WARNING - Check Your SSE Figures Before Switching

portlandboy

Hi,
PLEASE CHECK YOUR SSE ANNUAL USAGE FIGURES WITH THE COMPANY
Like many others, I have been looking to switch my gas & electric supplier from SSE since they announced the increase. I have been using the annual Kwh usage figures on my bill, which is obviously the best way to search on comparison sites. I had chosen a new supplier but fortunately, just before I swapped, I called SSE to see if they could offer me anything to stay.
To my surprise, the advisor was working out my annual usage, using different figures than those printed on my bill!
It appears that the annual usage figures on my bill are 20% out, the gas being lower than printed and the electric being higher! I was passed onto a complaints manager very quickly, who was concerned that the figures were wrong and had no explanation as to how or why it is so.
Clearly, trying to get a comparison using figures that are 20% out will have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the searches and I could have ended up choosing a company that seem cheap, then running up a debt as a result.
The manager stated that she has no idea whether it is only my bill, a few bills or every bill that has been mis-calculated, so I would suggest that you call them to find out if you plan to switch suppliers.

amiehall

How was the consumption wrong? Was it incorrect readings or had they somehow managed to mess up subtracting one reading from the other?

Terrylw1

Then they are failing Standard Licence Conditions (SLC) 27.14 & 27.15.

You could add that to your complaint.

Here's a link to Ofgem's site, use the .PDF's.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

portlandboy

amiehall wrote: »

How was the consumption wrong? Was it incorrect readings or had they somehow managed to mess up subtracting one reading from the other?

They tell me that the readings and the bill charges are correct, but the information on annual usage does not add up to the same total as the last years individual bills all added together. So what I have paid to date is correct, but any comparison made using the annual information would be wrong.

portlandboy

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Then they are failing Standard Licence Conditions (SLC) 27.14 & 27.15.

You could add that to your complaint.

Here's a link to Ofgem's site, use the .PDF's.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

As soon as I mentioned that I would inform Ofgem, they were very attentive! They will be explaining the mistake in writing once they have found out how it has happened.
This seems similar to a problem that nPower had a few years ago, which eventually cost them quite a lot of money, if I remember correctly.

brewerdave

If you read the "many" threads re EDF and specifically
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=55337775&postcount=21
you will see that EDF'S annual forecast is not directly related to last year's usage - suspect its the same in your case!!

portlandboy

brewerdave wrote: »

If you read the "many" threads re EDF and specifically
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=55337775&postcount=21
you will see that EDF'S annual forecast is not directly related to last year's usage - suspect its the same in your case!!

SSE give you a total of the Kwh that you have actually used in the last 12 months. It isn't a forecast, it is a calculation of the standard units and the discounted units added together. This is supposed to be the collective usage figures taken from the last 4 quarterly bills.

victor2

With electricity, it's dead easy to check. Just take readings they have for billing purposes a year apart and subtract one from the other. Maybe it is possible to deduce which ones they could have used, or conclude that they used none of them!
Gets a bit more involved with gas, as the CV used in the conversion to kWh comes into play, but not impossible to do.