SSE change of tariff impasse

spenderdave

Not sure if any others here have had a similar issue with SSE (who I have been with for many years)
Firstly note that I pay variable direct debit, ie quarterly bills based on actual usage.
On June 10th my two year fixed tariff ended and I had before then requested to move to the SVR tariff (which they call standard). The gas account correctly changed over and I had a bill for the gas at the end of June as normal. Puzzled why they had not sent a bill for the electric I looked at my online account and saw that the electricity was still showing on the now expired fixed rate tariff.

Two phone calls to SSE got nowhere, you end up in a long queue and eventually get through to someone who seems to see there is an issue and that the standard rate tariff is still waiting to be set up. The second time the woman clicked something and it now shows as on standard tariff but now suggests that my next bill is not due until December! I have paid them nothing for the electric since the April bill.

My latest attempt in getting it sorted was via their website general enquiry form, raising it as a complaint. They replied 

I do see that the new standard tariff for electricity is still in the process of being activated,

and we do apologize for the delay.

Please await feedback from SSE once the account is fully ready, to which billing adjustments will be

looked into.

I cannot see why it is taking nearly two months to activate what should be a straightforward process and they seem to be in no rush to sort it out. It may be easier just to move to another supplier but that would create its own set of problems with the situation at the moment.

Has anybody had similar and actually managed to get any sense out of SSE?

spenderdave

I posted this a couple of weeks ago but received no replies. Maybe I didn't explain my problem that well or maybe I should have just called it 'How on earth do you get through the SSE brick wall?'.

Basically my SSE electricity account is in some sort of limbo and didn't get properly moved to their standard tariff. The smart meter is reporting usage and cost but each day is duplicated. It says my next bill is due in December! Since I pay variable direct debit they have not had any money from me since March, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

There seems only one way to contact them at the moment, via their phone line where you are stuck in an endless queue and the person on the other end doesn't really understand the problem and you get no feedback afterwards. I did get a reply from their online general enquiry form but when I tried to reply to that email I found it was from a non-reply-able address and couldn't follow it up. A further web request got no response at all. They suggest whatsapp but even if I did have that I am not sure I would want to discuss my personal details over that medium.

As a last straw I tried emailing their CEO via his published email address. As of yet I have not even had an acknowledgement.

Presumably at some time they will want to tell me their new October rates and pay the £400 Government thing...

So how on earth do you get through the SSE brick wall, do I just wait till December and see what happens?

pochase

What is wrong with online chat?

https://sse.co.uk/help/online-chat

MWT

Probably going to have to raise a complaint, if necessary just post it in...

[Deleted User]

Hi,

are you supplying monthly readings?

What you could meantime is set up a wee spreadsheet and work out your monthly usage and cost, then make a payment to your account, that way you wont get a big hit in December.

spenderdave

pochase said:

What is wrong with online chat?

https://sse.co.uk/help/online-chat

I have never found that available, not available tonight.

pochase

Than try the complaint process

https://sse.co.uk/forms/general-enquiry/query-type

spenderdave

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

are you supplying monthly readings?

What you could meantime is set up a wee spreadsheet and work out your monthly usage and cost, then make a payment to your account, that way you wont get a big hit in December.

I am on a smart meter which is correctly giving readings and in theory being supplied to SSE. I am a low user (around 50% of the 'cap' consumption rates) and certainly could predict the cost. I thought about paying them some loot but with my in-limbo account that might just go down a black hole!