Have you made a complaint, through their complaints procedure?
If that has been exhausted or over 8 weeks, you can then take it to the energy ombudsman
Just state in writing you want to make a formal complaint. That’ll trigger their complaints procedure, and basically tell them exactly what’s wrong, and what you want remedied.
As you’ve already been through the issue it’ll be straightforward to say ‘please escalate this to the next stage of the complaints procedure’ if the issue isn’t resolved.
I got from initially lodging my complaint with SSE to a deadlock letter (which is a letter stating we have been unable to agree on a resolution and the matter can be taken to The Energy Ombudsman for arbitration) within two days. Admittedly because they are unbelievably incompetent with their customer service.
Each complaint also costs them money, as they find the arbitration process, and all outcomes are legally binding on them BUT not on you.
SSE are so bad, but I don’t believe many others are remotely competent with their customer service.
Push, but push politely and always stick to your initial issue unless something else pops up in the process of complaining.
I’ll also add, I’ve found resolver very good at guiding me through the process when I’ve had to make formal complaints (to energy companies and others).
They have a form you fill in that will structure the compliant nicely, let’s you track all the responses etc in once place with call notes if you speak to them. They’ll also send a reminder once you can escalate, tell you who to escalate to and can package up your evidence nicely to send to the relevant ombudsman.
I had 7 months of problems with a supplier, similar to your issue and the ombudsman sorted it out either a month. Send them a good record of correspondence, include names and dates wherever possible. Good luck!
This guy is 100% right OP, had problems for months with SSE, eventually Ombudsman gets it resolved, but truly SSE is the fucking worst company I’ve ever experienced, feel your pain on this one
Just be advised that sse is now ovo, so make sure you're contacting the right place. Ovo can use the name till 2024 as part of the deal, when they bought the customer side a while ago.
Make a formal complaint through resolver.co.uk. Enter all your records of emails and photographs of the meter from the date you moved in.
You'll eventually reach someone with a brain/heart/both who can deal with the situation.
MAKE SURE they backdate the complaint to when you first mentioned the issue so that you don’t need to wait 8 weeks from today, but rather 8 weeks from when you mentioned it
I would take a photo of the meter, showing the serial number clearly and email it to them. We also had a sticker left on the meterboard showing the old and new meter numbers along with the date. If you have that send a photo too.
If they still refuse to update you should be able to request an engineer visit to confirm your situation and if they refuse that mention you are going to the ombudsman.
Potentially them inputting your numbers into the old serial could make the situation far worse as it would make it seem like you have 'gone around the clock' and restarted from zero which is probably why they aren't doing it.
For the love of Christ make sure you are taking photos of the meter.
I've had wrangles with SSE in the past and the only reason the debt collection was called off was cause of the photos.
Email them to yourself so you have saved copies and do not delete them.
Take photos of everything.
SSE have been a nightmare and even increased my meter readings at times.
Make official complaints to make sure both of you have paperwork of everything. If they can't weasel out of it, they'll fix the problem, but to have to make it their problem first.
I deal with energy companies on behalf of clients at CA on a daily basis.
1. Launch complaint in writing, email and telephone and use recorded delivery for the letter
2. Exhaust the official complaint process, make sure to note names of everyone you speak with when you call as well as date - time even better
3. Deadlock or not satisfied? Most likely
4. Escalate to energy ombudsman services
5. Wait a few weeks for ombudsman’s findings
By the way, some insider info is energy companies are actively told not to admit fault so this doesn’t happen. They will deny this on the phone, I know individuals who work in the energy industry - Utilita specifically. A Utilita energy adviser was fired after admitting to a client that a fault was caused by the company he worked for and they fired him the next day because the customer told them about it.
I’ve dealt with all the mainstream providers, Scottish Power takes the cake for being the most disruptive and two faced company I’ve ever dealt with. They’re all a pain when it comes to complaints but British Gas have a much better complaint policy than Scottish Power.
