SSE Energy Services 

Disgusted by the service
Was on a pre paid metre - pay for what you use.
A month after leaving the property was given a ridiculous bill of £629.

When asked about the bill no one seemed to be able to explain where it came from was told it was an additional SSE fee and unpaid usage despite our pre paid metre always having excess.

Was hung up on twice and one of them was rude, condescending and had horrible language - when asked to talk to the manager they hung up.

Got through quickly on telephone and Grace was knowledgeable and helpful. She couldn’t complete all the requirements I had as she didn’t have access to some features on her system.

I found out on 31st July 2023 that my account was never fully closed off when I vacated my old property in May of 2022. The gas account was closed but the electric account was kept open, clearly in error, for another 7 months.

I have never received any written communications regarding an outstanding bill nor about debt collection.

On 31st July I phoned SSE (after logging in online and finding approx 1k of debt!) I was informed the account hadn't been closed. I was surprised and after discussing with the agent, who informed me neither account had been closed, I agreed to pay up until June 2022 (generously, with an additional month's payment than was owned). After settling up that money I was informed I would receive a letter in the next 7 days confirming next steps and whether or not my account would finally be closed off.

This was never received and when I followed up on the 11th August I was told nobody could discuss my account with me as it had gone to High Court Enforcement. I asked that my call recordings be shared with me as part of a subject access request as by this point I recognised that I was being misled, and misinformed.
Especially offensive seeing as I had made a reasonably large payment in good faith, only to find this was not fed back to the final accounts or litigation teams at all.

I have since been following up with the final accounts team, with 'Just' and with the litigation team. I am constantly being sent around these 3 numbers and for weeks nobody has been able to give me any meaningful information - except for the fact that yes, I probably have been summoned to court and no I won't have received any written notification of this because it has all been sent to the address I vacated over 1 year ago.
I have also emailed various addresses that it will not let me include in this review, and received no response.

I have contacted on 25th August, 31st August and again today.
I have received no outcome or communications following any of these requests about a clearly urgent matter.

The only communication I have had back is an email back from your customer services team approx 2 weeks ago advising me to contact litigations team and ignoring the fact that I was following up on my subject access request.

This is wholly unacceptable and I feel I am being deliberately ignored and (secretly!) chased for a completely fraudulent bill. I believe that this company feels they can act with impunity and financially bully their customers.

I have today raised another formal complaint within the company and come 1st October if this is not resolved I will be going to the ombudsman.

This has had a huge effect and strain on my mental health for over a month now and has additionally affected my ability to move home closer to my family for better support.

Don't ever join - they don't let you leave!

OVO - Was meant to have an engineer out weeks ago never heard and had to contact you myself to find out what was happening, cannot fault your customer service team via the chat or phone however I’ve emailed twice once on the 21st of august where I was told it would be 48 hrs to hear from someone and still nothing. Now an engineer isn’t coming to me until November. Not had issues up until now but I just want someone to respond to my email… wouldn’t be so bothered but don’t say 48hrs if that isn’t the case at all

On 04/09/2023 I noticed on my smart meter was showing the following rates:

Current Tariff: 33.530p and at 01:30 20.510p
Daily Standing Charge: 54.810

However, the current Energy Price Cap rates for Prepayment Meters are the following:

Current Tariff: 29.06p
Daily Standing Charge: 58.08p

After noticing this I spoke with my current supplier OVO Energy and expand this to them. They informed me that a migration debt was put on to my account a total amount £507.03 as of 24/08/2023. I was then told by OVO that there was nothing they could do, and I needed to speak to SSE Finalized Accounts on 0345 070 1283.

Which I did straight after the webchat conversation, I spoke to a gentleman and went though the security questions and told him what was wrong. He placed me on hold to look it to it, after around 10 minutes the phone cut out. I was then unable to get though to the department as the recorded voice said that they were closed.

As I was unable to get though to speak to someone on the phone, I am now making a formal complaint in regard to being put into debt, on a prepayment meter and never going into emergency credit and being on a smart meter. As what I can see and understand there is no way for us to be put into debt. As we are pay as we go, meaning we have to credit our meter before we can use electricity. So, when the swich over happened there would be no debt to migrate over.

Furthermore, throughout are time with SSE we have never been sent a bill telling us that we owed any money. Also, I have contacted yourselves to double check that we were on the correct tariff on at least 3 different times.

Perhaps most distressing of all has been the lack of effective communication and assistance from your customer service team. My attempts to resolve these issues have been met with long wait times on hold, unhelpful responses, and promises of follow-up that never materialize. This complete lack of support has further deepened my feelings of despair and hopelessness.

As someone who battles depression, I rely on stability and predictability in my environment to maintain a sense of well-being. The disruptions and frustrations caused by SSE/OVO have greatly exacerbated my condition, leading to increased anxiety and depressive episodes. The toll this has taken on my mental health is undeniable and unsustainable.

I would therefore like to request that you review this debt and send me a revised, accurate bill in its place along with confirmation of the sum that has been credited back to my account clearing the total amount. As well as suitable compensation for the distress this has caused.

Yours faithfully,
Daniel Otterwell-Stafford

Why on earth would anyone actually volunteer to have their services with this company. I had to call them for work and spent on a first call, 5o minutes and had to hang up as had other stuff to do. Called them back a few hours later and i am now another 50 minutes in with no answer!! AVOID AVOID AVOID IF YOU DONT LIKE WASTING YOUR DAY WAITING FOR THEM TO ANSWER.

