My Letting Agents illegally switched my Gas Supplier, now I am dealing with Mafia SSE

HLeung

First of all Apologies for the long post but it needs the details to bring this matter to light and justice. I am trying my best to summarise the whole matter as it involves both the letting agent and SSE. 1. I had been using Octopus since 2018 for gas and electricity supply and have never been happier. Been paying fixed monthly instalment since on a very reasonable tariffs. 2. In July 2020 , KFH the letting agent took over the management of the block of where I live from the previous letting agent. 3. KFH changed my Gas supplier from Octopus to SSE without my consent and without telling me. However, I did not find this out until I received the very first bill from SSE in July2022. 4. KFH subsequently confirmed and had admitted the gas supplier switch was their mistake. 5. I was not aware of the change for 24 months because - KFH never told me - Octopus never sent me a final bill as I still had my electricity account with them. - Octopus also continuously allowed to me to submit my gas meter readings which I had done so intermittently over the years. - This was also confirmed by Octopus after I spoke with them and they had sent me an email to confirm that I was indeed unaware of the switch. - SSE never sent me any bill for 24 months. I never received any bill from SSE until the first bill arrived out of the blue in July 2022. 6. Soon after I received the first bill, I contacted SSE on 12th July to follow up the first bill that landed through the post. At that point, I was shocked and confused. As far as I knew, my gas supply was with Octopus!!! 7. Upon the first phone call with SSE, as I discovered that SSE did not even know who I was when I called, as they did not have my details on their system. They did not even have my full name, email address, nor phone numbers. 2. SSE claimed that they had been sending me their bills electronically but I told them that’s not possible since SSE did not even have any of my details on their system. SSE subsequently admitted that they had been sending the bills to the Letting Agent. 3. At that point, SSE had already sent me a final notice of the bill and demanded the payment of around £900 that I owed them. I told them I would need to contact my letting agent and get them resolve this as I didn’t now of the switch and I certainly didn't authorise the switch.. 4. After I spoke with KFH in July told me they would investigate but nothing happened so I had to escalate to their client liaison complaint team and then eventually by Oct2022, they confirmed that they would restore my account back to Octopus and promised that would be put back in order with the right plan and tariffs. 5. I continued getting chased for payment by SSE despite the fact I told them that the bill was incorrect as it was based on estimated readings and the fact that I never knew about the bill for 24 months, I should not be responsible plus KFH had also told me that they were going to get this reversed. 6. I continued to chase KFH for updates and eventually escalated to their Head of Lettings Management, I finally got a response from them 7 months after I first reported the issue. On 18th Jan 2023, KFH confirmed that they could not reverse the account to Octopus, told me that I still have to pay for the gas I used and gave me a goodwill of £200. I responded and turned down their offer. KFH needs to take full responsibility for their mistake. 7. The Head of Lettings Management claimed KFH couldn’t do anything to fix the account as it was over 2 years ago and I am the account owner. All they want is for me to get a refund from Octopus to pay for SSE bills. The fact was the fixed amount I paid with Octopus didn’t accumulate to a large sum of excess because over the year, especially since the energy increase, the same amount I had paid Octopus monthly only barely covers the increase of the electricity price. 8. I have also raised a complaint to The Property Ombudsman with regards to how KFH handled this matter and am seriously considering taking legal actions against KFH for not resolving this matter and leaving me fighting SSE on my own. 9. I reminded SSE that throughout the entire period, SSE never came to take any actual readings. There’s no access restrictions to the gas meters within the building, especially I had been supplying my readings to Octopus and they have a record of that. 10. I provided them the actual reading based on 18th Jan 2023, they updated the bill based on and Estimated START reading from JULY 2020 and the END reading of an ESTIMATED reading in DEC2022, they then updated the entirety of the bill to an amount now over £3000+ 11. On top of that SSE now claimed that their bills are correct and claimed that they are all based on ACTUAL READINGS ( when everything written on the bills still have the “E” estimated readings next to the readings. I told them it does not make sense as all their bills were still calculated based on Estimated on July 2020 to Dec2022. ( as shown on their bills) and the only Actual reading they have was the reading I gave them dated 18th Jan 2023. 12. I had no choice but to raised an official complaint with SSE on 24th Jan 2023. 13. Whilst the complaint is still active, SSE continued chase for payments, through text, emails and letter. Including letters threatening to send the bill to collection agency to date. 14. Despite SSE previously claimed that they had been sending bills to the Letting agent, they now claimed that their system does not show the fact they didn’t have my details previously. I pointed out to them their phone calls were recorded and they would have had the recorded conversation I had with them when I first called them on 12th July 2022, and that phone call would have my conversation with their customer service agent to prove that their system did not have my details. 