SSE insisting my deaf uncle phones them before they resolve complaint

kerryburnetty

Can a utility company insist a complaint is made via a phone call?

Please forgive long explanation.
My 89 year old, disabled uncle received a final bill from SSE when he moved out. However, he used pay as you go card meters, which he insists were in credit and I understand you can't run up debt on anyway. The final bills came to around £70.
He phoned, but is very very hard of hearing and gets anxious and confused as a result. He thinks he was told he did not owe money and account closed. He did actually get a letter with words to this effect. They then sent further red bills demanding different, higher amounts for gas and electric. My uncle thought they must be a mistake so ignored. When I checked  the letter about account closure, it was only for electric and had wrong account number on.
Then he got a bill for £111 from a debt collection company. He was very upset, near panic.
I've contacted the debt company to put debt collection on hold.
I tried to phone SSE but got cut off 3 times after explaining complaint to several departments.
Wrote to complain, with written, signed authorisation letter from uncle for them to deal with me.
I asked them to investigate matter and reply by post.
They have today written rejecting the authorisation, insisting the matter must be dealt with by my uncle phoning them to vocally give authorisation. My uncle is deaf and very anxious. I find it hard to hear on phone also and don't have hours to get passed around departments only to be cut off. Also, we were both unsuccessful trying to get this resolved by phone before, so have no faith in that process.
Can I now write again and insist the complaint is dealt with in writing?

JJ_Egan

Yes write in again if you cannot hear .

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Submit a formal complaint by Royal Mail and get a free certificate of posting.  Remind them of their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

Go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter, or after six weeks if they don't send one.  It's usually eight weeks but SSE had to agree to six weeks because their standards have been so poor.

Register your uncle for the Priority Services Register if he's not already on it.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how you got on.

DiseasedBunny

kerryburnetty said:

Can a utility company insist a complaint is made via a phone call?

Please forgive long explanation.
My 89 year old, disabled uncle received a final bill from SSE when he moved out. However, he used pay as you go card meters, which he insists were in credit and I understand you can't run up debt on anyway. The final bills came to around £70.
He phoned, but is very very hard of hearing and gets anxious and confused as a result. He thinks he was told he did not owe money and account closed. He did actually get a letter with words to this effect. They then sent further red bills demanding different, higher amounts for gas and electric. My uncle thought they must be a mistake so ignored. When I checked  the letter about account closure, it was only for electric and had wrong account number on.
Then he got a bill for £111 from a debt collection company. He was very upset, near panic.
I've contacted the debt company to put debt collection on hold.
I tried to phone SSE but got cut off 3 times after explaining complaint to several departments.
Wrote to complain, with written, signed authorisation letter from uncle for them to deal with me.
I asked them to investigate matter and reply by post.
They have today written rejecting the authorisation, insisting the matter must be dealt with by my uncle phoning them to vocally give authorisation. My uncle is deaf and very anxious. I find it hard to hear on phone also and don't have hours to get passed around departments only to be cut off. Also, we were both unsuccessful trying to get this resolved by phone before, so have no faith in that process.
Can I now write again and insist the complaint is dealt with in writing?

Do you have a male relative who could pretend to be the uncle, if all you need is an authorisation?

kerryburnetty

Tempting to have relative phone pretending to be him... Husband offered but really wanted to do this by the book, if possible. I don't think we'd get this resolved via the phone anyway, based on their prior performance. Thanks for taking time to help us, the thought is much appreciated.

kerryburnetty

Gerry1 said:

Welcome to the forum.

Submit a formal complaint by Royal Mail and get a free certificate of posting.  Remind them of their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

Go to the ombudsman upon receipt of a deadlock letter, or after six weeks if they don't send one.  It's usually eight weeks but SSE had to agree to six weeks because their standards have been so poor.

Register your uncle for the Priority Services Register if he's not already on it.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how you got on.

Thank you so much. I'll update when I can.

Rodders53

Use UK Relay https://www.relayuk.bt.com/ to speak his written text words to SSE and relay SSEs back to him as text?

As far as I know its free to use.

wild666

kerryburnetty said:

Can a utility company insist a complaint is made via a phone call?

Please forgive long explanation.
My 89 year old, disabled uncle received a final bill from SSE when he moved out. However, he used pay as you go card meters, which he insists were in credit and I understand you can't run up debt on anyway. The final bills came to around £70.
He phoned, but is very very hard of hearing and gets anxious and confused as a result. He thinks he was told he did not owe money and account closed. He did actually get a letter with words to this effect. They then sent further red bills demanding different, higher amounts for gas and electric. My uncle thought they must be a mistake so ignored. When I checked  the letter about account closure, it was only for electric and had wrong account number on.
Then he got a bill for £111 from a debt collection company. He was very upset, near panic.
I've contacted the debt company to put debt collection on hold.
I tried to phone SSE but got cut off 3 times after explaining complaint to several departments.
Wrote to complain, with written, signed authorisation letter from uncle for them to deal with me.
I asked them to investigate matter and reply by post.
They have today written rejecting the authorisation, insisting the matter must be dealt with by my uncle phoning them to vocally give authorisation. My uncle is deaf and very anxious. I find it hard to hear on phone also and don't have hours to get passed around departments only to be cut off. Also, we were both unsuccessful trying to get this resolved by phone before, so have no faith in that process.
Can I now write again and insist the complaint is dealt with in writing?

The only debt a person can be on with pre-payment meters is the emergency credit they put on if the credit on the meter runs out. That's what it was like when I had pre-payment meters back in 2011, it was about £5. I don't know how much emergency credit they allow now but at todays rates the £5 would be about enough for two day at the most.

MWT

wild666 said:

The only debt a person can be on with pre-payment meters is the emergency credit they put on if the credit on the meter runs out. That's what it was like when I had pre-payment meters back in 2011, it was about £5. I don't know how much emergency credit they allow now but at todays rates the £5 would be about enough for two day at the most.

It is possible to built up a larger debt by not topping up and allowing the standing charge to build up as well.

I don't get the feeling that in this case the debt is real though, but yes it is possible, just not likely unless someone is prepared to spend long periods of time without power and then only topping up with small amounts that don't fully clear the debt.

Only way it might be possible in this case would be if the property was left empty for some time after he moved out, before closing the account..?

kerryburnetty

MWT said:

wild666 said:

The only debt a person can be on with pre-payment meters is the emergency credit they put on if the credit on the meter runs out. That's what it was like when I had pre-payment meters back in 2011, it was about £5. I don't know how much emergency credit they allow now but at todays rates the £5 would be about enough for two day at the most.

It is possible to built up a larger debt by not topping up and allowing the standing charge to build up as well.

I don't get the feeling that in this case the debt is real though, but yes it is possible, just not likely unless someone is prepared to spend long periods of time without power and then only topping up with small amounts that don't fully clear the debt.

Only way it might be possible in this case would be if the property was left empty for some time after he moved out, before closing the account..?

Thanks for this, it sounds as I suspected, not a real debt. He always kept the cards topped up, getting anxious if they dropped to less than £25 credit. His bungalow was a housing association one and he notified both SSE and HA with month's notice and on the day. I will write to them again and then ombudsman after 6 weeks if no joy.

MWT

kerryburnetty said:
 His bungalow was a housing association one and he notified both SSE and HA with month's notice and on the day. I will write to them again and then ombudsman after 6 weeks if no joy.

I would suggest checking that SSE are not trying to bill him for the period between when he left and when the new tenant arrived, it wouldn’t be the first time that a HA/Landlord tried to avoid paying for a gap in tenancy…