SEE massive final bill

Cejhudson

HELP!! Am new to this site but hoping for advice. As an all electric customer of SSE on economy 7 meter, I changed to their economy 10 tariff. Readings submitted by me ended up with credit balance and SSE reduced my direct debit amount. All okay up until May . In November SSE engineer read my meter and a bill was produced for £750. I did a final read 3 weeks later as we were moving, and was issued with a final bill of £7000!!! Basically, made a complaint, SSE did an investigation and said the meter was all ok. I've been to ombudsmen they say the process SEE have been through is correct. They say that there was a surge in energy consumption between May 17 and November 17, and as a result my £7000 bill is correct.
Is that as far as it goes? Do I have no other options now other than to pay the bill? How on earth can a family of 4 use £300 in electric per week during the summer?? I'm at my wits end, there's no support, no help. Thought ombudsmen were my option, but they only investigate that SSE have followed process, which I suppose on paper they look like they have, surely they have a duty of care or something?
I'm more than happy to pay for energy I've used, of course I am, but there's no way, I can have used that amount! HELP its making me feel so bad

t0rt0ise

What are the meter readings.. the one in November and the one three weeks later?

Cejhudson

The read the engineer took in november, SSE said they didn't fall in line with previous reads so they estimated the bill, the reads I took 3 weeks later produced the huge bill

comeandgo

Have you checked the meter readings are correct. I had a bill where some of the numbers had been transposed.

Cejhudson

The final reads are correct, I even had to send photos into SSE to prove them

Robin9

Could you give the readings from your bills inc the May one and the final one please - it may help us to determine what might be going on.

D_M_E

The problem seems to be that SSE did not accept the "engineer's" readings and substituted them for estimates instead.

Did the "engineer" read the meter correctly?

So that we can offer a bit more help, please answer the following -

Have the correct readings been applied to the correct rate - the night/day readings have not been applied the wrong way round?

Do you have the readings from when you took supply with SSE as well as the final readings?

What tariff were you on?

wavelets

Cejhudson wrote: »

HELP!! Am new to this site but hoping for advice. As an all electric customer of SSE on economy 7 meter, I changed to their economy 10 tariff. Readings submitted by me ended up with credit balance and SSE reduced my direct debit amount. All okay up until May . In November SSE engineer read my meter and a bill was produced for £750. I did a final read 3 weeks later as we were moving, and was issued with a final bill of £7000!!! Basically, made a complaint, SSE did an investigation and said the meter was all ok. I've been to ombudsmen they say the process SEE have been through is correct. They say that there was a surge in energy consumption between May 17 and November 17, and as a result my £7000 bill is correct.
Is that as far as it goes? Do I have no other options now other than to pay the bill? How on earth can a family of 4 use £300 in electric per week during the summer?? I'm at my wits end, there's no support, no help. Thought ombudsmen were my option, but they only investigate that SSE have followed process, which I suppose on paper they look like they have, surely they have a duty of care or something?
I'm more than happy to pay for energy I've used, of course I am, but there's no way, I can have used that amount! HELP its making me feel so bad

You ask if that is as far as it goes?

The answer is yes, unless you can identify anything wrong with the billing or meter. Presumably if you could, you would have highlighted this to both the supplier and the ombudsman.

It's nice to know you will be paying your bill, as it represents the cost of the energy you have used
(unless, as I say, you know differently ... but you've not even said that here)

Cardew

Cejhudson wrote: »

The read the engineer took in november, SSE said they didn't fall in line with previous reads so they estimated the bill, the reads I took 3 weeks later produced the huge bill

The billing computers - for all companies - have an algorithm that will ignore meter readings submitted by the customer/meter reader if the computer 'thinks' they are not possible/plausible, when compared with previous meter readings; and will substitute an estimated reading. Once this happens the same process will happen time and again until there is 'human intervention'.



How long have you been with SSE?


Look at your bills and see the date of the last 'Actual' meter reading as opposed to estimated readings.


It is possible that this debt has been building up for years.


It also is your responsibility to challlenge any bill that has an incorrectly estimated meter reading.

matelodave

How often were you reading the bills and sending the information into your supplier. Did you correct any estimated bills or just accept them.

It makes life a lot easier when you do these things as any anomalies can be identified as soon as they occur rather than having to try and track back over months or even years to find a correct reading to work from.

Cejhudson

On 17 May 2016, Southern Electric received actual meter readings of 616 (rate 1) and 1852 (rate 2). The company produced a bill to these meter readings, which led to a credit balance of £142.74. I understand that Southern Electric lowered your payments to £100 per month at this time. This seems to have been reasonable in the circumstances given your credit balance at the time.

I can see that Southern Electric reassessed your direct debit payments on 27 October 2016. The company projected your annual cost at £413.58, which was based on an estimated annual consumption of 3342 kWh. It proposed a direct debit payment of £50 per month. I do not consider that this projection was unreasonable at this time because your meter readings from May 2016 indicated you had consumed 2462 kWh during the seven colder months of the year between the installation of the meter in October 2015 and the meter readings obtained in May 2016. You later lowered your payments to £26 per month in December 2016 due to your personal circumstances.

Southern Electric next received actual meter readings from you online on 19 May 2017 of 4500 (rate 1) and 4500 (rate 2). The company produced a bill to these meter readings on 24 May 2017, which led to a debit balance of £540.50.

On 10 November 2017, a meter reader obtained meter readings of 18322 (rate 1) and 52080 (rate 2). I note you have advised that you received a bill to these meter readings, which led to a balance of £766.06. However, after reviewing this bill I can see that the company used estimated meter readings of 6223 (rate 1) and 6444 (rate 2) for 10 November 2017. The company disregarded the meter readings obtained by the meter reader for 10 November 2017 because it considered these were not in line with the previous meter readings it had received from you. Due to this, the company used estimated meter readings instead.