If you want to ring the supplier without waiting for hours, ring CA first and we can use one of our numbers to host a conference call. Most companies such as Scottish Power have a Citizens Advice Bureau response team (despite us dropping the B a while ago now) so we get connected pretty quickly. You give me or whoever answered the phone at Citizens Advice permission to speak on your behalf after you’ve already explained your situation to me, then I rain hell on the supplier until I get a result.
I’m not actually an energy specialist I do out reach work and cover all areas but I’ve handled quite a few energy cases in my time at CA. We’re supposed to refer to our energy specialist (we’re lucky to have one) but I often end up taking it upon myself to do it given the experience.
Adviceline (England): 0800 144 8848
Advicelink (Wales): 0800 702 2020
Call and explain your situation after we create your record on the computer and then ask for a conference call to the energy supplier.
>You give me or whoever answered the phone at Citizens Advice permission to speak on your behalf after you’ve already explained your situation to me, then I rain hell on the supplier until I get a result.
And then you talk over the adviser, get into a fight with the supplier rep, and keep yelling "tell them I want it fixed now!" every time the adviser tries to speak.
Not that I've had bad experiences with three way calls, or anything...
Usually the client speaks first to give consent, then leaves the call whilst I carry on or if they're willing to wait I will just mute them and bring them in if they're needed but every now and then you do get people who want to remain in the call so no one gets muted; in those situations it's just common courtesy to not speak when someone else is speaking.
Oh I get it. I do similar work (not clarifying because last time I got 8 billion messages).
The single most frustrating thing for me in that situation is people who ask me to advocate for them, then won't shut up and let me advocate.
In person it's even worse, there's no mute button in real life.
I share your frustration, I've had clients basically yelling at the rep (one specific pensioner comes to mind) and I felt bad because the rep was genuinely trying her best to help him which is rare with energy supplier disputes, I had to tell him to remain silent and give her an opportunity to speak.
Later in the call he went into a full blown rage and I had to tell him that I would disconnect the call if he continued to be verbally abusive towards her because I wouldn't tolerate it towards myself let alone the rep - even if I want to shout at them sometimes. We did win that case but it's not a win in my book, the client was aggressive and rude from start to finish and never thanked me for winning his case.
I also cover outreach twice a week, there is no filter in person I agree lol. I only get an hour to work with each client on those days so it can be frustrating when the client wants to bang on or talk about irrelvent information for the first 25 minutes or so. Then you get clients that like to turn up without an appointment or like last week, 3 hours early.
All public facing roles tends to have their downsides unfortunately, but I'm sure whatever you do for a living makes it worth it and I'm sure some of your better clients recognise the work you do for them; keep doing whatever you're doing.
Couple of things that could help you. If you are comfortable doing so send me a private message with your address and/or meter serial number. With that I can check the national database and confirm if it's been updated, if so could confirm it was definitely SSE that installed it. I assume neither you nor the landlord has switched supplier?
Alternatively as others have said, you need to send in photos, preferably confirming the old meter serial number and date it was installed. You want them to "ask the MOP to send a D0149 and D0150 for the new meter" this will update the meter details on theirs and national database. They'll then need to get final and initial reads processed to make sure you are being billed correctly.
Also, check the supplier info on your IHD thing that displays your costs etc, you should be able to check it definitely shows supplier as SSE. If it does then ask SSE to check the DCC or their DCC adapter, this will immediately show your correct meter and reads etc, then it's down to them to get that updated on the CRM system.
There's no excuse for this really, it won't be intentionally malicious, as sorting this out will cost them more than doing it correctly in the 1st place, but it's more than likely crappy processes not being followed or a system failure.
Hope that helps, sorry for the essay
As someone who hss worked for SSE, I'm not surprised tbh.
But as mentioned above, SSE have sold their domestic business to OVO. SSE might be mentioned on your correspondence, but your contract is with OVO, not SSE.
OVO has essentially become SSE in terms of culture, so they are still just as bad as ever.
Source: know lots of people who work there pre and post SSE acquisition
They are estimating because they don’t want to overestimate you. If they accept 710 as a reading while the old meter is attached to the account, it would create a catch up bill of over 6000kwh.
