That wasn’t a smart move, SSE

A.A. writes: We have received a letter from SSE Scottish Hydro, part of the Ovo group, saying: ‘Thanks for booking your smart meter installation.’ It gives a date and time when we have to be home for this, but we have consistently refused to have a smart meter. We know utility companies have a Government target to meet, but making fictitious appointments is surely pushing the legal limits.

THERE cannot be many households that have not come under pressure to have a smart meter fitted, though thanking you for agreeing to an appointment when you said no is a strange way of convincing customers. What is worse, though, was the letter you received from SSE, threatening charges if you were not at home when the fitter called.

I asked SSE for a copy of any letter or recorded conversation in which you agreed to have a smart meter. It told you that you agreed by completing an online form, and it told me that there had been a phone call which their agent had ‘misunderstood’.

But neither of us was offered copies of the form or recorded call. And SSE denied you were threatened with any penalty if you missed the non- existent appointment. A shame, then, that I have in front of me SSE’s letter which tells you that ‘there may be a charge if no one is at home when our engineer arrives’.

SSE now says the threat was an empty one and it would not really have charged you. It also told me: ‘We have called Mr A to reassure him his smart meter booking is cancelled’. And SSE has credited your account with £30 for the inconvenience caused.