William

A Statement from DOTS I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, struggling to find the words to express just how deflated I’m feeling right now. This situation doesn’t stem from anything the charity has done wrong, but rather from ongoing issues with our energy supplier, @SSE , and their handling of our account. Last year, we raised concerns when SSE suddenly attempted to take an unauthorised direct debit of £5000—far more than we had been paying monthly over the last two years. (£500) Despite countless emails and phone calls to resolve the issue, no one responded to us. Instead,@SSE tried to take the amount again, forcing us to cancel the direct debit to prevent unauthorised withdrawals. To make matters worse, SSE had been charging us 20% VAT on our bills instead of the 5% charity rate we’re entitled to. Even with the involvement of a support service to help resolve the complaint, (Extra help Unit) it took SSE 10 months to address the VAT issue and credit our account. During this time, they refused to accept payments from us, stating they were handling the back billing and credits. As a result, an enormous debt of £51,000.00 has built up. We’ve repeatedly expressed concerns about this mounting debt, and offered to make ongoing payments while the situation was being resolved. However, SSE did not notify us or allow us to adjust our payments over the years. This lack of communication and mismanagement has put us in a devastating position. We are now being asked to pay £4,312.84. a month here on. Despite questioning how we could possibly be using just under £8,000 worth of electricity a quarter—given that the sanctuary primarily runs on oil and uses minimal electricity—our concerns remain unanswered. We have now booked in to have a smart meter installed. We we are looking at setting up an independent fundraiser to help us with this and feel awful in doing so, but SSE has threatened us with disconnection, leaving us with no other option. This isn’t about paying the full bill immediately, but about reducing it enough to make our monthly direct debit manageable and ensure we can keep going. This is not our fault. It’s the result of SSE’s mismanagement and lack of communication, yet we are the ones facing the consequences. The thought that this could collapse DOTS and force us to close our sanctuary is heartbreaking. If you are able to help, even in the smallest way, it would mean everything to us and the dogs we care for. Before we go ahead and set it up, we wanted to see how our supporters felt about a fundraiser and would anyone even £1 would be happy to donate towards this. We are just awaiting what is known as the deadlock letter from SSE before we forward this onto the Energy Ombudsman. Even if @itvMLshow could give us any advice. Thank you for standing by us during this incredibly difficult time. I just literally spent an hour on the phone crying my eyes out with the fear that the error of others could collapse us.