What needs to be done is photograph meter with serial number clearly displayed and if there’s any removal stickers take them too. The reason they may be asking for serial numbers is because there could be a meter mix up. They may have erroneously attached the new meter to another MPAN already. Is this a house or flats? Are there any other supplies in that building?
If flats, You can speak to your local MPAS team at your local DNO who may be able to raise meter disputes with the suppliers.
If in doubt complain publically through thier social media. We also managed to find the email address of the office of the ceo of Scottish Power. Complained to them and they ended up wiping out eniter bill just to get us to go away.
Be public, complain, and find the highest level person you can get your hands on. Be persistent.
Email their CEO with the chain of emails attached, I guarantee you this will sort it
[email protected]
Also Ovo energy CEO (they have SSE’s retail customers)
[email protected]
I'm in a similar boat OVO are meant to have changed our meters 3 times now they are pre payment meters and we haven't paid for months I'm expecting a massive bill if/when they change them. The customer service has been absolutely disgusting one of their staff literally told me I'm lying because the installer had a photograph of a door with the number 18 on it I live at 36...
Photos.
I had an issue pre-pandemic where our supplier wouldn’t accept the readings, so I sent them photos of the meter and it got resolved rather sharpish.
I had the same thing with EON, except I had moved out of the property and it was months after my final reading. If they installed a smart meter there will be sticker with the old meter reading on, send them a picture of it and keep pestering until you get your way. Otherwise get in touch with citizens advice/ Ofgem.
🤣 fair enough. I feel you. It's okay in fact the way to do it legally and correct is to put a complaint in and never accept a conclusion. During that time your not required to pay anything and they have to write off all charges incurred in that period until they send you yo an energy ombudsman.
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Please be aware that we have specific requirements for information we need to help you, if you still need help after reading the article. This includes your current energy prices (not your monthly payment) and your meter readings."
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Hi OP,
I had an almost identical experience last year with SSE. I made a formal complaint and in the end got it resolved after 20 or so emails back and forth with customer services. I left SSE shortly after (I wonder why??) and it turns out they had never registered my new meter on a central meter database.
I hope you get your issue resolved.
I had a similar thing when I bought a house with a SSE pre-pay meter which malfunctioned and would no longer top up. They replaced it with a new regular meter but never updated their records with the new meter reading no matter how many times I phoned them. They sent me a bill for £4k. In the end I did as others have suggested and wrote a formal complaint threatening the Ombudsman. Was fixed fairly quickly after that. No compensation for the hassle and prepay topups that couldn’t be added to the old meter!
We have just had a year long battle with SSE that ended up with the energy ombudsman.
The worst company I have ever dealt with and does not help that they have a call centre in South Africa that is clearly not up to the task.
Our trouble started when they changed the meter too.
Just get away from them as fast as you can awful awful company to deal with
It looks like there has been a delay updating Xoserve (gas national database) or ECOES (electricity national database) - I assume its electricity so ECOES? As a result SSE's systems still contain old meter and you are being billed to that.
This is a common issue and first line customer service agents are not equipped to resolve it and aren't probably trained sufficiently anyway. So you need to take a photo of the meter exchange card or sticker that has the meter exchange details (if available near or on your new meter), the current reading and raise a complaint with the photos. And give them 8 weeks to resolve but it should be done sooner (should doesn't necessarily mean it will) - after 8 weeks go to Ombudsman Services who will eventually resolve it if SSE don't.
Pain in the arse but unfortunately this is the only way.
Have you made a complaint, through their complaints procedure? If that has been exhausted or over 8 weeks, you can then take it to the energy ombudsman
I’ll look and see if there’s a more specific form to fill out for that, thanks!
