MSE News: Scottish & Southern Energy: we'll pay you £20 for poor service

Former_MSE_Jamie

"SSE has introduced a five-point customer service guarantee, and if it isn't met, the energy provider will pay you ..."

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Scottish & Southern Energy: we'll pay you £20 for poor service



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wakeupalarm

Why not keep the £20 and invest it into decent customer service instead?

tinkle

Instead of giving out £20's why not reduce prices

Caddyman

I wish my energy provider would give me 20 quid for poor service. I arranged with them two weeks ago to refund me some of my own money back because I was significantly in credit. They agreed and told me it would be refunded within three days. Nothing happened. I called them back today and they are unable to offer an explanation. They soon changed their tune when I threatened to report them to the Energy Ombudsman. Last time I reported an energy provider to the Ombudsman, I got £25 off my bill. It does pay to complain sometimes.

Dave_save

Any company that's openly willing to give £20 for poor customer service is either awash with cash, or is too lazy/incompetent to make the customer service better.

Wywth

wakeupalarm wrote: »

Why not keep the £20 and invest it into decent customer service instead?

They already are the best of the Big 6 in regards to customer service.

Actually, I think their promise is more of a marketing ploy. I don't think they will be giving out many £20 credits (over and above the goodwill gestures they already give out)

1. The energy firm will call you back when it says it will.
Is this a new call back service they have started, or is this just if they need to call you back if they cannot resolve the issue whilst you are on the phone?

2. It will never transfer you more than once when you call, unless you agree.
I don't think I have ever been transferred when calling them. They do sometimes put you on hold whilst they claim to be going to speack to someone else, but it's always the same person who came back to me.

3. It will give you the opportunity to speak to a manager if you ask.
I would think so, but how do we know it's actually a manager and not just their mate sat next to them?

4. If you want help with your energy bills, it will offer support
Again, I would think so.
Don't all the Big 6 offer this anyway? It certainly says on all their bills to contact the supplier immediately if you have any difficulty in paying their bill

5. When you call the company, it says it will offer to find you ways to save money. But don't expect it to suggest the cheapest deal on the market. Earlier this week we launched Cheap Energy Club, which monitors your tariff to ensure you're always on the best deal.
I hate that. When I call a supplier to complain, I would like them to address the complaint, not use the opportunity to sell me an alternative product (perhaps with a tie-in/early exit penalty) or entice me into paying monthly by DD (if that is not how I currently elected to pay), or perhaps try to entice me to moving another fuel supply to them.

callum9999

Dave_save wrote: »

Any company that's openly willing to give £20 for poor customer service is either awash with cash, or is too lazy/incompetent to make the customer service better.

Or has been trying to make it's customer service better already and is now confident it is good enough to be able to make this promise without having to pay out thousands of pounds in compensation to customers....

callum9999

Wywth wrote: »

They already are the best of the Big 6 in regards to customer service.

Actually, I think their promise is more of a marketing ploy. I don't think they will be giving out many £20 credits (over and above the goodwill gestures they already give out)

1. The energy firm will call you back when it says it will.
Is this a new call back service they have started, or is this just if they need to call you back if they cannot resolve the issue whilst you are on the phone?

2. It will never transfer you more than once when you call, unless you agree.
I don't think I have ever been transferred when calling them. They do sometimes put you on hold whilst they claim to be going to speack to someone else, but it's always the same person who came back to me.

3. It will give you the opportunity to speak to a manager if you ask.
I would think so, but how do we know it's actually a manager and not just their mate sat next to them?

4. If you want help with your energy bills, it will offer support
Again, I would think so.
Don't all the Big 6 offer this anyway? It certainly says on all their bills to contact the supplier immediately if you have any difficulty in paying their bill

5. When you call the company, it says it will offer to find you ways to save money. But don't expect it to suggest the cheapest deal on the market. Earlier this week we launched Cheap Energy Club, which monitors your tariff to ensure you're always on the best deal.
I hate that. When I call a supplier to complain, I would like them to address the complaint, not use the opportunity to sell me an alternative product (perhaps with a tie-in/early exit penalty) or entice me into paying monthly by DD (if that is not how I currently elected to pay), or perhaps try to entice me to moving another fuel supply to them.

A company the size of SSE having a written or (internally) well publicised policy of lying to customers about who they are speaking to (the only way it could realistically work) is bonkers - they'd be in enormous trouble if it was ever discovered.

Do you call them up very often though? I'd imagine from how they word it that they'll add in a line saying "I see you pay on receipt of bill, would you like to discuss ways we can save you money on that?" - which you can just say no to and they'll move on.

Wywth

callum9999 wrote: »

A company the size of SSE having a written or (internally) well publicised policy of lying to customers about who they are speaking to (the only way it could realistically work) is bonkers - they'd be in enormous trouble if it was ever discovered.

I didn't intend to suggest there would be any formal policy about this.

callum9999 wrote: »

Do you call them up very often though? I'd imagine from how they word it that they'll add in a line saying "I see you pay on receipt of bill, would you like to discuss ways we can save you money on that?" - which you can just say no to and they'll move on.

I have called them in the past when I was supplied by Ebico (who use SSE for their customer service)

Yes that's almost exactly what they said, suggesting paying monthly by DD may save me money.
I reminded them I was with Ebico so it didn't matter two hoots