first:utility

Upwind

Having been an npower customer sufferer for some years now, I am currently in the process of looking for a new provider. I have two companies in mind, one of which is first:utility. They showed up favourably when I did price comparisons and also (as part of deal when signing up) will fit a smart meter. This technology appears to be the way ahead and after enduring the 'quarterly' shambles with npower, it would be nice to have a rough idea of what my bills should be before the npower ‘lottery’ machine prints them!

As this company seems relatively new, does anyone have any good/bad opinions or experiences that they would care to share?

Premier_2

Lots of opinions in this existing thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1138441

and a few more here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1310857

Upwind

Premier

Thanks for the links. It does appear that these threads are filled with either regular 'posters' with an agenda, or those who have some vested interest. Although not exclusive to the utilities boards, this type of poster does dilute the worth of the forum - afterall, how do you know you are not just listening to a sales pitch...............

It would appear that FU are yet to be the finished article, but maybe worth consideration in the future. After consideration, I'll probably go for my other option for now and look again at a later date.

hippey

There are agenda's on this board but then that happens anywhere.

I'm with First Utility, in brief the system is good, the billing is upto date and you know where you are every month, and as you can easily keep tabs on your usage then there will be no unexpected shocks.

BUT

I have had problems with their billing every month, from starting on the wrong tariff, then when moved to the right tariff it was charged at the wrong prices for the wrong time of day and the units were not calculated correctly, then waiting for all this to be sorted out...THEN when being offered compensation having to chase that! They do have some customer service issues. I'm still waiting almost 6 months later for this to be sorted out. BOOOOOOOOO

And the T & C's do seem to change very regularly, more so in relation to the meter costs and termination costs, so if you do sign up read very carefully, but I would recommend them, albeit they customer experience is shocking!

I only have electric with them, I'm on an IGT for gas so wanted to wait until the electric side was working right, as the IGT seems to add further complications regarding changes of meters (so I'm told)