15. SSE are now twisting their story, refusing to acknowledge that they did not send bills to me previously; claiming that they had been sending me bills, when they had already admitted that they were sending the bills to the Lettings Agent previously. 16. SSE are now refusing to honour “Back-Billing”, despite the fact that I did not receive any bills nor any correct bills for over 24 months. 17. SSE are now refusing to accept fault of using estimated readings, especially I pointed out to them that OCTOPUS held a much higher reading at the last Octopus gas bill in May2020. 18. When I spoke to Octopus, they told me that at the time of the switch, SSE sent over a proposal reading of (6677[E]), Octopus rejected that number because it was not the Actual number they had on their system. According to my last gas bill with Octopus, my Actual Reading on 21st of May 2020 was 7521. Octopus also wrote to me to confirm that on 15th of July 2020 - 6677 that was sent over by SSE ( confirmed change of supply reading from SSE that is automatically quarantined by our system) 19. SSE are now refusing to halt payment demands whilst there is an active complaint going on 20. SSE are now demanding for a payment plan and also installing a smart meter, both I object as I cannot accept making a payment plan for bills that were incorrectly calculated and SMART meter does not resolve the existing back billing issues. 21. SSE are now estimating my annual usage of 22,193.46kWh based on their over 30 months of estimated readings. In comparison to the annual projection I had with Octopus back in 2020, Octopus projection was only 1497Kwh and that was based on my ACTUAL usage I had with Octopus over the 2 year period. SSE are now refusing to review their ridiculously high estimated usage which is a massive 14 times more than what would have been charged if I had stayed with Octopus. 22. Meanwhile I am still continued being chased by SSE for payments, including texts and letters and emails, whilst I repeatedly reminded them that all payment demands should be halted whilst there is an active complaint going on. 23. SSE are ignoring all my detailed responses. SSE unreasonably claimed that their bills were correct; unreasonably chased for payments when there’s an ongoing complaint; unreasonably ignored back-billing as they claimed they had sent me bills and they were correct. I reminded them I received no bills until July22, and I had proofs from Octopus for the actual readings I submitted and their confirmation that I was unaware of the switch. 24. SSE continuously ignore all the points I raised in my detail complaints and my followup responses. 25. SSE now accused me that it was impossible for me to NOT know about the switch even after I had told them I had proof from Octopus and had apologies from the Letting agent and also they had recorded conversation that they did not have any of my details on their system prior to my call to them on 12th July 2022 26. SSE had been acted irresponsibly and disrespectful to all the information I presented to them. SSE ignored addressing all the points I raised with them at my complaints. They did not perform any kind of investigations. They did not accept facts I presented to them, including the unfairness of billing everything on estimated numbers. 27. SSE knew that they did hold any of my contact details yet contravened to the facts and demanded that I should be responsible for all the usage when they admitted they sent the bills to the letting agent all along and disregarded the fact that I did not personally receive any bill for 24 months, so they are illegally ignoring the back-billing regulation. 28. I have escalated to the Energy Ombudsman and also the Property Ombudsman, however I also understand that the Ombudsmans have limited power and they act more like a mediators. Unfortunately, I feel like I am fighting this battle on my own. I am considering court action that’s my last resort unless I can avoid it as this will be costly but I need justice. What SSE should be doing : SSE should acknowledge that the very first reading they submitted and used to calculate the bills was a estimated figure that was "rejected" by Octopus and that they still continued to use it for the START reading for all the bills that cover the entirety of the period (Jul2020-Dec2022). That they need to re-calculate the bills correctly with the RIGHT ACTUALl readings that Octopus held at the time of the Switch; SSE needs to STOP going out of the regulatory system and taking laws into their own hands and avoiding the "Back-Billing" regulation. That's a very unjust and unethical practice. SSE needs to stop lying about the situation, when they had sent the bills to the Lettings Agents all along and never sent me any bills for a period of 24 months. SSE needs to stop accusing me when there were proofs that I was unaware of the switch and that they never held any of my contact details. SSE needs to honour the back-billing and stop calculating their bills based on false estimated readings SSE should be calculating the estimated annual usage using real numbers and not on false estimated figures. SSE needs to stop chasing for payments until this matter is resolved. All my email correspondence with SSE shows they have no interests to address my complaints and all their responses had no basis and unreasonable.SSE never addressed my points as they have been avoiding the facts and avoiding their responsibilities. What SSE does is in-despicable and unethical.

