SSE Mystery Charges & Disinformation

WestWoodWork

Hello,
I have been with SSE for over a decade.
I pay by direct debit and have a smart meter installed.
As of Nov 22 my electric was £210 in credit, confirmed by SSE themselves and by my statements.
Then at the very start of Feb 23, I got an email alerting me that my direct debit was changing, increasing by just over 300% (I'm on a fixed rate btw).
When I went into my account online, SSE had made a singular adjustment of £1800 onto my account for the last Quarter (On top of my normal charges).
After multiple days of calling and speaking to associates, I was told this was from my old account from over 2 years ago.
But when I tell them its the same account, I only changed tariffs, they transfer me to someone else.
When I pressed to speak to a manager, I was told they would call me back and never did.
I keep calling back, the cycle continues and I eventually had to sit on hold for an hour to get through to a manager. 

I was then told by the 'manager' it was an 'over spend' on my account that they were back dating, because my direct debit had been too low.
I couldn't understand why they hadn't updated my usage by month, so I could have seen the overspend and made any adjustments to correct it early on
(Especially when I have a smart meter).
Instead I felt as though I was being misinformed and then charged blindly.
When I asked this, he then told me 'I spent it, now I owe it'.
I'm finding they use very harsh and passive aggressive language at that level, obviously in the hope you will empty your savings to pay their bill.
Its a very dishonest way of dealing with things.

I am now feeling very lost, as I'm just getting blagged off the phone every time I call, while still being told they will just auto-change my direct debit to reclaim the debit.
I have started recording ALL conversations with them, as the trust is completely gone.
Associates seem genuinely nice enough, I think they are just unable to do anything other than take payments and are powerless to assist.
All service/disputes are handled by 'managers' who hang up on you, transfer you back to an associate or just tell you different information each time to justify their reasons.
From reading reviews on Trust Pilot, SSE currently have a 1 Star review... 3721 reviews, 93% 1 Stars.
Many of them describe similar situations of being in credit and then huge 'mystery adjustments' are made onto their accounts putting them in debt.

I would appreciate if someone could investigate or shine a light on this behaviour.
As it seems to all start when SSE were taken over by OVO last year and processes/accounts have been changed.

Kind Regards

Mr. West

[Deleted User]

Raise a formal complaint in writing against the supplier. If the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction or deadlocked, then after 8 weeks you can escalate your complaint to The Energy Ombudsman.

wild666

Are SSE on the brink of going out of business? This seems like they are trying to make money to cover some debts, if you've had the smart meter the whole time, or just after you moved to SSE then your readings will have being taken by them not you and they should have noticed any underpayments sooner rather than later. Depending on how long ago the readings go back for so called underpayments try and use the back billing rules to get some or all of it cancelled.

[Deleted User]

SSE Energy Services is a trading name now owned by Ovo Energy. The company was bought from SSE plc in 2020.

Joyful

I would ask for a complete breakdown of your account in writing and raise an official complaint. Then if its not sorted to your satisfaction, you can go to the Ombudsman.

Gerry1

Dolor said:

Raise a formal complaint in writing against the supplier. If the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction or deadlocked, then after 8 weeks you can escalate your complaint to The Energy Ombudsman.

It's six weeks in the case of SSE because their customer service has been so bad.

Gerry1

How often are you billed (which is not necessarily how often you are direct debited)? If you are billed quarterly or six monthly, it's quite possible that your credit will build up every month but then a bill for six months' usage comes along that wipes out all your credit and leaves you in debit.

Remember to check whether your meter readings are smart or just estimates. Just because you have a smart meter doesn't mean that it's being read automatically.

ariarnia

if it does relate to use more than 12 months ago (and you have been billed regularly before then) then it might be covered by back billing (so not a case of you used it so you have to pay it). if i understand right things like this were exactly why the  back billing rules were brought in. 

i agree wit the advice you have had already. make sure they know you consider this a formal complaint (both for the unexpected bill and for there bad customer service) then in 6 weeks if your not happy you can escalate it to the ombudsman (who are already not happy with sse). 

they will have to explain to the ombudsman exactly what happened and when. you might get some of it written off. you might get some compensation (not a crazy huge amount but maybe 30-50). but more importantly you will then have the info you need to know what your dd SHOULD have been set at and how to check to make sure it doesn't happen again. 

MikeJXE

It would be a good idea to put your meter readings for the period in question on here and someone will work out the cost for you