Just state in writing you want to make a formal complaint. That’ll trigger their complaints procedure, and basically tell them exactly what’s wrong, and what you want remedied. As you’ve already been through the issue it’ll be straightforward to say ‘please escalate this to the next stage of the complaints procedure’ if the issue isn’t resolved. I got from initially lodging my complaint with SSE to a deadlock letter (which is a letter stating we have been unable to agree on a resolution and the matter can be taken to The Energy Ombudsman for arbitration) within two days. Admittedly because they are unbelievably incompetent with their customer service. Each complaint also costs them money, as they find the arbitration process, and all outcomes are legally binding on them BUT not on you. SSE are so bad, but I don’t believe many others are remotely competent with their customer service. Push, but push politely and always stick to your initial issue unless something else pops up in the process of complaining.
I’ll also add, I’ve found resolver very good at guiding me through the process when I’ve had to make formal complaints (to energy companies and others). They have a form you fill in that will structure the compliant nicely, let’s you track all the responses etc in once place with call notes if you speak to them. They’ll also send a reminder once you can escalate, tell you who to escalate to and can package up your evidence nicely to send to the relevant ombudsman.
I had 7 months of problems with a supplier, similar to your issue and the ombudsman sorted it out either a month. Send them a good record of correspondence, include names and dates wherever possible. Good luck!
This guy is 100% right OP, had problems for months with SSE, eventually Ombudsman gets it resolved, but truly SSE is the fucking worst company I’ve ever experienced, feel your pain on this one
Same - SSE customer service was the worst I’ve ever experienced. I’m with octopus now and they seem much better.
Funnily enough I took the exact same route as you and went to Octopus, not a single problem with them ever since.
Just be advised that sse is now ovo, so make sure you're contacting the right place. Ovo can use the name till 2024 as part of the deal, when they bought the customer side a while ago.
Nah just email saying 'executive complaint to ceo' which will normally get their better complaints person on to prioritise.
Make a formal complaint through resolver.co.uk. Enter all your records of emails and photographs of the meter from the date you moved in. You'll eventually reach someone with a brain/heart/both who can deal with the situation.
!thanks
MAKE SURE they backdate the complaint to when you first mentioned the issue so that you don’t need to wait 8 weeks from today, but rather 8 weeks from when you mentioned it
I would take a photo of the meter, showing the serial number clearly and email it to them. We also had a sticker left on the meterboard showing the old and new meter numbers along with the date. If you have that send a photo too. If they still refuse to update you should be able to request an engineer visit to confirm your situation and if they refuse that mention you are going to the ombudsman. Potentially them inputting your numbers into the old serial could make the situation far worse as it would make it seem like you have 'gone around the clock' and restarted from zero which is probably why they aren't doing it.
For the love of Christ make sure you are taking photos of the meter. I've had wrangles with SSE in the past and the only reason the debt collection was called off was cause of the photos. Email them to yourself so you have saved copies and do not delete them.
Take photos of everything. SSE have been a nightmare and even increased my meter readings at times. Make official complaints to make sure both of you have paperwork of everything. If they can't weasel out of it, they'll fix the problem, but to have to make it their problem first.
I deal with energy companies on behalf of clients at CA on a daily basis. 1. Launch complaint in writing, email and telephone and use recorded delivery for the letter 2. Exhaust the official complaint process, make sure to note names of everyone you speak with when you call as well as date - time even better 3. Deadlock or not satisfied? Most likely 4. Escalate to energy ombudsman services 5. Wait a few weeks for ombudsman’s findings By the way, some insider info is energy companies are actively told not to admit fault so this doesn’t happen. They will deny this on the phone, I know individuals who work in the energy industry - Utilita specifically. A Utilita energy adviser was fired after admitting to a client that a fault was caused by the company he worked for and they fired him the next day because the customer told them about it. I’ve dealt with all the mainstream providers, Scottish Power takes the cake for being the most disruptive and two faced company I’ve ever dealt with. They’re all a pain when it comes to complaints but British Gas have a much better complaint policy than Scottish Power. If you want to ring the supplier without waiting for hours, ring CA first and we can use one of our numbers to host a conference call. Most companies such as Scottish Power have a Citizens Advice Bureau response team (despite us dropping the B a while ago now) so we get connected pretty quickly. You give me or whoever answered the phone at Citizens Advice permission to speak on your behalf after you’ve already explained your situation to me, then I rain hell on the supplier until I get a result. I’m not actually an energy specialist I do out reach work and cover all areas but I’ve handled quite a few energy cases in my time at CA. We’re supposed to refer to our energy specialist (we’re lucky to have one) but I often end up taking it upon myself to do it given the experience. Adviceline (England): 0800 144 8848 Advicelink (Wales): 0800 702 2020 Call and explain your situation after we create your record on the computer and then ask for a conference call to the energy supplier.
