Shoulld I change Company

WelshKingJohn

Hi All, for many many years I have been with SSE, I use online billing, pay by Standing order, then pay bill when it came.


So I pay SSE each month about £40 each for gas and electric, they would then send me an email when the quarterly bill would be produced asking for meter readings. I use to enter meter readings, the system calculated how much the bill would be. Then about a week later I got another email telling me the bill was ready.


So what I use to do was, when the system told me how much the bill would be (before bell made) I would change my standing order to make sure there was enough in my account to pay the bill when it arrived.


Gas

SO:£40
SO:£40


Enter meter readings, Gas says bill would be £160

SO:£80 (Adjusted standing order to cover cost of bill when it came a week later)


Bill made up, calculation based on my meter reading, £160
Amount in account £160, Bill paid, Balance Zero


Great system, well originally I had DD and they were always saying not enough paid to cover amount, and would be putting up the DD. So afer some chat with them they said Standing order would be ok


Tariff
Standing order discount added (DD discount)
Paperless billing discount
Duel Fuel discount


Think thats about it, but may have had other discounts, all added up to about £6 so nothing much


So for many years like this, I finally retired, had disbilities, was getting the govement cold weather payment, and a SSE payment in the winter.


Eutopia


That was great until Smart Meters came along, and Ofgen added a special capped tariff for people like me, within a short time I was put on "Energy Assist" and all the above discounts removed. It was suppose to be capped, but it was high a little than my original standard tariff with discounts


Then I agreed to have smart meters installed, took them weeks before online account shows them. But now I cannot see how much a bill may be, cannot enter meter readings, they get them every day, but online bill shows day, month totals, but no total bill, and no vat added, no standing charge added.


At the end of each month, the online use is never shown need to wait a few days


So now I cannot ever see how much the bill is at any one time, cannot see how much a bill will be when its time for one, lots of guess calculations !


So I complain, no reply, complain again, sort of said I want the smart meters removed from my account. Got told I cant have smart meters removed from my account, but dont need to have smart meters if I dont want them????


I open a complaint with Ombudsman, they have a stupid online system that you give details, post evidence and so on... thats still ongoing


Meanwhile, the reason I am hear (He gets to the point) I know nobody any more, been with SSE since the government changed the system where anybody can supply you with energy. Dont know whos bad or whos good, who wont force me to use these meters if I cant see the bill


Any thoughts on this, and any recommendations to change to a BETTER company if there is one, and still get cold weather payments and capped tariff ?


Thanks

Streaky_Bacon

Have you looked at Cheap Energy Club?

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

You may have some luck finding a good tariff there.

You can request to have your smart meter removed, or the smart functionality switched off, but there are no guarantees.

Many of the smaller suppliers cannot use the smart functionality and, depending upon the model, possibly no other supplier can use it.

So, shop around, and it may be that your problem can be solved simply by moving supplier.

WelshKingJohn

thanks, didnt get what SSE said, first said cant remove smart meter from online account, next said i dont need to have them

Joyful

Does SSE not have a bit that you can generate a bill based on todays readings on their website. On BG's site if I want to know I can do this. I can also see a breakdown daily of what my usage is with a smart meter. Have a good look at the site or check with SSE.

mac.d

First thing is to try Joyful's suggestion of having a look around the 'my account' section of the SSE website to see if it can tell you more information about your bills, this is where smart meters should make things easier for you to do that, not harder.

You can request the smart meter functionality be disabled on your smart meter, so it reverts to a standard meter that you need to read and give SSE your meter readings again. Although that seems pointless, besides I've no idea if that will make your previous 'system' work again!

Paying on receipt of bill (albeit with standing orders as well) is not the most money saving way of paying for your energy though, you usually do save £100+ if you can pay by direct debit.

Also, you can possibly get yourself a cheaper deal than what you are currently paying, and get your warm home discount back again (though you need to check that the supplier you are switching too provides it).

You need to get your usage details from previous bills so you can get your annual kwh used for both gas & electric, then put them into a comparison website (Citizens Advice have one here, and as already mentioned there is the one on this very website: MSE Energy Club). It will give you deals showing a monthly DD that should cover the entire year, as long as your usage figures are spot on.

Be aware that, for now at least, switching to another supplier will probably mean your smart meters won't be that smart any more as the other supplier probably won't be able to get readings from them and you'll have to go back to reading them yourself and supplying them with meter readings (best to do this every month).

If that all sounds too complicated, can you possibly get an appointment with a local Citizen's Advice and see if they can help you?

AndyPK

don't ask them to remove the SM as that will really upset them.

Ask to have a switch to a dumb meter. (assuming you have a good access to the meter and can read the display once a month) it isn't easy.

EDF and good, Npower are ok.