£200 phone call to SSE! Furious!

matelodave

what are you talking about - what case. You were spouting rubbish

System

OP - What about asking SSE for a smart meter .

SummerFun

Artist's impression of just how furious the OP presumably is:

honeyend

In defence of people who have had incorrect bills.


Sadly my husband who I would not think stupid, he worked in a bank and is far more numerate than me, handled our energy bills for years. Nothing to worry my pretty little head about, he had it all in hand.
We bought a second property, it was my responsibility, he was far too busy, so I shopped around and knew how much water and electric cost and could predict what the bill would be. No adding up mind, far too difficult.
We moved our main house, and I kept asking what the direct debit was, I could not understand why it was so high, and asked what the rates were and had he read the meter? In the end I found the bill. I could not believe it, he was on standard tariff. Oh, the shame.
Being annoyed and headstrong, I swopped suppliers without telling him and cut the bill by 25%.


So you think you know things until you find out you don't. You think you can trust the nice shiny energy companies and it will only save you a few pounds, and its it worth the bother?


As I am numberlyxic, and as you can tell the other as well, I take photos of my meters, send them by email and try not to phone them as they very often 'forget' and downright lie.
The energy game is not for the naïve, you have to be sharp. They pay people who are there to make the most money, what ever the ads say, not to help you get the best deal, or help you.


My husband now winces when I ask how much the bill is and what is the unit rate?

anniecave

I would say posts like #19 are a bit unfair. I wouldn't say it's "easy" to understand gas and electricity bills.

Electric is a bit easier than gas as meter readings are the same as units.

If you are are on monthly direct debit the way that the information is presented is often downright confusing and sometimes plain wrong. It's not always clear when estimated readings are used. If you take the time to set up a spreadsheet with your tariff details and meter readings in, then yes it's easy to see what is going on, but not everyone would know how to do this.

Also when you phone up suppliers the staff have had some training but not always enough (I phoned Scottish Power yesterday with a query and was told several things that were completely incorrect). If you don't completely understand what's going on (and that is often why you might be calling) then it's easy for members of staff to also not give you correct information.

So please stop saying that everying is always easy when it's not.

Carrot007

anniecave wrote: »

I would say posts like #19 are a bit unfair. I wouldn't say it's "easy" to understand gas and electricity bills.

Electric is a bit easier than gas as meter readings are the same as units.

If you are are on monthly direct debit the way that the information is presented is often downright confusing and sometimes plain wrong. It's not always clear when estimated readings are used. If you take the time to set up a spreadsheet with your tariff details and meter readings in, then yes it's easy to see what is going on, but not everyone would know how to do this.

Also when you phone up suppliers the staff have had some training but not always enough (I phoned Scottish Power yesterday with a query and was told several things that were completely incorrect). If you don't completely understand what's going on (and that is often why you might be calling) then it's easy for members of staff to also not give you correct information.

So please stop saying that everying is always easy when it's not.

Electric and gas bills or E7 electric are easy to understand. Other electric tarrifs may be a bit harder since it's hard to get the details.

However yes, most of the people in the call centres do not even get basic training on what would be a ridiculous usage for X etc. I suppose even split E7 can be hard to understand when the changes are due to customer service again not having a clue, but at least there the reads are easy. (same for some of the random e7 times or out of kilter timeswitches, or even scotlands lets call it e7 (there is no e7 in scotland) but you get 8.5 hours, but again you can see the reads are peak or off even if they switch at odd points)