SSE/OVO Not paying £66 energy support to pre payment meter customers

ebe12

Hello 
I am hoping  you savvy forum members may be able to advise me on this predicament my elderly mother finds herself in. 
My mum's a old fashioned pre payment meter customer and has been for almost 40 years. 
So we've been expecting to receive her energy support assistance from OVO/SSE her energy supplier in the form of vouchers via the post. 
She's not received anything and we have both contacted so many times in the last few weeks with absolutely 0 help from any one. Each time we ring we get told different information ranging from , the vouchers have been posted , the vouchers havnt been posted , and the money has been sent your smart meter ( she doesn't have one and can not have one due to her rural location and signal issues). Each time the customer service representative says they will " fill in a form" , each time when asked if and why the form wasn't filled in the last time , having " no way of finding out" . 
I have reached out to SSE/OVO via thier web chat , facebook , Instagram and I have emailed thier complaints department. 
I was suposed to get a phone call from a manager or someone in charge within 24 hours  but it hasn't materialized yet (36 hours later) . 
I have even written a review on trust pilot, in which they have "sked me for more details" , which I have done and received no further response. 
We seem to be stuck in this never ending nightmare of a cycle of calling , getting through the call centre in south Africa, the person not being able answer any of our questions, in thier own words " we've had no training on this so we dont know how to assist you". Person filling in form , no further response. 
My mum is 78 , not in the best of health and partially sighted so a fairly vulnerable older person and she is worrying herself sick over this. 
I am shocked and appalled at SSE/OVO over this and thier complete lack of response. How dare they withhold this financial assistance from any individual that is entitled to it , least of all a vulnerable person. 
As mentioned , I have exhausted every point of contact for SSE/OVO . I have to wait 8 weeks from my mum's initial complaint to them before I can refer the matter to them. 
Any one with the same experience with SSE or another energy provider? Anyone with any advise about how I can get this sorted for my mum and get her what she is owed I'd be really greatful. 

Thanks for reading 

ariarnia

sorry to hear you have had such a difficult time of it. things really shouldn't be that hard especially at a time like this where everyone is worrying about costs. 

if you have already put in a complaint and you have tried all avenues of help then i really dont know what else to suggest until the 8 weeks are up.

is your mum on the priority service register for ovo and have you had a look at there customer support package? i only say that as they are supposed to have a specialist team for vulnerable customers and i dont know if youve spoken to them as well? 

i really hope you manage to get this sorted for you and your mum and hope someone else comes along who can think of something ive missed that would help you sooner. 

ebe12

ariarnia said:

sorry to hear you have had such a difficult time of it. things really shouldn't be that hard especially at a time like this where everyone is worrying about costs. 

if you have already put in a complaint and you have tried all avenues of help then i really dont know what else to suggest until the 8 weeks are up.

is your mum on the priority service register for ovo and have you had a look at there customer support package? i only say that as they are supposed to have a specialist team for vulnerable customers and i dont know if youve spoken to them as well? 

Thanks so much for your helpful suggestion , I didn't know that so I will Google and see if there is a direct number to them 

ebe12

Edit 
I did just call this like for vulnerable customers, got through to the exact same call centre in south Africa . They said they're waiting for the vouchers to be sent out , and complaints are only responded to after 7 working days ! 
Same call centre 24 hours ago told me , they had no way of knowing if any vouchers had been posted and someone would call me back within 24 hours ! 
Absolutely hopeless 

EssexHebridean

Put your complaint in writing to them - they will almost certainly have a dedicated email address for complaints. Head it up "Formal Complaint". At least then, should this situation continue, you have a solid point in time where your dispute with them has started. 

ariarnia

so frustrating! i really can't think of anything else right now.

is she okay paying her energy bills in the mean time (not ideal but either the voutchers will eventually arrive or the complaint should sort it plus maybe some compensation for the poor customer experience)? 

if not then i would say to contact citizens advice to see about if theres other grant or support she might be able to access. i hope shes not so worried that she's sitting without heating on when shes cold or anything like that!

ebe12

EssexHebridean said:

Put your complaint in writing to them - they will almost certainly have a dedicated email address for complaints. Head it up "Formal Complaint". At least then, should this situation continue, you have a solid point in time where your dispute with them has started. 

I have written a formal complaint to their dedicated complaints email address which they haven't responded to , it's been 5 working days since I did that . Mum first called them on 15th October enquiring about this so it's been a while already , but we will wait . Thank you for your advise 

ebe12

ariarnia said:

so frustrating! i really can't think of anything else right now.

is she okay paying her energy bills in the mean time (not ideal but either the voutchers will eventually arrive or the complaint should sort it plus maybe some compensation for the poor customer experience)? 

if not then i would say to contact citizens advice to see about if theres other grant or support she might be able to access. i hope shes not so worried that she's sitting without heating on when shes cold or anything like that!

She is managing ok at the moment she's very good at budgeting. Of course she is very worried as we all our about what is to come when colder weather comes, and I feel so bad for her because this money would help her so much and relieve some of the worry and this company have made it so unbelievably difficult. I am in disbelief at how incompetent they are . We will wait the 8 weeks , of course by then she will be missing November's £66 and then due December too . My next worry is , it states these vouchers only have 90 days to be used by ! 

ariarnia

i would think if they have been lost or not sent then they would need to reissue them or pay her out of pocket if it was there mistake. it really doesn't help now but the timing of your complaint hopefully means in the coldest months of jan and feb she wont have to worry as she'll have all the credit safely on the meter

DE_612183

where is the supply property located?

ebe12

ariarnia said:

i would think if they have been lost or not sent then they would need to reissue them or pay her out of pocket if it was there mistake. it really doesn't help now but the timing of your complaint hopefully means in the coldest months of jan and feb she wont have to worry as she'll have all the credit safely on the meter

You would imagine it would be quite simple for them to check this but so far we've had several different answers ......it's not been sent , it has been sent , it's been to this imaginary smart meter that she doesn't have . I have sent pictures of the meter she does have and even suggested they send an engineer to the house , if they truely don't know what of thier property is actually in her home. But as seems to be the case they just come out with a lot of nonsense that doesn't make a lot of sense. 
Deeply strange and concerning and too much for an elderly person to cope with. I wonder how many other vulnerable people are having this issue but have no one to fight for them ? Imagine the amount of money they are sitting on , government money . It is shocking.