Ombudsman help needed.

cazgarner80 · 15 December 2019 at 12:30PM

Please can somebody advise if possible. I was with SSE for 10 years and swapped to bulb in October 2018.!

In March 2019 my metre stopped working and once changed it became apparent that at the previous metre had been faulty and had been triple charging me me. Bulb have since acknowledged this overcharging as my readings dropped by 60% from 22 units a day down to 7 and have refunded me me the overcharging payments however I contacted SSE to advise of the faulty metre and because the metre was not tested would not accept there was a fault.

I then presented my case to the energy ombudsman (reports, graphs, meter readings) who said that the only way to determine a fault was to compare the Old metre with the new metre however the officer did not do this stating that readings from October 2018 to March 2019 we're in line with previous SSE Reading (which they will be as it's the same faulty metre) and that my usage from 2014 was the same as my usage in 2019 despite me saying that I now have children and not babies and that I would expect my usage to increase as they got older which it does 2014 (9.98!units),!2015!(11.49!units),!2016 (11.63!units),!2017 (14.11!units),!2018 (23.59!units) however usage in these years should be lower than!2019!usage (7 units) as we have more appliances now that have increased over the years as stated in my evidence. !

At my appeal I asked for an impartial independent peer to review the case and the same case officer reviewed the appeal and determined there was no fault.

I have complained to customer services who said they would forward the complaint to the manager, which has not responded despite me chasing. I have lodged it as an official complaint on the ombudsman website who said the investigation team would contact me within 10 days, and they haven't.! I'm not really sure who else I can raise my complaint with to be taken seriously.

Any advise greatly appreciated

Gerry1 · 15 December 2019 at 1:15PM

Unfortunately your post isn't at all clear and the numbers don't display properly. You need to refer to kWh and to make it clear whether these are actual meter readings, average daily usage or year-on-year usage. You haven't even stated whether you are referring to gas or electricity.

As the meter was not tested and found to be faulty it will be difficult to get SSE to pay out unless you provide really convincing evidence to indicate that the old meter was faulty for many years. What solid evidence do you have that the meter was triple charging?

cazgarner80 · 15 December 2019 at 2:58PM

Hello. Thank you for your reply. Sorry this relates to my electricity supply. Last summer I recieved a £400 for 3 months usage and SSE wanted to raise my month direct debit to £193 a month for electricity. They were predicting that my annual usage would be 9000 kWh. I started taking daily photos of my meter readings and swapped to bulb who started that with them I would pay £145 per month for gas and electricity. I still continued to take daily photo readings and before my meter died in March my daily readings were 22 units per day. As soon as the meter was changed my daily usage was recording at 7 units per day. Even now I still take daily meter photos and my usage far lower than recorded on the old meter. At one point it was recorded as 40 units per day during december; my current usage is 11 units.

This summer my combined gas and electricity has totalled £150. Bulb have since sent me my estimated annual consumption for the year and this is 3000kwh. The only evidence I have are daily photos and the reduction in my meter readings and Bill's

Gerry1 · 15 December 2019 at 4:06PM

You need to forget DD amounts: they're wonky because they may or may not be covering your usage. Similarly, forget all estimates, whether meter readings or projections or promised savings. They are all totally meaningless: you need to deal exclusively in facts.

A reduction in electricity usage could be due to many things: more daylight, LED bulbs that use a tenth of that of incandescent, warmer weather, less use of fan heaters and electric showers. Being devil's advocate, it's all just anecdotal stuff rather than anything factual. A major culprit can be an instantaneous electric shower (typically 10kW). Four people each having two 10-minute showers will use 4,867kWh per year costing £730 if it's 15p/kWh. That's before any use of an oven / hob, fan heater, kettle, lighting, TV, fridge, freezer etc.

Saying that you think that your usage should have been lower in 2014 isn't evidence: your new appliances are probably more efficient and the weather in 2019 is probably a bit warmer. Similarly, the fact that usage went down after the meter was replaced in March means very little: it was then summer time !

Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but I think you should just be realistic: be thankful your usage is more affordable and move on ! The only hard evidence would be a test showing that the old meter was faulty, but after all this time it may well have been scrapped. However, you could always ask.

For future reference, if anyone has serious doubts about their electricity meter's accuracy the best thing is to start by testing it yourself. Disconnect absolutely everything, read the meter, and make sure it's not incrementing and the red light doesn't flash. Then switch on a known heavy load (e.g. a 3kW fan heater set to maximum temperature) for an hour and read the meter again. Alternatively, count the flashes for a known period.

Ombudsman help needed.

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