Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

MillicentBystander

Yes, anyone brave enough on here to recommend Primus as an alternative? :eek::D

PS I've only just discovered you can get 5% ebay cash back through being a Utility Warehouse customer with their findmethecheapest search engine (and you don't need to pay with the UW card). I've missed out on a lot of cash back over the last year by not reading my bills properly. I'm surprised the company haven't made more noise about this, especially as eBay are no longer available to cash back sites.

ew2712

(Re-posted from Gas/Elec Board)

I am having a nightmare dealing with the Utility Warehouse at the moment, without wanting to sound overly dramatic, and would probably feel slightly better by ranting about it on here if thats OK.

I own a property 200 miles from where I live.

On 27th Feb this year my tenant moved out and was checked out by my then Letting Agent. The following day I asked a family member to go into the address and check it over and take photos of the meter readings which they emailed over to me.
They said there was a "Dear Occupier" letter from UW there which demanded nearly £1,000 based on a massively overestimated bill. I called them that day and gave them an Actual reading (they knew I was the landlord/owner). I told them the property would be empty for a while whilst I tried to sell it, and they said they would address their estimation system. They accepted this reading as actual and said they would recalculate their bill next month (why they can't do it instantly I'm not sure) and that everything would be sorted next month.

Well, it wasn't, and they have since been calculating bills on estimated amounts. In June (after receiving another huge bill for £100s of pounds for energy I had not used) I spoke with one of the Customer Reps and we went through what the actual usage of energy was from the least tenant moving out to another done moving in (Total Electricity was 46 units and Gas was 1 Unit). I did not receive a bill in July (believe me I was looking out for it), they obviously say they have sent it but I never received it. I received nothing else right up to today when I received a 7 day demanding Debt Letter from a company called Utility Debt Collection, with threats of legal action, court etc etc.

I called them, and to say I was livid was not an understatement. They stated today (and neglected to tell me on all the other occasions I spoke with them) that they received a written meter reading from the Letting Agents following the tenants move out (which I was not aware of), which they received after I had already given them an actual reading. The Letting Agency had read the meter incorrectly and stated a check out figure below what the reading actually was. According to them, this letter apparently overruled my actual meter reading and they also disregarded my offer to send them the physical photograph of the meter taken the day after.

They are insisting I owe them this money and will not remove the debt saying its a 3rd party issue.

I have contacted the previous Letting Agent who messed up in the 1st place and asked them to send a corrective letter (and attached my meter photograph to prove they had misread the meter), which they agreed to do.

The tones of their letters and demands are outrageous and there is seemingly no redress or application of common sense when their billing system is challenged. They are a company I hope never have to deal with again - but sadly will have to until this is sorted. And I still have a Debt Collectors Letter on my doorstep for money I don't owe.

Should I pay this or would that be a sense of admitting ownership of a debt ? If they are threatening legal action, would the fact that I have picture evidence of meter readings be considered by their legal department ?

Many thanks for reading my rant

Liz

Mike_by_the_Sea

Hi Liz

You are having a nightmare by the sounds of it. I haven't posted on here for a while, but I read your post and thought I should try and offer something.

Is there any chance that you know the UW Distributor that was involved when your property was originally signed up with UW? If so, then it would be a good idea to contact them and ask them to talk to UW on your behalf to see if they can resolve the issue.

Failing that, where is your property (town will be fine). It might be useful to know the location as there may be way to track down a UW rep in the area that might be able to help.

Sorry if this doesn't sound very helpful, but having somebody else fighting your corner with UW from the inside could make a difference.

Fingers crossed

Mike

I am a UW Distributor

Ypaymore

Hi Liz. This might be helpful https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/files/terms/complaints_res_2013-05-29_0.pdf

Fussy

Hi

I am a Distributor. I was dormant for years because I had no faith in the Customer Services and had my interest rekindled from my Group Director. I was hoping that things might have changed but this experience has made me wish I had never been introduced to them.

Thanks for the complaints link

Liz

Meeper

Seems like the fault stemmed entirely from your Letting Agent error.

Meeper
UW ID

Fussy

Meeper wrote: »

Seems like the fault stemmed entirely from your Letting Agent error.

Meeper
UW ID

No Meeper, it seems like the fault stemmed from months worth of vastly overestimated and fictitious meter readings, an inability to flexibly amend those estimated bills based on my actual readings, demands calculated from these fictious calculations, threatening legal action etc I could send you the whole summary of events if you like, to show how abysmal it has all been.

MillicentBystander

I'm confused. Was the tenant responsible for payment of the bill whilst he/she was living in the property? Why was the letter demanding payment addressed to 'The Occupier'?

PS And why are there 2 different usernames describing this unfortunate happening?

Fussy

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I'm confused. Was the tenant responsible for payment of the bill whilst he/she was living in the property? Why was the letter demanding payment addressed to 'The Occupier'?

PS And why are there 2 different usernames describing this unfortunate happening?

I hadn't even noticed I had 2 accounts ! One of my devices must have auto logged me in.. ill have to delete one of the accounts.

Yes the tenant was responsible and must have settled her account after a closing reading ok. Although I don't know what reading that was.

I also don't know why they sent a Dear Occupier letter, I can only assume it was sent after the tenant told them she was moving home and to prompt whoever moved in to call the Utility Warehouse !

MillicentBystander

Fussy wrote: »

I hadn't even noticed I had 2 accounts ! One of my devices must have auto logged me in.. ill have to delete one of the accounts.

Yes the tenant was responsible and must have settled her account after a closing reading ok. Although I don't know what reading that was.

I also don't know why they sent a Dear Occupier letter, I can only assume it was sent after the tenant told them she was moving home and to prompt whoever moved in to call the Utility Warehouse !

The reason I am confused is you originally stated that your friend visited the property the day after your tenant had left and the 'Dear Occupier' letter was already there and demanding £1,000? You seemed to suggest this was your bill but how could this be if your tenant only left the day before? If what you have stated is indeed true and chronological, my suspicion is UW never got told of the tenancy in the first place.