In mid September I got a complaint from Serge Notay who runs Notay’s Convenience Store in Batley, West Yorkshire. He said he had been a Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) customer for a long time. His rates did go up a bit earlier this year but he was quite happy with a quarterly bill of between £3-4K.
But on 31 Aug he got debited by £4,825.02. He rang up to complain and was told that SSE had recently changed systems. They also admitted to having mail issues. They took a meter reading off him and promised to credit it back. Never happened. When he complained again they said they ‘could see the credit note was in the queue’. When I spoke to Serge they were due to take another £3-4K which would have given him severe cash flow problems so he cancelled the direct debit.
I contacted the company and they sent the following response to be attributed to a spokesman for SSE Energy Solutions.
“After looking further into this issue, we have discovered that the customer was billed the correct amount initially and that no credit refund was due. We have apologised to the customer for this initial miscommunication and will be offering a goodwill payment as recognition for the uncertainty and frustration this has caused him.”
I found this response to be somewhat confusing and so did Serge. I rang him up to find out how much compensation he had received. £30. And he added: “I’ve received the bill. It says that we used that much. I’m not sure. We will find out when the next bill comes I guess.”
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