HLeung

Sorry reposted as the format on this website didn't work well the first time. 

First of all Apologies for the long post but it needs the details to bring this matter to light and justice. 

I am trying my best to summarise the whole matter as it involves both the letting agent and SSE. 

1. 1. I had been using Octopus since 2018 for gas and electricity supply and have never been happier. Been paying fixed monthly instalment since on a very reasonable tariffs. 
2. 1. In July 2020 , KFH the letting agent took over the management of the block of where I live from the previous letting agent.
3. 1. KFH changed my Gas supplier from Octopus to SSE without my consent and without telling me. However, I did not find this out until I received the very first bill from SSE in July2022. 
4. 1. KFH subsequently confirmed and had admitted the gas supplier switch was their mistake.
5. 1. I was not aware of the change for 24 months because 
6. • KFH never told me
7. • Octopus never sent me a final bill as I still had my electricity account with them. 
8. • Octopus also continuously allowed to me to submit my gas meter readings which I had done so intermittently over the years. 
9. • This was also confirmed by Octopus after I spoke with them and they had sent me an email to confirm that I was indeed unaware of the switch. 
10. • SSE never sent me any bill for 24 months. I never received any bill from SSE until the first bill arrived out of the blue in July 2022. 
11. 1. Soon after I received the first bill, I contacted SSE on 12th July to follow up the first bill that landed through the post. At that point, I was shocked and confused. As far as I knew, my gas supply was with Octopus!!!
12. 1. Upon the first phone call with SSE, as I discovered that SSE did not even know who I was when I called, as they did not have my details on their system. They did not even have my full name, email address, nor phone numbers. 
13. 1. SSE claimed that they had been sending me their bills electronically but I told them that’s not possible since SSE did not even have any of my details on their system. SSE subsequently admitted that they had been sending the bills to the Letting Agent. 
14. 1. At that point, SSE had already sent me a final notice of the bill and demanded the payment of around £900 that I owed them. I told them I would need to contact my letting agent and get them resolve this as I didn’t now of the switch and I certainly didn't authorise the switch.. 
15. 1. After I spoke with KFH in July told me they would investigate but nothing happened so I had to escalate to their client liaison complaint team and then eventually by Oct2022, they confirmed that they would restore my account back to Octopus and promised that would be put back in order with the right plan and tariffs.
16. 1. I continued getting chased for payment by SSE despite the fact I told them that the bill was incorrect as it was based on estimated readings and the fact that I never knew about the bill for 24 months, I should not be responsible plus KFH had also told me that they were going to get this reversed. 
17. 1. I continued to chase KFH for updates and eventually escalated to their Head of Lettings Management, I finally got a response from them 7 months after I first reported the issue.  On 18th Jan 2023, KFH confirmed that they could not reverse the account to Octopus, told me that I still have to pay for the gas I used and gave me a goodwill of £200. I responded and turned down their offer. KFH needs to take full responsibility for their mistake. 
18. 1. The Head of Lettings Management claimed KFH couldn’t do anything to fix the account as it was over 2 years ago and  I am the account owner. All they want is for me to get a refund from Octopus to pay for SSE bills. The fact was the fixed amount I paid with Octopus didn’t accumulate to a large sum of excess because over the year, especially since the energy increase, the same amount I had paid Octopus monthly only barely covers the increase of the electricity price. 
19. 1. I have also raised a complaint to The Property Ombudsman with regards to how KFH handled this matter and am seriously considering taking legal actions against KFH for not resolving this matter and leaving me fighting SSE on my own.  
20. 1. I reminded SSE that throughout the entire period, SSE never came to take any actual readings. There’s no access restrictions to the gas meters within the building, especially I had been supplying my readings to Octopus and they have a record of that. 
21. 1. I provided them the actual reading based on 18th Jan 2023, they updated the bill based on and Estimated START reading from JULY 2020 and the END reading of an ESTIMATED reading in DEC2022, they then updated the entirety of the bill to an amount now over £3000+
22. 1. On top of that SSE now claimed that their bills are correct and claimed that they are all based on ACTUAL READINGS ( when everything written on the bills still have the “E” estimated readings next to the readings. I told them it does not make sense as all their bills were still calculated based on Estimated on July 2020 to Dec2022. ( as shown on their bills) and the only Actual reading they have was the reading I gave them dated 18th Jan 2023. 
