Very Bad Experience. (Southern Electric)

Member Name: Kjn123

Product:	Southern Electric
Date:	20/10/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lonely people may appreciate the volume of calls.

Disadvantages: You need to obtain secret phone numbers to get decent service.

If you want inconsistent customer service, to be told what you must be doing with your life, non stop hassle and a ridiculous volume of contradicting bills then Southern Electric are the company for you.

I lived in a small 3 bedroom ground floor flat (2 bedroom with a living room converted to a bedroom) during my final year at university. Students being students we didn't set up a direct debit and the fact that a bill hadn't turned up for a while didn't really concern us - we'd pay it when it came. Then it did - 6 months supply costing £1700. Our collective jaws hit the ground and straight away I was on the phone complaining profusely - 'Oh we're sorry it's only estimated, give us a meter reading'. So I did, the bill then came to £1800. 'Well you must all have plug in heaters, tvs, computers, have the central heating turned on all the time, cookers on all the time'. Yeh, that's probably it or it could be the case that I'd experienced the coldest winter of my life for living in fear of a large bill.

So I escalated my complaint and was told to provide 7 days worth of readings. Which I did and they reduced the bill by a £100 and told me that was that. My housemate then phoned up to complain and was told 'Your other housemate (myself) told us he completely accepted the bill and as a result it's final'. This all in spite of the fact that the bill could in no way be accurate, our usage was minute as exemplified by the meter readings I provided. Alas several more phone calls were all met with 'Yeah it does seem very high, but it must be correct'. I know what you're thinking, what a load of rubbish.

A Southern electric engineer came round a bit later to check the upstair's flat for some sort of issue and we spoke to him about the predicament and he said 'Try this phone number but don't tell anyone I gave it to you'.
Great - secret phone numbers where you somehow get through to more reasonable customer service representatives. So we gave it a go and were told they would get back to us - which in fairness they did and also knocked off £800. So that's my tale of woe and perserverance.

If constant conversations with your utility company is what you're after then plump for Southern. Otherwise steer well clear.

Summary: Steer clear if possible.