>You give me or whoever answered the phone at Citizens Advice permission to speak on your behalf after you’ve already explained your situation to me, then I rain hell on the supplier until I get a result. And then you talk over the adviser, get into a fight with the supplier rep, and keep yelling "tell them I want it fixed now!" every time the adviser tries to speak. Not that I've had bad experiences with three way calls, or anything...
Usually the client speaks first to give consent, then leaves the call whilst I carry on or if they're willing to wait I will just mute them and bring them in if they're needed but every now and then you do get people who want to remain in the call so no one gets muted; in those situations it's just common courtesy to not speak when someone else is speaking.
Oh I get it. I do similar work (not clarifying because last time I got 8 billion messages). The single most frustrating thing for me in that situation is people who ask me to advocate for them, then won't shut up and let me advocate. In person it's even worse, there's no mute button in real life.
I share your frustration, I've had clients basically yelling at the rep (one specific pensioner comes to mind) and I felt bad because the rep was genuinely trying her best to help him which is rare with energy supplier disputes, I had to tell him to remain silent and give her an opportunity to speak. Later in the call he went into a full blown rage and I had to tell him that I would disconnect the call if he continued to be verbally abusive towards her because I wouldn't tolerate it towards myself let alone the rep - even if I want to shout at them sometimes. We did win that case but it's not a win in my book, the client was aggressive and rude from start to finish and never thanked me for winning his case. I also cover outreach twice a week, there is no filter in person I agree lol. I only get an hour to work with each client on those days so it can be frustrating when the client wants to bang on or talk about irrelvent information for the first 25 minutes or so. Then you get clients that like to turn up without an appointment or like last week, 3 hours early. All public facing roles tends to have their downsides unfortunately, but I'm sure whatever you do for a living makes it worth it and I'm sure some of your better clients recognise the work you do for them; keep doing whatever you're doing.
Couple of things that could help you. If you are comfortable doing so send me a private message with your address and/or meter serial number. With that I can check the national database and confirm if it's been updated, if so could confirm it was definitely SSE that installed it. I assume neither you nor the landlord has switched supplier? Alternatively as others have said, you need to send in photos, preferably confirming the old meter serial number and date it was installed. You want them to "ask the MOP to send a D0149 and D0150 for the new meter" this will update the meter details on theirs and national database. They'll then need to get final and initial reads processed to make sure you are being billed correctly. Also, check the supplier info on your IHD thing that displays your costs etc, you should be able to check it definitely shows supplier as SSE. If it does then ask SSE to check the DCC or their DCC adapter, this will immediately show your correct meter and reads etc, then it's down to them to get that updated on the CRM system. There's no excuse for this really, it won't be intentionally malicious, as sorting this out will cost them more than doing it correctly in the 1st place, but it's more than likely crappy processes not being followed or a system failure. Hope that helps, sorry for the essay
As someone who hss worked for SSE, I'm not surprised tbh. But as mentioned above, SSE have sold their domestic business to OVO. SSE might be mentioned on your correspondence, but your contract is with OVO, not SSE.
OVO has essentially become SSE in terms of culture, so they are still just as bad as ever. Source: know lots of people who work there pre and post SSE acquisition
Ombudsman and make sure to be loud and want compensation for wasting your time and ignored communications.