23. 1. I had no choice but to raised an official complaint with SSE on 24th Jan 2023. 
24. 1. Whilst the complaint is still active, SSE continued chase for payments, through text, emails and letter. Including letters threatening to send the bill to collection agency to date.
25. 1. Despite SSE previously claimed that they had been sending bills to the Letting agent, they now claimed that their system does not show the fact they didn’t have my details previously. I pointed out to them their phone calls were recorded and they would have had the recorded conversation I had with them when I first called them on 12th July 2022, and that phone call would have my conversation with their customer service agent to prove that their system did not have my details.
26. 1. SSE are now twisting their story, refusing to acknowledge that they did not send bills to me previously; claiming that they had been sending me bills, when they had already admitted that they were sending the bills to the Lettings Agent previously.
27. 1. SSE are now refusing to honour “Back-Billing”, despite the fact that I did not receive any bills nor any correct bills for over 24 months. 
28. 1. SSE are now refusing to accept fault of using estimated readings, especially I pointed out to them that OCTOPUS held a much higher reading at the last Octopus gas bill in May2020. 
29. 1. When I spoke to Octopus, they told me that at the time of the switch, SSE sent over a proposal reading of (6677[E]), Octopus rejected that number because it was not the Actual number they had on their system. According to my last gas bill with Octopus, my Actual Reading on 21st of May 2020 was 7521. Octopus also wrote to me to confirm that on 15th of July 2020 - 6677  that was sent over by SSE ( confirmed change of supply reading from SSE that is automatically quarantined by our system) 
30. 1. SSE are now refusing to halt payment demands whilst there is an active complaint going on
31. 1. SSE are now demanding for a payment plan and also installing a smart meter, both I object as I cannot accept making a payment plan for bills that were incorrectly calculated and SMART meter does not resolve the existing back billing issues.
32. 1. SSE are now estimating my annual usage of 22,193.46kWh based on their over 30 months of estimated readings. In comparison to the annual projection I had with Octopus back in 2020, Octopus projection was only 1497Kwh and that was based on my ACTUAL usage I had with Octopus over the 2 year period. SSE are now refusing to review their ridiculously high estimated usage which is a massive 14 times more than what would have been charged if I had stayed with Octopus. 
33. 1. Meanwhile I am still continued being chased by SSE for payments, including texts and letters and emails, whilst I repeatedly reminded them that all payment demands should be halted whilst there is an active complaint going on. 
34. 1. SSE are ignoring all my detailed responses. SSE unreasonably claimed that their bills were correct;  unreasonably chased for payments when there’s an ongoing complaint; unreasonably ignored back-billing as they claimed they had sent me bills and they were correct. I reminded them I received no bills until July22, and I had proofs from Octopus for the actual readings I submitted and their confirmation that I was unaware of the switch.
35. 1. SSE continuously ignore all the points I raised in my detail complaints and my followup responses. 
36. 1. SSE now accused me that it was impossible for me to NOT know about the switch even after I had told them I had proof from Octopus and had apologies from the Letting agent and also they had recorded conversation that they did not have any of my details on their system prior to my call to them on 12th July 2022
37. 1. SSE had been acted irresponsibly and disrespectful to all the information I presented to them. SSE ignored addressing all the points I raised with them at my complaints. They did not perform any kind of investigations. They did not accept facts I presented to them, including the unfairness of billing everything on estimated numbers. 
38. 1. SSE knew that they did hold any of my contact details yet contravened to the facts and demanded that I should be responsible for all the usage when they admitted they sent the bills to the letting agent all along and disregarded the fact that I did not personally receive any bill for 24 months, so they are illegally ignoring the back-billing regulation.
39. 1. I have escalated to the Energy Ombudsman and also the Property Ombudsman, however I also understand that the Ombudsmans have limited power and they act more like a mediators. Unfortunately, I feel like I am fighting this battle on my own. I am considering court action that’s my last resort unless I can avoid it as this will be costly but I need justice. 

