SSE worst company I've ever dealt with

higworth

We moved into the property in September and are were new to SSE, after speaking to one of thier advisors when the account was opened the direct debit was set at £115 per month based on the size and type of property we have, this being a two bed bungalow albeit we only use one bedroom.

 

I fully appreciate the cost of power has risen steeply over the past few months, but we are currently running at about £350 per month usage, we are only using an oil filled radiator heating in one room only which is only on for a few hours at night, the storage heaters have been turned off at the meter as well as the hot water and everything else is used to a bear minimum but we still have excessive bills.

 

We are on the superdeal, even on the stored part of the tariff where the power should only be available from midnight to 7am is still showing a usage during the day, this obviously cant be correct the meter must be faulty.

 

I have requested that the meter is either checked or replaced and I was advised that someone from their engineering team would be in contact within ten working days, this didn’t happened and today is the twelfth working day, I called again today and I was told that the request had been refused but couldn’t tell me on what ground the refusal had been based on and someone would call me back in a couple of hours, this was 08:30 this morning, no one has called.

 

they can see from my notes the amount of time I have tried to get this matter sorted to no avail, my disabled wife who also has CPD is having to go to our daughters house during the day as she is too scared to have the heating on as we can no longer afford the payments, I have asked to speak to a supervisor but this was refused, I’ve asked to talk to or have the number for the department who deals with faulty meters, this was refused.

 

I have been forced into requesting  the meter to be changed for a pre payment meter so we see exactly what has been used and hopefully get rid of the faulty meter. I have lodged a complaint with SSE but to have the meter changed I have been made to drop my claim against them for claiming any possible overpayment.( disgusting )

I've been told I might have to wait 30 days to get a date for the meter change of which I'm already 25 days in with no answer, this is so stressful and i just don't know how to resolve this, I can get another provider to take over the account but this wont get rid of the obviously faulty meter, I've emailed Stephen Fitzpatrick and one of his senior dispute advisors has contacted me but they have said they have no influence on the install side of SSE and cant help with getting me a date for the meter change, i know I'm going to get to 30 days without an answer, i just don't know what to do anymore, any advise would be gratefully received  

Robin9

higworth said:

We moved into the property in September and are were new to SSE, after speaking to one of thier advisors when the account was opened the direct debit was set at £115 per month based on the size and type of property we have, this being a two bed bungalow albeit we only use one bedroom.

 

There is no substitute for making a good guess at your consumption is an actual annual figure - number of beds is not a good idea. Bungalows are more expensive than houses and particularly so if electrically heated.

PLease read your meters NOW and also give us the opening readings your gave SSE  You will be much better if you used your storage compared with oil filled radiators. If you are on E7 then those oil filled are on a premium unit cost.

Brie

Is it all electric, no gas?  I can't believe that you have every single thing off if the meter is still running.  TV on standby?  Mobiles charging?  How does £350 compare to where you lived previously?  And how different were the tariffs?

And are you submitting meter readings?  or going by their estimates?

Robin9

@higworth - hopefully you have been reading the meters every month - if not then SSE will be guessing and that may be on what the previous occupier used and he/she may have been using the storage heaters.

QrizB

Brie said:

Is it all electric, no gas?

Mention of Superdeal and storage heaters makes me think that yes, it's an electric-only property.

Superdeal is one of those obsolescent three-rate tariffs.

https://sse.co.uk/help/electric-heating/three-rate-tariffs

higworth said:

I fully appreciate the cost of power has risen steeply over the past few months, but we are currently running at about £350 per month usage, we are only using an oil filled radiator heating in one room only which is only on for a few hours at night, the storage heaters have been turned off at the meter as well as the hot water and everything else is used to a bear minimum but we still have excessive bills.

As others have said, if you share your opening meter readings, your current oness and details of your tariff we can check things for you.

Edit to add: it's still quite possible that SSE is the worst company you've ever dealt with!

Gerry1

Not a good idea to go for prepayment because it costs more and can be problematic if a top up goes wrong.

Assuming you don't have gas, your best bet (apart from better insulation and anything radical such as changing to an oil boiler or heatpump) would probably be to switch to Economy 7 and stop using oil filled radiators or any room heating that uses day rate electricity.  If/when things return to normal you'd have a much bigger choice of tariffs.

If it gets too cool in the evening then using a High Heating Retention storage heater such as Dimplex Quantum might be best.  You might get away with get buying one (bigger rather than smaller if in doubt) and perhaps moving one or two of the old ones to get a better balance.

Ideally HHR NSHs need both an E7 and a 24h circuit connection, but Quantums (and probably others) can be programmed to work on just a 24h supply.  But if you do that, don't rely on the installer, learn how to program it yourself and check the switching times by looking at the meter actually switching over, not relying merely on the times when it's supposed to switch.

• SSE are recognised as officially bad.  You can complain to the Ombudsman after six weeks rather than the usual eight !

• Are you on the Priority Services Register?

higworth

Hi Yes, all electric, meter readings on all bill no estimates, on a typical day, dishwasher eco cycle, two quick showers, meal in oven, tv lighting and a oil filled radiator 1000w on for 4 hours only the meter used 44kw, no way on earth this could be right.

higworth

15/02/2022	61356	61374	18	11504	11508	4	24036	24058	22
16/02/2022	61374	61385	11	11508	11513	5	24058	24083	25
17/02/2022	61385	61398	13	11513	11517	4	24083	24107	24
18/02/2022	61398	61412	14	11517	11523	6	24107	24127	20
19/02/2022	61412	61426	14	11523	11528	5	24127	24152	25
20/02/2022	61426	61441	15	11528	11532	4	24152	24174	22
21/02/2022	61441	61453	12	11532	11536	4	24174	24195	21

Gerry1

higworth said:

Hi Yes, all electric, meter readings on all bill no estimates, on a typical day, dishwasher eco cycle, two quick showers, meal in oven, tv lighting and a oil filled radiator 1000w on for 4 hours only the meter used 44kw, no way on earth this could be right.

Important to note that it's 44kWh, not 44kW.

Try the Meter Sanity Test if you really believe the meter is faulty.

Thrugelmir

What was the quoted EPC when you bought the property? 

QrizB

higworth said:

15/02/2022	61356	61374	18	11504	11508	4	24036	24058	22
16/02/2022	61374	61385	11	11508	11513	5	24058	24083	25
17/02/2022	61385	61398	13	11513	11517	4	24083	24107	24
18/02/2022	61398	61412	14	11517	11523	6	24107	24127	20
19/02/2022	61412	61426	14	11523	11528	5	24127	24152	25
20/02/2022	61426	61441	15	11528	11532	4	24152	24174	22
21/02/2022	61441	61453	12	11532	11536	4	24174	24195	21

Which set of readings is which - day / night / heat?