.She added: “I’m a single mum with a toddler living in a small council flat. After bills come out, we have just enough to get by to the next month.”On Monday, she contacted her bank and cancelled the direct debit before Scottish Power could take any money out of the account. She then contacted the energy company, managing to speak to someone after two hours of trying.She was told the initial issue with the address back in April had “never been resolved”. She said this meant she had been charged both for her address and the incorrect address that had been mistakenly linked with her account. The Scottish Power headquarters building on Argyle Street, Glasgow (Image: Daily Record)She said: “Once I finally got through to them again and after the lovely lady I ended up speaking to investigated the issue, it turns out they never resolved the address issue from months prior. She said I had been paying the bill for my address as well as any debt from the other address.”Once the other address stopped paying their bill it had all been charged to me. Hence the huge build-up of debt that nearly left me and my son bankrupt.”She claimed Scottish Power was “hours away” from putting in a transaction request for the full £996. She feared that this would have left her unable to take care of herself and her son.Shannon was reassured that everything was fixed but then she saw the increase in her debt to more than £2,400 on Thursday. She claimed they had “changed the address from one wrong flat number to yet another wrong flat number”.She said: “It’s disgusting how nonchalant some of the staff are when it comes to handling situations like this. I have been talked down to as if I am somehow in the wrong and just complaining over a couple of quid.”After the company was contacted by Cheshire Live, Shannon said they had been in touch again. They told her they had cancelled her account, including the incorrect debt, and created a new one for her.She added: “It’s just a shame that I wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last person this happens to.”A spokesperson for Scottish Power said: “We apologise for the frustration and distress Ms McBarron has experienced and are working to resolve the issue. This stems from the incorrect address being recorded when she moved to a new property, which led to her being billed for energy used at the wrong property.”We have corrected the address we hold on the account and contacted Ms McBarron to confirm this. We requested a photo of her meter reading to calculate a new bill, likely to be much lower than the amount on her current bill. Once this has been submitted, we will issue the correct bill, based on energy usage at the right property, before discussing a payment as a gesture of goodwill.”