What SSE should be doing :

SSE should acknowledge that the very first reading they submitted and used to calculate the bills was a estimated figure that was "rejected" by Octopus and that they still continued to use it for the START reading for all the bills that cover the entirety of the period (Jul2020-Dec2022). 

That they need to re-calculate the bills correctly with the RIGHT ACTUALl readings that Octopus held at the time of the Switch;  

SSE needs to STOP going out of the regulatory system and taking laws into their own hands and avoiding the "Back-Billing" regulation. That's a very unjust and unethical practice. 

SSE needs to stop lying about the situation, when they had sent the bills to the Lettings Agents all along and never sent me any bills for a period of 24 months. 

SSE needs to stop accusing me when there were proofs that I was unaware of the switch and that they never held any of my contact details. 

SSE needs to honour the back-billing and stop calculating their bills based on false estimated readings

SSE should be calculating the estimated annual usage using real numbers and not on false estimated figures. 

SSE needs to stop chasing for payments until this matter is resolved. 

All my email correspondence with SSE shows they have no interests to address my complaints and all their responses had no basis and unreasonable.SSE never addressed my points as they have been avoiding the facts and avoiding their responsibilities. What SSE does is in-despicable and unethical. 

EssexHebridean

Sorry, TL/DR but a skim raises the following questions: Octopus would have notified you that they’d had the switch request at which point you should have challenged it? 

What is your actual use over the past twelve months? Use the readings you have taken to work this out. 

If you have not been an octopus customer for gas for two years, how were they still asking you for monthly readings? Presumably they have also been billing you - which seems strange? 

diystarter7

Hi OP

Sorry to hear about your woes and i feel for you

However, the title, "Mafia" no really nice. Other than that you have a valid point to make IMO

Good luck

Mstty

A couple of points.

Firstly this would have been very stressful and annoying for you and hopefully your complaint against your letting agent will be successful.

