Problems with Southern Electric

kelly101_2

Has anyone else had problems with Southern Electric?

I have been with them since July 2006 and started by paying monthly direct debits of £25 (1 bed flat) they then increased my payments to £48 as this is the amount of electricity i was using. I recently phoned up to change to pay on reciept of bill and they told me i owe them over £500! I didn't recieve any letters telling me this and they didn't tell me to increase my monthly direct debit. They've had up to date meter reading throughout the contract!

any advice would be appreciated???

dogshome

Hi kelly 101 - If have electric heating, (Eco 7?), in your flat then I'm afraid that it is expensive, and could easily run up a bill of £1000 a year. You have bills for the last 3 years and it really is a case of going thro' them to see how much power you are using at what times of the year, which if you have lived a steady life style over the 3 years, will be roughly the same consumption every year.
If you find there is suddenly a big jump in consumption for no obvious reason, then post the details and I,m sure you'll get some useful advice
Best of luck

Premier_2

kelly101 wrote: »

...I recently phoned up to change to pay on reciept of bill and they told me i owe them over £500! I didn't recieve any letters telling me this ... They've had up to date meter reading throughout the contract!

any advice would be appreciated???

You should have been receiving regular statements about every 3 months. Have you never received these?

Edit: it might be every 6 months now with SSE, but you should have had some since 2006!

Fire_Fox

dogshome wrote: »

Hi kelly 101 - If have electric heating, (Eco 7?), in your flat then I'm afraid that it is expensive, and could easily run up a bill of £1000 a year. You have bills for the last 3 years and it really is a case of going thro' them to see how much power you are using at what times of the year, which if you have lived a steady life style over the 3 years, will be roughly the same consumption every year.
If you find there is suddenly a big jump in consumption for no obvious reason, then post the details and I,m sure you'll get some useful advice
Best of luck

Most people saw a jump in energy consumption last winter as it was significantly colder than the previous two winters.

robnye

I have gas and electric wirh them

be aware they will also charge you extra for payment statements and for not being on direct debit.

surely the old bills you have received will have shown if you are in arrears?

kelly101_2

thanks for the replies. i've never recieved any bills or statements from them!

i have requested that all the paperwork to do with my account is sent so i will be able to check.

seems expensive as i live on my own and am at work during the day. don't leave anything on standby and haven't even had the heating on this year!

Fire_Fox

kelly101 wrote: »

thanks for the replies. i've never recieved any bills or statements from them!

i have requested that all the paperwork to do with my account is sent so i will be able to check.

seems expensive as i live on my own and am at work during the day. don't leave anything on standby and haven't even had the heating on this year!

Two people in a flat don't use much more energy than one person in a flat. To build up a £500 debt you must have been underpaying for some time, have you not been submitting meter readings?

Being at work all day isn't a guide as that is only 40-odd hours out of a 168 hour week! Gadgets on standby and lighting don't use much energy, it's heating, hot water and tumble dryers in that order.

Premier_2

kelly101 wrote: »

thanks for the replies. i've never recieved any bills or statements from them!

i have requested that all the paperwork to do with my account is sent so i will be able to check.

seems expensive as i live on my own and am at work during the day. don't leave anything on standby and haven't even had the heating on this year!

Come now, you are trying to tell us you've been paying money to an energy supplier and ensuring they have up to date meter readings regularly, yet you've never checked to see whether your were paying too little...or possibly too much?

I bet there's something on standby in your place too. A phone, an oven or microwave clock, etc.

dogshome

Hi again Kelly 101 - If you have really not recieved any bills in 3 years,( it can happen but it's as rare as hens teeth), you are in luck as the Gas & Electric providers cannot back-bill you for more than 12 months, which would mean that even if you were to get your first bill today, all those Direct Debits you have been paying cannot be set against your consumption prior to November 2008, and in fact you stand in credit.
Good Luck

Premier_2

dogshome wrote: »

... all those Direct Debits you have been paying cannot be set against your consumption prior to November 2008, and in fact you stand in credit.
Good Luck

Do you have a source to back up that comment, please?

This is all I can find. Even if the back billing rule does apply

Where Suppliers issue a bill which has these principles applied, they will credit the account with the value of the unbilled energy consumed over 12 months ago, taking into consideration any payments already made by the Customer or credits applied to the account, so that the Customer is not required to pay any additional sums towards this previously unbilled energy consumption.

http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/documents/BillingCodeFAQs15Oct08.pdf (page 4)

Mynewt

Assuming you have a situation where the billing code can be implemented any previous payments will be taken into consideration of any balance. The best outcome is that your debt will be reduced to zero, not a credit. This also assumes the the billing code deduction would equate to more than the current balance outstanding.

Billing code refers to monies owed, not to total consumption.