Threatened with debt collectors over £1,700 electricity bill error

Our energy supplier for more than 50 years, SSE, is threatening to send in debt collectors for £1,700 we do not owe.

We have an old-style dial meter, which has to be read in a certain way. In November last year I was asked by SSE to send in a photo of the meter, which I did. Someone at the firm has misread it, and the result is this bill. I have repeatedly tried to explain and have sent further meter photos that show the error, but I am getting nowhere.

Staff keep promising to investigate and be in touch in five to 10 days, but they don’t. Instead, we get further demands and legal threats. We are in our 70s and are now having sleepless nights.

JB, Wootton Bassett

These old-style meters are difficult to read for novices, but that is no excuse for the staff at Ovo, which took over SSE’s customer base in 2019. It’s pretty shameful to threaten customers in this way, especially after being repeatedly told that a mistake has been made.

Happily, a call to Ovo’s head office has resulted in the company finding someone who knows what they are doing. It accepts the error, has produced a correct bill, and written off the £200 you did owe. It has also offered a generous goodwill gesture to apologise for the sleepless nights.

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