Don't know where to start with these people! I am in debt with them so I agreed back in July to pay £140 per month, approx £99 is usuage and the rest is to recover what's owed, fair enough. Except today I check my account and they have debited £208!!!! The e-mail I got when we agreed the £140 per month did not at any point say it would increase to this! . I am so angry I don't know what to do but I know that I cannot affrod to be out of pocket by an extra £68 just before xmas Can I get this payment reversed somehow?? please help!! this is the e-mail I got from them in July, showing what was agreed. Thank you for your recent email regarding your electricity account. I am sorry to hear of the current circumstances regarding your father and that you have not been able to make payments recently. I have arranged a new Direct Debit plan on the account for you for payments of £140.00 a month. This will commence from 17 August 2014. You will receive a confirmation letter shortly. Please be aware that this will be the last payment plan of this type that will be arranged on the account. If the plan closes for any reason, then an alternative payment method would need to be arranged e.g prepayment meter. Please ignore any reminder notices that are dated before today, as these are no longer valid. Along with setting up a payment arrangement you may be able to save money by opting for an alternative tariff. We are also keen to help you reduce your energy costs by providing you with information and tips on how to reduce your energy consumption and therefore your energy costs. For more information please find the enclosed information sheet. We are aware that all of our customers needs are different and so in order for us to provide you with a more tailored service we would like to ask that you take the time to provide us with the following information: •Your date of birth •How many people live at the property? •Number of Children and other dependants & ages? •Details of any Disability or Vulnerability •Name & contact details of care/social worker or third party

I have been with SSE for years. I have paid through DD never missed payments and have debt of over £900 because they were under charging our family for years... They set the payment plan up and now for years my DDs go up and up. Is there a way of getting this over turned/ reduced etc... I only found out when I attempted to change supplier a nd BOOM I would have to pay a huge debt!! So I feel like I am [problem]med into staying with them. Another thing to note when we brought our new home roughly 3 years ago they charged me double payments for 6 months!! (Before we did online banking) Please help and thanks in advance.

I am moving into a housing association property in July I have been a tenant for over 20 years just exchanging to a different area with my new partner. It appears the new place has prepayment meters and I don't want them Its expensive and I have always paid by direct debit for years.I am with Southern electric and I will be again when I move, as it them have put the prepaid meters in at the request of the tenant there now. Will Southern Electric take them out and put in credit meters allowing me to pay via the bank? Free... I don't see why I should pay as I am a customer of theirs. Any advise is welcome .

I moved house in October 2013. I provided the correct meter reading in line with Southern Electric's instructions. I was then issued a refund on 26 November. Last week I was sent an online 'amended' bill asking for this money back. I spoke to Southern Electric who informed me that on 6 November they realised that they had mistakenly made the last bill up with an estimated reading and not the actual reading that I had provided them with when I moved and therefore the refund was incorrectly issued and I would now have to pay it back. They said they left a message on my phone. I asked if I could listen to it. They said they couldn't find it. Why did they not email or write to me to tell me about this on 6th November and if they knew about it on 6th November why did they issue a refund on 26 November?. This was apparently an oversight, but surely their accounting systems would not let them issue a refund if there was, as the lady told me, a mistake on the account (logged on 6th November). They are now asking for the money back. They are offering me £60.00 compensation. I really am not in a financial position to pay this money back at the present time. What should I do as this will cause me hardship as it was a large amount of money they refunded. My combined gas and electric monthly bills amounted to in the region of £220 a month which was paid by direct debit. I always thought it was very expensive compared to everyone else who I asked at the time so when I got a big refund of £500 for my electric I was not particularly surprised as I thought I had been overcharged.

Hi, I had some outstanding arrears on my gas bill with Southern, which was around £80 for the previous quarter and then a second quarter bill of around the same amount just came in. I got some reminders to pay, but they were the usual ones mentioning disconnection, which I have had in the past and of course have paid my bill up to date just after This last time I got a visit without warning where a letter was put in my door, and nobody knocked. I was here all day, and have a dog which would have barked if anyone had actually knocked. Clearly no one did. I have now been charged a sum of £49.87 onto my gas bill for having a piece of paper stuffed through my letterbox. I am wondering is this charge, fair, legal and enforceable? I am now pretty much all electric anyway at this point. I have always paid my electric straight away and had done on this occasion, so they knew I was paying. I use duel fuel with them, through Ebico/ Equigas which was a non profit organization for fuel supply. they are supposed to be supportive of people on low incomes. I've been with these suppliers in this manner for over seven years, and have always paid a little late, but always paid, no major arrears. When this second gas bill came in I was about to pay it when this person supposedly turned up, but clearly didn't bother. So do I have any options over this? Any way to challenge it? £49.87 seems pretty outrageous, and I noticed an older thread on here where the same utility company only charged around £25, so it seems to have shot up and I'm wondering does it have to be fair and is there any legal basis to this? I'm up for a fight over it. As I say I may pay late but I always pay and debts with them never are big. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. D. PS I should say, I paid the full arrears on seeing the 'visit' letter, and have just paid my new gas bill excluding this charge. Gas bills will likely be virtually nil for me from now on.

