SSE Airtricity

Hurling Fan

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Our heating system is boosted by electricity so we use a lot of electricity in the Winter and less in the Summer as we have solar panels. We spend about €2200 pa so need to be paying about €190 pm to cover this and avoid nasty high bills in the Winter as spreading our bills over 12 months works the best for us, budget wise. I signed up with SSE Airtricity in April 2020 on Budget Plan. They decided a monthly amount of €164 would be due. I contacted them by email and asked them to raise the amount to €190. They said it was not possible. Four months on they have recalculated the amount we should pay and because of our low summer usage they have reduced our monthly bills to €128 for the next 4 months. I have had several emails over and back telling them that the bills need to be higher, but have had no luck at all with them.

Can't believe they can't or won't change the monthly amount. I want to pay my bills equally over 12 months and I feel that is what I signed up for.

Very frustrated with them at this stage. Has anyone had this problem before or do you think it would be worth my while going to the Energy Ombudsman ... is this something he/she gets involved in?

Thanks for reading.
 
It's really level pay for 4 months,not yearly as you would expect.Wait till they recalculate for winter!
 
There are other threads on here on the challenges of level pay, in particular trying to get refunds when switching supplier. Would it be simpler just switch back to a normal usage billing and over-pay during the summer months? I presume most suppliers would just leave an over payment as credit on your account?
 
My experience of dealing with the SSE call centre was truly awful - almost as bad as Eir. Social welfare require, if you are claiming subsidy for an older person resident in your house, that their name goes on the bill. Trying to change the bill to add their name involves for some reason SSE setting up a new account and then refusing to do the annualised bill arrangements and they also will not do it if the older person has lost capacity through Alzheimer's or other dementia. They then blame the CRU (regulator) for the rules, while the CRU blames them for terrible procedures. If anyone gets caught in this trap, contact social welfare back again, they have another way to get you the money...
 
Check out the cost per unit you are being charged. Sometimes these so called "budget" plans are on standard rate when you can get 20%-30% discount.

As for paying, just switch to another provider.
 
When I switched to BGE I decided to go for 'level pay', slightly against my better judgement as I closely monitor the bills and don't mind the natural rise and fall through the year. I found that their regular readjusting of the amount owed kind of negated the point of having it in the first place. Not only that but I am suspicious: if they readjust so that you owe them a decent amount when it comes to switching time, it can't but put people off switching. To make a long story short, I'm now back to fluctuating bills. I can see why these companies push their 'budget' plans; it's not in your interest but theirs!

"When the rabbit squeals, the fox comes a runnin'. But not to help." :)
 
Yes They are a nightmare to deal with. I am with them 12 months now. I was on a 23% reduced tariff for 12 months on budget plan.On this offer ending they emailed me advising that I had under payed by €430 and had to pay immediately as a new 12 month period was about to begin.... the kicker is the €430 has not had the 23% discount taken from it.
I've phoned and emailed them. They promise a call back. They do phone back but on answering they just hang up.
Managed to speak to one guy eventually from customer service, but apparently this is a matter for the credit department !! They're to call me.
I asked about a new 12 montly tarrif and this is yet again another department..... They're to call me back.
I've moved to energia they've a good rating on trust pilot as for sseairtricty I'll put it down as a bad experience .
 
Robe ... that was exactly what I was trying to avoid!! I'd hate to get a bill like that!

Before contacting the Energy Ombudsman to get their view on it, I rang SSE Airtricity one last time. The lady who I spoke to was very sympathetic but couldn't do anything as she kept saying that the computer calculates the amount based on the last 4 months and it could not be changed. Anyway about a week later she rang me back to say she brought my case up at a meeting and it was agreed that my monthly amount of €128 would be revised to €200 .... so the amount can be changed!! (Which I knew had to be the case anyway). Wouldn't use SSE Airtricity again and in future will probably do what Leo suggests and just get the regular bill and overpay during the summer months.
 
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