Electricity and Gas credit removed when switching suppliers

markwho66

I have been an SSE customer for some time, although they keep raising the monthly DD meaning I keep building up a credit.  I was paying £90 for Electricity (giving me approx £183 credit in 6 months) I was paying £40 gas (giving me a credit of £153) Having lost my job in the pandemic, but getting a lower paid one, I requested a refund on last summer's credit. I was issued a partial refund and asked that the monthly DD was lowered which I was told was not possible. I was fed up with hanging on the line for up to two hours to speak to an off shore call centre who kept transferring me to departments that were then closed, so did a comparison and swapped to "Green. Energy"
My accounts swapped over on 25 Feb 2021(the last day of the billing cycle) and I started paying far less 
However, SSE has now sent me a "final bill" stating the estimated usage post March 2021 and removing £121 of the £153 owed to me on gas and also charging me another month so I owe them £10
Same story on Electric where they have taken £179 of £183 owed to me
I spent an unproductive 87 minutes on a call just now bounced from call centres in India to South Africa to the UK
Question, If I pay monthly and have credit, a can they take more money for a quarterly bill and still attempt DD payments?  

Robin9

I found SSE's online system quite misleading -  the statements show all the DD's that have been credited  but not the cost of the  energy consumed until the bill itself was produced.

You say you are now paying much less - are you just going by the DD quoted.?  Have you done your own sums to proved this ?    What has been your consumption between 25 Feb and today - your supplier and tariff ?  It's only been 3 weeks

markwho66

Robin9 said:

I found SSE's online system quite misleading -  the statements show all the DD's that have been credited  but not the cost of the  energy consumed until the bill itself was produced.

You say you are now paying much less - are you just going by the DD quoted.?  Have you done your own sums to proved this ?    What has been your consumption between 25 Feb and today - your supplier and tariff ?  It's only been 3 weeks

The price per unit is less. I did the maths on what SSE was charging and what Green is charging. Consumption will be variable so I go on what I would have spent with what I am spending. 
I was on another call to SSE as I wrote the initial post. After 58 minutes on hold it hung up. I record all calls on my mobile so I will ask OFFGEM to have a look

Gerry1

No point in going to Ofgem, they don't deal with individual complaints.

Send a letter headed COMPLAINT via snail mail, preferably getting a free certificate of posting, ask for a deadlock letter and go to the Ombudsman upon receipt or after six weeks if they don't send one.