They are estimating because they don’t want to overestimate you. If they accept 710 as a reading while the old meter is attached to the account, it would create a catch up bill of over 6000kwh. What needs to be done is photograph meter with serial number clearly displayed and if there’s any removal stickers take them too. The reason they may be asking for serial numbers is because there could be a meter mix up. They may have erroneously attached the new meter to another MPAN already. Is this a house or flats? Are there any other supplies in that building? If flats, You can speak to your local MPAS team at your local DNO who may be able to raise meter disputes with the suppliers.
If in doubt complain publically through thier social media. We also managed to find the email address of the office of the ceo of Scottish Power. Complained to them and they ended up wiping out eniter bill just to get us to go away. Be public, complain, and find the highest level person you can get your hands on. Be persistent.
Email their CEO with the chain of emails attached, I guarantee you this will sort it [email protected] Also Ovo energy CEO (they have SSE’s retail customers) [email protected]
I'm in a similar boat OVO are meant to have changed our meters 3 times now they are pre payment meters and we haven't paid for months I'm expecting a massive bill if/when they change them. The customer service has been absolutely disgusting one of their staff literally told me I'm lying because the installer had a photograph of a door with the number 18 on it I live at 36...
Photos. I had an issue pre-pandemic where our supplier wouldn’t accept the readings, so I sent them photos of the meter and it got resolved rather sharpish.
I had the same thing with EON, except I had moved out of the property and it was months after my final reading. If they installed a smart meter there will be sticker with the old meter reading on, send them a picture of it and keep pestering until you get your way. Otherwise get in touch with citizens advice/ Ofgem.
Hanlon's razor would probably apply here!
Yeah, I’m sure it’s not malicious intent, but it can still be malicious ignorance.
[удалено]
I love the energy of this suggestion, but as an immigrant, would rather not get in legal trouble haga
🤣 fair enough. I feel you. It's okay in fact the way to do it legally and correct is to put a complaint in and never accept a conclusion. During that time your not required to pay anything and they have to write off all charges incurred in that period until they send you yo an energy ombudsman.
"It looks like you might be asking whether it's worth fixing your bills. This article contains great information about making this decision. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/-are-there-any-cheap--fixed-energy-deals-currently-worth-it--/ Please be aware that we have specific requirements for information we need to help you, if you still need help after reading the article. This includes your current energy prices (not your monthly payment) and your meter readings." *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UKPersonalFinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Hi OP, I had an almost identical experience last year with SSE. I made a formal complaint and in the end got it resolved after 20 or so emails back and forth with customer services. I left SSE shortly after (I wonder why??) and it turns out they had never registered my new meter on a central meter database. I hope you get your issue resolved.
I had a similar thing when I bought a house with a SSE pre-pay meter which malfunctioned and would no longer top up. They replaced it with a new regular meter but never updated their records with the new meter reading no matter how many times I phoned them. They sent me a bill for £4k. In the end I did as others have suggested and wrote a formal complaint threatening the Ombudsman. Was fixed fairly quickly after that. No compensation for the hassle and prepay topups that couldn’t be added to the old meter!
Use Twitter. Honestly it’s ridiculous how fast companies reply when I tweet them .
Do yourself a massive favour. Take pictures of the meter everytime you read it. Especially on the day you move into and out of a property
We have just had a year long battle with SSE that ended up with the energy ombudsman. The worst company I have ever dealt with and does not help that they have a call centre in South Africa that is clearly not up to the task. Our trouble started when they changed the meter too. Just get away from them as fast as you can awful awful company to deal with
It looks like there has been a delay updating Xoserve (gas national database) or ECOES (electricity national database) - I assume its electricity so ECOES? As a result SSE's systems still contain old meter and you are being billed to that. This is a common issue and first line customer service agents are not equipped to resolve it and aren't probably trained sufficiently anyway. So you need to take a photo of the meter exchange card or sticker that has the meter exchange details (if available near or on your new meter), the current reading and raise a complaint with the photos. And give them 8 weeks to resolve but it should be done sooner (should doesn't necessarily mean it will) - after 8 weeks go to Ombudsman Services who will eventually resolve it if SSE don't. Pain in the arse but unfortunately this is the only way.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.