SSE charging us threefold for gas - first call unsuccessful

concerned_cat

Hello,
I moved into a new flat with my partner in November. We gave our readings a few days ago and received an enormous bill. Upon seeing this, I realised that SSE is billing us as if our readings are imperial (ft3), however our meter is new and gives metric (m3 readings). Hence, we were charged essentially 3x the actual amount. I called and spent 1.5 hours on the phone, being transferred a total of 4 times, to someone who finally claimed to have fixed the error for me. I was extremely specific about what the problem was, and even had her pull up a bill to clarify that the 2.83 multiplier would no longer be on our bills, and she said yes. It was clear she was just saying this to get me off the line, because I've just received the "new" bill and it is for the exact same amount. And it has the multipier. So clearly she has not actually updated that our meter is metric, with metric readings. I'm very upset.

Can anyone please advise on how I can fix this with SSE, such as exact wording you've had success with, key words, or a specific area of the business I should ask to be transferred to that will actually know about the difference between an imperial and a metric meter? Would it be better to send an email, or letter to someone, if I could located contact info? I do not want this to drag on for months and months. I'm a bit shocked that so many people who work for a gas company don't actually know about the different types of meters. I am certainly not paying triple the amount I am actually due. We cannot sustainably afford it.

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

Gerry1

Send a letter headed COMPLAINT by snail mail and get a free Certificate of Posting.

Go to the Ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter or after six weeks if they don't send one.  (SSE agreed to six weeks rather than the usual eight because their record is so bad.)

Contact info at the ceoemail website.

Robin9

concerned_cat said:

Hello,
I moved into a new flat with my partner in November. We gave our readings a few days ago and received an enormous bill. 

Although not directly relevant to your Complaint - not reading your meter between November and March  was not a good idea.   Do get into the habits of reading your meter every month, keeping your own records , and reading your bills.

Going back to November was SSE the existing supplier to the flat - you say new, I assume new to you rather than "new build" -   or did you switch to SSE ?   Is the reading on your bill the opening reading you gave SSE.

What about the electric ?  

concerned_cat

Robin9 said:

Although not directly relevant to your Complaint - not reading your meter between November and March  was not a good idea.   Do get into the habits of reading your meter every month, keeping your own records , and reading your bills.

Going back to November was SSE the existing supplier to the flat - you say new, I assume new to you rather than "new build" -   or did you switch to SSE ?   Is the reading on your bill the opening reading you gave SSE.

What about the electric ?  

No issues with electric. New flat to us, yes, but not a new build. It was previously with Scottish Power, our agency switched it to SSE right when we moved in. Based on the label on the meter, the new meter was put in, in 2018.

 We actually did give a reading late December, and the bill was higher than usual but didn't seem outrageous given it was winter, and we were upgrading to a 2 bed from a 1 bed - so it was only when we gave the reading this week that I realised the billing was incorrect. Neither of us is originally from the UK, so we are not quite used to the way the meters are set up here - I had thought that they would be unified across the UK but that is not the case - I will definitely be more careful with this in the future!

concerned_cat

Gerry1 said:

Send a letter headed COMPLAINT by snail mail and get a free Certificate of Posting.

Go to the Ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter or after six weeks if they don't send one.  (SSE agreed to six weeks rather than the usual eight because their record is so bad.)

Contact info at the ceoemail website.

Thanks Gerry, I'm currently trying to contact them a second time and see if we can sort it. Will definitely try this next if it doesn't work - although I might send one anyways, as I was assured they had switched it to metric for me (via me asking several times explicitly, and walking through what the new bill would look like). I thought it might not be fixed, as it was very clear the lady on the other end was just trying to get me off the call. I just wish that if she hadn't understood what I meant, she would have tried to find someone who did!

dogshome

DO THE LETTER - forget the phone

A letter headed Complaint  delivered by Royal Mail, starts a due process that SSE must follow by the terms of their licence to operate as a supplier

molerat

Before you go any further are you certain the meters you are looking at are the ones connected to your flat ?

concerned_cat

molerat said:

Before you go any further are you certain the meters you are looking at are the ones connected to your flat ?