We got solar panels in April 2022 and we were advised to stay with SSE/OVO and the export rate was 3.5 pence paid annually. Our energy was billed by OVO but the export remained through SSE. We switched to Octopus in April 2023 - we sent a picture of the smart meter reading to SSE - they said it was the wrong picture - we have received no payments, they have not even attempted to pay us a penny - I am disgusted by their service

This morning I have had an issue with my pay as you go card, it has came up error 6 on the meter which read is a card fault. I then entered the online SSE website chat as their website suggested. From there I was told to call a number. I called this number and sat on hold for 1 hour and 15 mins. Once I got to an operator they said I should not have been sent to this number and they will transfer me to the correct one. Once transferred I was asked if I would like to leave a voicemail and then the number hung up. Currently I am still without gas, customer service is horrendous. Will be leaving SSE ASAP.

Stay clear!!! Change supplier…

After now even becoming part of ovo still not able to resolve the wrong depts wrong bulls*** etc… have finally changed supplier but they’re still chasing me for made up debt

I am finally finished with SSE. Transfered to Octopus at the end of April for my gas and electricity after two years of hell with SSE - them constantly getting things wrong, not answering calls and passing me from one agent to another. It has taken FOUR MONTHS to close my gas account - again with me raising numerous complaints and phones calls and them always saying they were sorry but still getting it wrong. Donot stay with this company - they are useless - Octopus so much better so far.

I was using another electricity company initially and had no problems. Unfortunately due to some reason they said, our electricity would be moved to SSE. All the problems started there when I was moved to SSE. Absolutely regret it. One of the worst company I had to deal with in UK. People who speak does not have any insight of what we are speaking. Finally I had to escalate it to Ombudsman for final decision. SSE were made to send me a apology letter and waive off the cash the expected me to pay. I warned my NOK who moved to a new home and had SSE there. Now Unfortunately she is suffering with the same problem with SSE and escalating it to Ombudsman now.

If there was an option for zero star, I would have selected that.

This company is disgusting. I have never ever been with them or signed up yet they continue to send letters to my disabled mothers address harassing me for money for an account ive never had ever. I dont live with my mam im there alot. She is with Eon im with Spower. They have my bank details and everything. Send me texts to pay a bill i have never had. Rang several times going mad and been assured my name was taken off acc yet here we are again. Yous disgust me in every way and i have full intentions on making a case with energy ombudsman or taking yous to court. Vile vile company

Impossible to contact & completely useless in very way.

Firstly I have given up after two years of getting a smart meter.

Secondly if you use SSE you will end up wasting an enormous amount of time trying to deal with inaccurate bills despite emailing readings through and completely unable to make contact with them.

The worst utility company.

SSE left my daughter a university student with over £200 in debit during their transition to OVO energy. She has a 1 bed small bedsit and pays £67 direct debit every month her first monthly bill was only £26.00 and that was a winter bill,all other readings are estimated as the smart meter had not been communicating since the day we moved in and we were due to have 2 engineers come out to fix the problem, both appointments were cancelled and and then we had the transition of companies. I have been communicating with SSE all along and was told not to worry. Her bill is now over £500 as it stands with OVO who I have raised a dispute with,despite the direct debits. My daughter has eventually now been fitted with a new meter by OVO and the meter set to 0 as there clearly had been a problem with it, from what the engineer told me, but SSE are refusing to look into the estimated billing following transition I’m being told there is nothing that can be done. I’m totally baffled by it all and one unhappy customer why am I being passed from pillar to post leaving me totally stressed and exhausted with it all and still left to pay to a bill that no one wants to investigate of msg not even be energy we have used.

Terrible service, overcharged me and then switched my account to some new company without me knowing and now I can't get my money back.

Useless.
Highly recommend not using them.

I wish to make a formal complaint about your service and how I have been treated. This is far the worse company I have ever dealt with. I have lost count of hours wasted on phone , live chat and getting no where. From Live chat being cut off to call operators giving false information and transferring me no reason. I have requested mangers to contact me, but let’s be honest because I’m a pay as you go customer. You don’t really give a Dam!!! Your company is trying to bully me into paying a debt I do not owe. I have agreed to pay because you have threatened me with a debt collector. Even though I have agreed to pay, you have still pasted the debt on…. I will charging you £50 a time your debt agency contacts me about this so called debt. I wonder is this the reason you have been sold ?

By far the worst company I’ve ever dealt with. I have a 4 year old child in my property and because she finished shift at 8pm hung up with out sorting my gas issue first. If you’re thinking of joining this company I highly recommend you don’t! Regardless to how cheap they are, any issues you are helpless

Today a very helpful man arranged to have a smart meter installed at our home next Thursday,
Thank you

We have had our electricity with SSE for just over a year with no problems until recently. Our contract ran out which they failed to inform us of and switched us over to an extremely expensive rate. In 35 days they have sent us a bill for 4300, that works out at 122 a day!!! We only work there 3 days a week. I have spent hours on hold only to be cut off when I get through to customer services and I get passed around different departments with no resolution to this matter. An official complaint has been made, we have been advised by citizens advice to take this to the Ombudsman which we intend on doing so if we have to. This is day light robbery and should not be allowed. SSE will put small businesses out of business if you sign up with them. Please find an alternative provider.