First Utility - Any users or reviews

Cardew

hippey wrote: »

Well, I received a Final Notice which has threatened all sorts of stuff, including disconnection baliffs, nasty peole coming to the house etc etc....

May I add that this 'arrear' is the £25 gesture of goodwill they sent me by cheque!

My bills are all upto date and there is no other reason for this, however like everyone else on here I have been promised that this would be sorted out but nothing every happens! I'm not sure where to go next however if they start this action I think it may well cost them!

The trouble is that when things go this far awry, you can end up with black marks against your credit record without you even knowing it had happened.

There have been several links recently to the court case where NPower were ordered to pay £3,000 damages to a customer whom they had incorrectly harassed. Perhaps a few actions like that might get FU to sort out their act.

ollski

woohoo I got my bills the other day. I signed up in Feb got my first electric bill for 450 last month, gas 300 last week and electric again for 250 next week gotta love these highly accurate smart meters! Apparantly they didn't get a final reading off my old gas meter and still don't have a reading on my new one so the email says they have had to guess.

hippey

I really give up with this firm!

MASTERSHOT

ollski wrote: »

woohoo I got my bills the other day. I signed up in Feb got my first electric bill for 450 last month, gas 300 last week and electric again for 250 next week gotta love these highly accurate smart meters! Apparantly they didn't get a final reading off my old gas meter and still don't have a reading on my new one so the email says they have had to guess.

1. When any meter is changed allways make sure you take the the final meter reading and readings of the new meter.
2. When changing a meter the meter fixer must leave a receipt with the old and new readings + meter numbers.
Yes I spent 30 years in metering !

MONEYPENNY

I got nowhere with my bank in trying to recover monies paid to F.U, and so to cut a long story short, action plan B
I called up F.U and spoke to ---- and said I want to give you notice I am leaving, and going back to my old company, Southern Electric . She said you cannot do that , your account is in dispute, I said oh yes I can and warned her that this conversation was being recorded. She then went off to speak to her manager and when she came back she said it was OK to do so, and to contact S.E to get things started, which I did straight away.
When I spoke to S.E they asked for my current readings for "L" and gas which they then send off to F.U to give notice of my intentions to switch, and they said they would call me in 27 days for a final read from which my billing starts with them.
I was also warned by S.E not to give any further readings to F.U.
So all I have to deal with now is the wrangling I will have to go through at some stage, when my bill from F.U arrives. I know from my dealings with this shower it will be wrong in some respect.

I think they must of seen these posts, or had at least been made aware of them, as they seemed to let me go too easily.
Do you think they would want to get rid of me for posting my criticisms online ?.

ollski

Has anyone got out of their smart meter contract within 12 months?, I think mine was installed in Feb this year although it does say I get my accrued bonus / refund in November which is paid after 12 months. Just had a quick search on uswitch and a scottish power tariff is showing 25% cheaper than f.u so I think its time for a change.

Terrylw1

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I totally agree with you but sadly the so called energy regulator - Ofgem - is every bit as useless as First Utility so hence why they continue to get away with it.

For instance why does Ofgem still think it is totally acceptable to take up to 8 weeks to change energy supplier when all that is involved is a change of meter reading supply from one company to another. Porting a mobile phone number (which involves real physical change on the network) can be done in only a couple of days.

And of course useless Ofgem has allowed all these horrible unethical contracts with penalties leaving early to also be brought in to place.:eek::mad:

It's a bit more compliated since their are communications between old agents to old Suppliers, new Supplier to new agents and vice versa. Then there is all the 5 day objection stuff to add in.

It could work quicker, but only in 2 ways:

1 - everyone is on top of their backlogged areas. This is one of the biggest problems for anything in these companies.

2 - since the last 12 months of reading history has to be passed from one meter reading agent to another, if everyone's read history was good, it would be less likely to go wrong and end up on someones desk with an error to resolve, hence pushing it further back.

Ofgem know this (unless they are even more stupid than I think!) but will they ever take any action to improve this industry? No. Also, we have Elexon who have the power to monitor and resolve this. They are just as bad. Their auditing of the industry is shockingly bad.

For me, these companies are in the wild west. There is no one willing to go into these places and see how much goes wrong that ends up in your bill (not just because generation costs go up)

timthumb

left fu in june still getting emails saying my bill is being prepared now bill overdue ....

i cant wait to be rid of them

tim

MONEYPENNY

I think I have had a bit of a result in my dispute with F.U as today I have received a link to a new set of "terms and conditions" which are slightly less punitive on the consumer, ie: me.
I complained bitterly to the ombudsman and was threatening to write to Ofgem about the retrospective charging they imposed, by telling there customers that they had increased prices as of 1/7/2010, some 28 days after the event, and imposing strict terms for avoiding such charges .
I will not go into these revised terms as there is too much to go into, but believe me it is far more acceptable now .
I would still avoid this company like the plague, so anyone reading this, beware of this company and do not go near or touch with the proverbial barge pole .

gatita

Moneypenny, I think it was a general email to all users as I also received one this morning.
Good news for me (I HOPE, lol) as my year is up with them this month so I SHOULD get my bonus plus the £20 for online billing, I telephoned them just to make sure I will get it..........watch this space, ......I am keeping my fingers crossed, after I get it is bye bye from me.

My next dilemma will be going through the minefield of choosing a new provider, I defy anyone to understand the seemingly endless different tariffs, its time Energy Watch did something about this and made the companies to some basic guidelines that can be deciphered by the general public. I suppose THAT is asking tooooooo much?
If anyone can help me select a new company that would be great.