Hi all, I purchased a property that required renovation in January 2011 but progress has been slow due to changes in circumstances. In the last two months I have received letters from Southern Electric and notes from bailiffs relating to a gas bill. In the ‘early days’ I received gas bills addressed to the previous owner/occupier but the status changed to ‘The Occupier’ in the last six months. The property has been unoccupied since I purchased it and the gas was already switched off (by lever) when I bought it. The removal of the boiler and gas fire was one of the first tasks completed. I took gas and electric meter readings as soon as I purchased the property, but the gas figure has not changed. The bill I received three weeks ago was for £519 and I received another letter today asking for £720 (the more recent letter did not look official and did not feature the Southern Electric logo). My brother had been working on the property just over a month ago and received a knock at the door from a bailiff. He refused entry but told the bailiff that the property was bought and has not been occupied since. The bailiff seemed to be fine with that as he had spoken to neighbours who confirmed this on previous visits. I phoned Southern Electric on Saturday but did not disclose my name as I am concerned that they will transfer the debt to me. I provided them with the meter reading and explained all of the above. I asked for clarification on who the debt is with and for what period of time this is for, but they refused to give this information. I would like to resolve the issue, but I am reluctant to give information that will transfer the debt to my name. I would be grateful for any advice that you can provide? Thanks

Hi, I've just had a prepayment Electricity and Gas meter installed. The Gas is with Scottish Power and is working fine! The Electricity is with Southern Electric and is causing me big headaches! Meter only installed on Wednesday and since then i have put £30 in, at as 4pm today I am about to go into the emergency credit again! I live in a 3 bed semi detached with me, hubbie and two children. Last night from 11pm to 7am this morning i used £4 electricity? Think the ghost must have had the TV on!!! Today I have had TV on for maybe 2 hours, sky box 2 hours and washer for 2hr 40mins. I have everything else switched off at the plug, since 8am this morning I have used £5.07 pence for my usage. Does anyone know if this sound right? Talking to my friend she has a 5 bed detached and she is home all day for 2 days doing nails so she has lights on, drills on, hand dryers on and she uses a maximum of £20 per week and she has her tumble dyer on. I have spoken to Southern Electric who said that this is correct with my usage...I worked that one out for myself, my issue is would a TV and washer cause all that usage and how on earth have i used 26 units during the night? Since the meter was installed on Wednesday i have used 140 units of electricity. Can anyone help!!!! Thanks Nic x

Hello, I was the responsible for the utility bills at my old place, where I shared with a few more people. I left the place a few months ago, and called southern electric and asked them for bills. So they sent me the bills, the bills said that they were actual (although I didn't tell them any readings), everything was paid, I appointed another guy as the responsible and I left. Two weeks after I left, the guys at the old place receive a bill of about £200, which was completely ridiculous (It was for about 2 weeks, and the guys definitely didn't consume that much in that period). The appointed guy started complaining at them, and now, 3 months after I've moved out, I receive a bill of £400 for usage in the 7 months that I was responsible, and that I have to pay that ASAP. I talked to them and they told me that they took readings immediately after I left (that's a lie) and they wouldn't admit directly that they were charging me based on very late readings, which I don't know when they're taken and if they're valid anyway. I don't know when they actually took readings, they wouldn't give me that information. And it might again be a lie. Can I just not pay them? What rights do they have to charge me after I've officially left the flat? I think I had registered with them a long long time ago and had set up a direct-debit payment back then, so I'm afraid they'd charge that. Thanks, B

Hi, Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I moved in to a rented property, which has got two pay as you go meters (gas and elec). These were installed by Southern Electric because the previous tenant got in to substantial arrears. However, I am stuck with the meters or limited to a few suppliers that use meters, consequently any sort of choice regarding who supplies my elec and/or gas is severely limited....[edit] If I want to be able to have a 'choice', I HAVE TO PAY to have the meters removed. ME !!!! Not the previous tenant who run up the debt in the first place..... the landlord isn't expected to pay for the removal either. From the website of Southern Electric Our credit meters give you more choice with the different tariffs that are available. And you can get our biggest discount when you pay your bills my monthly Direct Debit and choose paperless billing If you’d like us to remove your pay as you go meter, we’ll charge you £52 for the work involved. No BIG DISCOUNT for people in my position though, through no fault of their own, only a cost of £104 (2 meters) to have them taken out Any ideas anyone ?