If I have read this correctly you know exactly how much gas you have used in the past 2 years since the "unwanted and illegal" switch as you had been sending readings to octopus and can obviously access the meter today for a "now" reading. What is this in cubic or kWh?

At what stage is your ombudsman service complaint at with the ombudsman? Do you have one raised against SSE detailing the illegal switch and the information you have posted above?

Back billing rules may apply and that would.be something to ask about in the complaint you hopefully have with the ombudsman service against SSE.

t0rt0ise

The only real complaint you've got that can be corrected is that SSE didn't use the correct start reading which means you'll have paid for the same gas twice. Your old gas bills from Octopus will show this and sending copies to SSE raising a formal complaint should be enough to get them to correct the bill. If SSE refuse then the ombudsman will step in. You should then accept the £200 from the letting agent, pay the final bill and change the account back to Octopus. Nobody can do anything different.

HLeung

EssexHebridean said:

Sorry, TL/DR but a skim raises the following questions: Octopus would have notified you that they’d had the switch request at which point you should have challenged it? 

What is your actual use over the past twelve months? Use the readings you have taken to work this out. 

If you have not been an octopus customer for gas for two years, how were they still asking you for monthly readings? Presumably they have also been billing you - which seems strange? 

Hello, Thanks for your response. As I had spoke to Octopus, they did not send me any final bills. My fixed monthly direct debit paid into my single account which covers the gas and electricity. Once the gas account was switch, the money goes in to cover the electricity only. Since Octopus didn't send me any final bills as they claimed I still have my electricity account with them, they continued sending me the regular emails to submit meter readings. Their website portal allows me to input both the electricity and gas readings, despite the fact my gas account was no longer with them. Since I wasn't aware of the switch, I continued to submit my readings on their website portal. Octopus had the records of my submissions for the gas over the course of the years. Octopus also written to me to confirm that they had the records of the readings, and they had confirmed that I was able to input the gas readings despite the fact my gas account was closed. Octopus also sent me the confirmation that when SSE took over, SSE sent a reading to Octopus which was then "Quarantined by their system", meaning that Octopus never agreed nor approved that reading, but SSE still went ahead and used that reading as the START reading.

Just to add, the fixed monthly amount I paid into Octopus covers the electricity but because  there was also a huge price increase for the electricity since the Q4 2021, the fixed amount I paid in for the electricity did not amount to significant excess. By the time I discovered the switch in July 2022, I called Octopus and found out that I only had a few hundred pounds excess. I tried to get a refund but they suggested to halt my monthly instalment payments for several months to bring down the credit balance and I agreed to it, whilst I had the lettings agent to work out a solutions with SSE. 

Of course I can work out the actual readings myself based on the actuals I had for the last 12 months, however SSE wouldn't accept the fact that I did not receive any bills nor any correct bills for 24 months and would not honour Back Billing. 

cannugec5

Have you actually checked the meter number to verify it is indeed your meter that was erroneously switched? 

As you said it’s a ‘block’ I can imagine a bank of meters. We’re they all switched? Did the letting agency get a ton of SSE bills for the entire block and didn’t bother passing them on as they had no idea which account was which? 

It reads as if you have been communicating/ complaining by email. I hope you have also submitted a formal written letter headed ‘complaint’ and kept it concise. 

Keep_pedalling

You do owe SSE for the gas you used for the 12 months prior to them issuing you with the first bill, but anything prior to that should be covered by the back billing rules. So looking on the bright side you should get a free year of gas plus the £200 from the letting agent.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

EssexHebridean

The notification of switch request though?

And my further question - were Octopus still billing you for your gas use, and still asking you specifically for your gas meter readings? Ignore the electricity account - it’s not relevant as there is any dispute over that as far as I can understand. 

I agree that a check on the meters would be advisable. Your “formal complaint” can perfectly well be by email however, you don’t need to throw money at a stamp! 

MWT

The obvious clue should have been the lack of any billing for gas from Octopus...