Sse electric bill for shop excessively high?

rowdy75

Hi folks
My wife and I run two businesses, a hairdressing salon and a gift shop. It’s the same building but only took the half that we now run as a gift shop a year ago, salon 15 years ago.
Salon is with British Gas and monthly bill is £150 ish. Obviously that’s lighting, kettle and fridge for tea and coffee constantly in use, hairdryers, drying hoods etc constant use, and heaters this time of year.

next door we have a radio, a card machine and lighting, which is all LED. I use a gas portable heater to reduce electric bill.
Today a debt collector arrived, having constantly argued with sse that our bill is wrong. According to the meter in the shop we have used around 325 units since July this year. The bill for this according to Sse is £7500, which to me sounds ridiculous and is crippling the business.

Does this sound far from reasonable? And what can I do about it as sse are quite useless.

Jyana

What is your tariff, unit rate and standing charge? Have you seen the bill which shows how the £7500 is proportioned?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

wow, that's about £23 a unit, what does the bill say?

rowdy75

I haven’t my wife has been dealing with it and has it with her at the shop.

DE_612183

£150 a month is unreasonably low

£7500 for 5 months is quite high - but not unknown.

Really you need to publish your meter readings and tariff details for more accurate advice

Jyana

rowdy75 said:

I haven’t my wife has been dealing with it and has it with her at the shop.

We really need to know them before any advice can be given. Are you able to get the bill, then we can go from there?

Chrysalis

You need to be armed with the info.

Gas portable heater is potentially going to cost a ton, but need to see units used, unit cost, SC cost etc.

The bill for the hairdressers does seem low as well.

RobM99

Local garage has had their electricity go from £300 to £2,000 a month. I don't have their consumption figures but the owner assured me there was no extra useage.

macman

£150pm for a hairdresser is absurdly low. When did you last give meter readings?
Hot water is also going to be a big factor-how is it heated?

rowdy75

The hairdressers tariff was fixed before the prices went mental. I’ll have to look at the tariff but I think it was around 28p per unit plus the daily charge (gift shop not hairdressers)
We do have a tenant that rents the upstairs flat from us, he is a friend of ours and also happens to be an electrician and thinks they have got something very wrong with the charges.

rowdy75

RobM99 said:

Local garage has had their electricity go from £300 to £2,000 a month. I don't have their consumption figures but the owner assured me there was no extra useage.

I’m guessing they have a lot more heavy duty, power sapping equipment in their garage and also a lot more space than a small gift shop that only use lighting and card machine and only open 6 to 7 hours a day five days a week.