SSE customers complain about smart meters showing ‘frightening’ energy bills of up to £42,000
THOUSANDS of SSE customers have complained of waking up this morning to "frightening" energy bills of up to £42,000.
Households noticed that thousands of pounds had been added to their smart meters despite not increasing their energy consumption.
The energy giant has apologised for the fault, which it says it affecting some Smart Energy Trackers and In Home displays.
Confused bill payers have even accused the SSE of making a "bad taste" April Fool's gag.
Labour councillor Dr Theresa Eynon said: "My son’s smart meter says he owes £42k in energy bills today. It seems he is not alone.
"If this is an April Fool hack please sack the perpetrator immediately. Frightening people is not funny."
Later, she added: ";I am furious. There will be vulnerable people terrified by this. If any one of them come to harm I will hold SSE corporately responsible."
Another customer said that if it was an April Fools day joke, then the provider had "taken it too far".
One person posted a photo of their smart meter to the social media site which clocked he'd used £42,081.03 worth of energy by 10am.
"Please tell me this is an April Fools joke?" they said.
How to complain about your energy supplier
SIMILAR to financial services firms, energy companies also have to have complaints procedures for customers to follow.
When you make a complaint, make sure you follow this so they have the information they need to resolve the issue.
Simply explain what the problem is and what you want your supplier to do about it.
The company in question then has eight weeks to come to a decision.
If it doesn't or you're not happy with the response, you can take the firm to the Energy Ombudsman.
How to take your energy supplier to the Energy Ombudsman
The Energy Ombudsman may be able to help if you have a complaint about an energy or communications provider.
Before you can submit your complaint to it, you must have logged a formal complaint with your provider and worked with the firm to resolve it.
You must also have received a so-called deadlock letter, where the provider refers your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.
You can also complain if you haven't had a satisfactory solution to your problem within eight weeks.
The Energy Ombudsman then bases its decision on the evidence you and the company submit.
If you choose to accept its decision, your supplier then has 28 days to comply.
If it refuses to, it can be enforced in court.
SSE is among the energy suppliers that has hiked bills for households on standard variable tariffs in line with Ofgem's price cap from today.
It led one customer to ask the company whether the huge £42,261.94 bill displayed on his smart meter was a result of the price hike.
"Can you confirm if my #sse #smartmetre is playing an hilarious #AprilFoolsDay joke on me; or if this IS actually a result of your #pricerise that starts today?" they wrote.
SSE was sold to Ovo energy in 2019, with all 3.5million customers transferred to the new supplier by the start of 2020.
SSE Energy Services spokesperson told The Sun: "We’re aware of a fault on some of our and In Home Displays that’s causing them to show incorrect costs.
"This impacts the display only, not the actual meter readings.
“We’re working hard to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Customers do not need to do anything at this time and we apologise for any concern.”
Around 15million households will see their energy bills rise by up to £96 from today - but you might be able to save as much as £280 by switching.
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