SSE contact number

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Scottish & Southern Electric (SSE) is one of the UK’s main suppliers of electricity and gas of a large percentage of homes and businesses throughout the country. As such, they will often be on the frontline when issues arise with regards to power cuts or problems with the gas.
Yet how effective is the SSE customer services? If you call the SSE contact number, how long will you be listening to reruns of Green Sleeves, if at all? Well according to independent report Watchdog ‘Which?’ SSE customer services has an overall rating of 56% (the percentage of customers who have complained and are happy at the speed, etc. which their complaints were resolved).

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Yet it should be noted that whilst SSE customers services performances are generally improving over the years, according to Which? Article (1) SSE customer services seem to be answering the phone far more quickly to new customers than to existing customers. So if you have been with Scottish & Southern Electric for a while and need to make a complaint, than expect to be on the phone for a while!
Unfortunately for SSE customer services, despite the general improvement in their responsiveness, they are still the worst of the big six energy suppliers with regards to their satisfying customers who have called in with a complaint!
So What Are The Common Complaints Received By SSE Customer Services?
So what are the complaints received by the SSE customer services? Well according to SSE, they take a complaint as anyone who expresses displeasure about any of their products and services.

Yet according to Gillian Guy from Citizens Advice, (2) one of the most common forms of complaints received down the line of the SSE phone number is with regards to the new billing system which Scottish & Southern Electric put into play. According to Guy, this new energy billing system is causing customers to either receive their bills later than expected, only to find they are often incorrect.
Even through SSE rival Npower has also employed a new billing system which has also had its fair share of issues, though their complaints department seems to leave their customers happier overall than SSE are. Apparently the complaints coming into SSE got so high that in March 2015, Ofgem officially banned SSE from selling its energy for 12 days due to the fact that its customer’s complaints were so high.
Yet beyond the billing system issue, other general complaints with regards to SSE are to do with power cuts, gas leaks, etc. In fact as SSE state on their website, they take a complaint as anything which a customer of theirs is not happy with.
Yet when you actually phone in to launch a complaint, how does one go about doing this?

SSE Customer Services Complaints Procedure

So what is the actual procedure of making a complaint to Scottish & Southern? Well on SSE’s website (3) if you are not at all happy with any of their products or services, they recommend that the first thing which you do is actually call their helpline and speak to one of their representatives. The SSE contact number which they recommend you use to contact them to express your complaints is 0345 071 9710.
The SSE phone number is open Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm, Saturday 8am – 2pm. On calling, SSE say on their site that a human advisor will be with you within a very short period of time to try and assist you with your complaint. In fact Scottish & Southern even state that if the advisor cannot help you, than your issue will be escalated up the chain of command to a manager.
Even if your complaint does need to go up the chain of command, according to SSE they plan to have your issue resolved by 8pm the same day which you called them.

Yet what happens if you are not happy with the solution to your complaint? Well according to Scottish & Southern it is recommended that you get in touch with the Head of Customer Services Team. This is done through writing to the head of the customer services department, which SSE say will respond to you by letter or phone within the next 5 days.
Once you have spoken to the head of the SSE customer services team, if you are still not satisfied with the responses/help that you have received, than SSE recommend you contacting Ombudsman Energy who will provide free, independent advice on the complaint. They will look at your complaint as well as the respective responses from SSE customer services and determine whether you (the customer) are entitled to compensation of some sort.

Though this is the advice which SSE have on their website (which they are legally obligated to provide). Yet hopefully you will have your complaint resolved satisfactorily before it ever reached the level of bringing in the Energy Ombudsman. Yet if ever you do have a complaint with regards to Scottish & Southern, this is the recommended route you go.

(1) http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/energy-companies/article/energy-company-reviews/sse
(2) https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-citizens-advice-works/media/press-releases/scottish-power-most-complained-about-energy-company/
(3) https://www.sse.co.uk/about-us/sse-and-you/making-a-complaint#item1

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