Yes, positive. They are on the inside of our flat, beside our fuse box. The agency also pointed out where our meters were for us (as I think is typical to do).

Erinio

concerned_cat said:

Hello,
I moved into a new flat with my partner in November. We gave our readings a few days ago and received an enormous bill. Upon seeing this, I realised that SSE is billing us as if our readings are imperial (ft3), however our meter is new and gives metric (m3 readings). Hence, we were charged essentially 3x the actual amount. I called and spent 1.5 hours on the phone, being transferred a total of 4 times, to someone who finally claimed to have fixed the error for me. I was extremely specific about what the problem was, and even had her pull up a bill to clarify that the 2.83 multiplier would no longer be on our bills, and she said yes. It was clear she was just saying this to get me off the line, because I've just received the "new" bill and it is for the exact same amount. And it has the multipier. So clearly she has not actually updated that our meter is metric, with metric readings. I'm very upset.

Can anyone please advise on how I can fix this with SSE, such as exact wording you've had success with, key words, or a specific area of the business I should ask to be transferred to that will actually know about the difference between an imperial and a metric meter? Would it be better to send an email, or letter to someone, if I could located contact info? I do not want this to drag on for months and months. I'm a bit shocked that so many people who work for a gas company don't actually know about the different types of meters. I am certainly not paying triple the amount I am actually due. We cannot sustainably afford it.

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

Hello, I have just seen this after i posted a similar thread.  Have you managed to get this sorted out?  If so how did you do it as I am honesly at the end of my tether with them.  I cant seem to get it sorted out at all.  

Gerry1

Erinio said:

concerned_cat said:

Hello,
I moved into a new flat with my partner in November. We gave our readings a few days ago and received an enormous bill. Upon seeing this, I realised that SSE is billing us as if our readings are imperial (ft3), however our meter is new and gives metric (m3 readings). Hence, we were charged essentially 3x the actual amount. I called and spent 1.5 hours on the phone, being transferred a total of 4 times, to someone who finally claimed to have fixed the error for me. I was extremely specific about what the problem was, and even had her pull up a bill to clarify that the 2.83 multiplier would no longer be on our bills, and she said yes. It was clear she was just saying this to get me off the line, because I've just received the "new" bill and it is for the exact same amount. And it has the multipier. So clearly she has not actually updated that our meter is metric, with metric readings. I'm very upset.

Can anyone please advise on how I can fix this with SSE, such as exact wording you've had success with, key words, or a specific area of the business I should ask to be transferred to that will actually know about the difference between an imperial and a metric meter? Would it be better to send an email, or letter to someone, if I could located contact info? I do not want this to drag on for months and months. I'm a bit shocked that so many people who work for a gas company don't actually know about the different types of meters. I am certainly not paying triple the amount I am actually due. We cannot sustainably afford it.

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

Hello, I have just seen this after i posted a similar thread.  Have you managed to get this sorted out?  If so how did you do it as I am honesly at the end of my tether with them.  I cant seem to get it sorted out at all.  

@Erinio Might be better to send concerned_cat a private message or prefix their name with an @ symbol because they never returned to the site after 26 March and are unlikely to see your post.

concerned_cat

Yes, thanks @Gerry1. It didn't notify me. I sent Erinio a response in the private messages but I'll post here as well in case anyone comes looking through this thread.

Everything was fixed and finalised as of last week. We followed the complaints procedure on the 'Our complaints procedure for energy customers' page: (I can't post a link but if you google that for SSE, it should come up - make sure it's for energy)

For us, no one on the phone knew what we were talking about. However at step 2, the complaints form, we sent in a very detailed explanation. The head of complaints then came back to us after about 5 weeks. He asked us to send in pictures, and once he had those, he was able to sort it for us. Basically the last time our meter was replaced (well before I moved in), the installer did not update the registry with our new meter number. The head of complaints was a great help, knew exactly what the issue was. It took maybe ~2 weeks after that for everything to be showing correctly on the accounts. They also gave us some compensation for the trouble. Hope this helps.