REALLY crazy gas bill....... SSE service is a joke.

TallWes

I have had a series of estimated meter readings. Which I paid.
I then took a reading and up loaded it which was slightly lower. This should put me in credit by a few pounds (less than £50, I imagine).

• Last estimated reading on 15th of Jan 2020 - 1386 units.
• Paid on 9th of Feb 2020.
  
• Reading taken 31st of March 2020 - 1358 units
•  This is less than the previous estimated (and paid) value putting me in credit.

Instead I have a bill for £90 and apparently I owe another £12,000. Yes, £12,000!!!!
I spoke to the customer service people and they advised me to re-enter the reading in a few days. I did. No change. The system still says the same.
The customer service person thought that the system believes I have "gone around the clock". It has not, although I am not sure how to evidence this from the meter.
I have sent all the evidence I can, including photos of the meter. I have raised a compliant and just got a holding email. I shall contact the ombudsman in a week, this is madness.
Anyone got any advice? Anyone experienced anything similar?

FullForce

TallWes said:

REALLY crazy gas bill....... SSE service is a joke.

I have had a series of estimated meter readings. Which I paid.
I then took a reading and up loaded it which was slightly lower. This should put me in credit by a few pounds (less than £50).
Instead I have a bill for £90 and apparently I owe another £12,000. Yes, £12,000!!!!
I spoke to the customer service people and they advised me to re-enter the reading in a few days. I did. No change. The system still says the same.
The customer service person thought that the system believes I have "gone around the clock". It has not, although I am not sure how to evidence this from the meter.
I have sent all the evidence I can, including photos of the meter. I have raised a compliant and just got a holding email. I shall contact the ombudsman in a week, this is madness.
Anyone got any advice? Anyone experienced anything similar?

Welcome to MSE.

You may be interested to hear that SSE (domestic, retail supply, incl phone, broadband, etc) was sold to Ovo at the beginning of this year
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/01/ovo-completes-purchase-of-sse---what-it-means-for-you/

You need to allow 6 weeks from raising a complaint before the ombudsman will consider any complaint you may have against SSE. (unless you are in possession of a deadlock letter from the supplier)

MWT

It would help if you could post the opening and closing estimated readings for the periods from your last actual reading through to your most recent actual reading ...

stewie_griffin

FullForce said:

TallWes said:

REALLY crazy gas bill....... SSE service is a joke.

I have had a series of estimated meter readings. Which I paid.
I then took a reading and up loaded it which was slightly lower. This should put me in credit by a few pounds (less than £50).
Instead I have a bill for £90 and apparently I owe another £12,000. Yes, £12,000!!!!
I spoke to the customer service people and they advised me to re-enter the reading in a few days. I did. No change. The system still says the same.
The customer service person thought that the system believes I have "gone around the clock". It has not, although I am not sure how to evidence this from the meter.
I have sent all the evidence I can, including photos of the meter. I have raised a compliant and just got a holding email. I shall contact the ombudsman in a week, this is madness.
Anyone got any advice? Anyone experienced anything similar?

Welcome to MSE.

You may be interested to hear that SSE (domestic, retail supply, incl phone, broadband, etc) was sold to Ovo at the beginning of this year
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/01/ovo-completes-purchase-of-sse---what-it-means-for-you/

You need to allow 6 weeks from raising a complaint before the ombudsman will consider any complaint you may have against SSE. (unless you are in possession of a deadlock letter from the supplier)

It's 8 weeks (56 days).

Edit: apologies it is 6 weeks with SSE.

Gerry1

stewie_griffin said:

It's 8 weeks (56 days).

It's normally 8 weeks, but for energy complaints about SSE it's 6 weeks.

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

stewie_griffin

Gerry1 said:

stewie_griffin said:

It's 8 weeks (56 days).

It's normally 8 weeks, but for energy complaints about SSE it's 6 weeks.

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/

I didn't know this. Is there any reason they get 2 weeks less?

Gerry1

SSE had very poor ratings and volunteered that their customers should be able to go the Ombudsman after 6 weeks.

stewie_griffin

Thanks I never knew that. I wonder if that will change now that it's Ovo. I've always associated SSE as having the best service out of the big 6.

p00hsticks

TallWes said:

• Last estimated reading on 15th of Jan 2020 - 1386 units.

• Reading taken 31st of March 2020 - 1358 units
  

This is the reason - assuming that by 'uploaded it' you mean entered it online, then having input a reading that is lower than the previous estimated one, as it then thinks you've gone nearly round the clock with the meter. It should be able to recognise this and work out what's happened but s lot of systems don;t seem to be able to. 

To prevent it happening again, in future try to submit readings more frequently to avoid them having to estimate again (I do ours monthly).

 We're currently with British Gas and from memory I think they won't let you enter a reading lower than a previous one - annoying but it does prevent this error happening. I think when we were in a similar situation it would only let me put a reading in that was higher than the previous one and so I had to submit a (false) reading of one higher than the previous estimate and then by the next month I could submit the true reading. 

MWT

That is really sloppy coding though, it shouldn't allow a lower reading than a previous actual reading, but an estimate by its nature is going to be wrong in either direction so should be catered for in the programming.

matelodave

How many estimated readings have you had before you got around to sending in a reading - if you don't read the meter a bit more often,send in the readings and check your bills then this is the sort of problem you end up with.