Significant gas bill from SSE

GeoffreyDee

Hello all, 
Firstly, I'm a student so I'm ready to be the party completely in the wrong here rather than the energy company. I may just have messed up somehow. 
I was with an energy company called Spark the first year and a half of living in my current location. Flat of three guys. Prepayment meter with a tariff covering gas and electricity I think.. We'd top up the meter with a key, and pay a monthly standing charge of about a £12 on an online payment portal. About £70 a month in all. 

 Then we switched to Bulb to get a bonus and better deal (Dec 2020) . I thought, (perhaps stupidly) that I'd signed up for a combined electricity and gas tariff we would pay with our key again, this time no online portal thing. 

Then bulb went into admin (about 4 months ago) and we got taken over by SSE. They sent us a key and so on. We proceeded with new key. Recently we had a flat visit to safety check the meter and days later got a bill for approximately £450 in the post for gas usage the whole time period we had been with Bulb and then SSE (2020 Dec to Jan this year), including cheerful threats that SSE will get a warrant to visit and fit a prepayment meter if we don't pay. This strikes me as odd, since we already put money on a meter and if we don't, the lights go off. Obviously this is a bit stressful as I don't want to get into trouble on a big scale and it's a significant sum to find and pay quickly (I make coffees 20 hrs a week to pay rent while I study)

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what I have done wrong here or what might be happening? SSE have been a nightmare on the phone pushing me around different departments and not helping much. As I'm on a prepayment meter I can't even have an account with SSE on their website and am not named on the paperwork they sent in the post (just the occupier) 

Thanks, 
GDee 

 

Phantom151

Were you topping up 1 meter or 2? As far as I'm aware, gas and electricity top up meters are seperate. Did you ever get a gas bill? It strikes me as odd that only one of the meters woud be pre-pay.

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

This bit confuses me:

GeoffreyDee said:

Then bulb went into admin (about 4 months ago) and we got taken over by SSE.

Bulb did not get taken over by SSE. They are under special administration and are continuing to trade.

See:

https://bulb.co.uk/blog/bulb-special-administration

Exactly what communication did you get from SSE to explain what was happening when they took over your account?

QrizB

Ah, I see that Spark was part of OVO and has been re-branded to SSE:

https://www.sparkenergy.co.uk/

That still doesn't explain why SSE think they supply your electricity, though.

GeoffreyDee

Thanks for thoughts so far. Our gas meter does not have a card slot it in. Only the electricity one. As I mentioned at the top, I could be the party in error here. The bill we got was for gas. The thing that I am most confused about is if we were really using around £450 per year in gas, why didn't we get bills for this before? Why didn't Bulb send them when we were with them? Was I labouring under the delusion that I was paying gas and electricity at the same time before use? 

All bills justly signed up for should be paid in full, so I'm not trying to escape anything, just want to know what I do and don't owe and to which company and why. You guys may be able to help a little bit in that but don't stress if you can't. 

Phantom151

I'd be suprised if you didn't owe someone for gas but then I have no idea if there are meters that will collect payment for both.

QrizB

It sounds as though your electricity is pre-payment but your gas isn't.

Let's assume that, when you moved in, both gas and electricity were registered with Spark. What happened when you regicetered an account with Spark. did you sign up with them for both gas and electricity? Did Spark ever send you a gas bill?

At some point you switched to Bulb. Did you ask to switch both electricity and gas, or just electricity?

If you only switched electricity, your gas will have stayed with Spark and will have been passed to SSE.

None of this explains why SSE have sent you a key for your electricity meter. Your electricity should still be with Bulb.

GeoffreyDee said:

Recently we had a flat visit to safety check the meter and days later got a bill for approximately £450 in the post for gas usage the whole time period we had been with Bulb and then SSE (2020 Dec to Jan this year), including cheerful threats that SSE will get a warrant to visit and fit a prepayment meter if we don't pay. 

Who exactly came to do the check, was it your landlord? It definitely sounds as though you don't have a prepayment gas meter (it would have its own key or card).

Gerry1

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