Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

theronkinator

Family members just moved into a property and the landlady is going on about how great these are, cheapest ever, basically putting pressure on, probably on commission.


We're not using them though. Move into the property and the first and only letter from Utility Warehouse is saying pay us £200 deposit in 7 days or we will get a court order to gain access to the property to fit a pre payment meter and you will be charged £750 for this. I couldn't care less if they are the cheapest (which they're not by a fair bit), out of principle I would never touch a company whose first point of contact is bullying and scare tactics. I will be telling them where to go when I ring them later in the week.

Cardew

If you move into any property, you are immediately placed on a legally binding deemed contract with the existing supplier. That applies to all companies not just UW.


Obviously you will have to pay UW for all gas/electricity used until a switch to another company takes place. If the landlady is a UW salesperson she should be able to sort it out.


How long had you been in the property before you got that letter.

theronkinator

Cardew wrote: »

If you move into any property, you are immediately placed on a legally binding deemed contract with the existing supplier. That applies to all companies not just UW.


Obviously you will have to pay UW for all gas/electricity used until a switch to another company takes place. If the landlady is a UW salesperson she should be able to sort it out.


How long had you been in the property before you got that letter.

The letter was dated a week before the tenancy started. And thanks for the obvious that you have to pay for what you use before you switch, I'd never have figured that one out...

StandUpForYourRights

The Utility Warehouse has been very haphazard in taking agreed amounts from me under my direct debit in place with them. They last took money in May 2014 then I started to get demands for all kinds of crap and I have spent hours and hours emailing and telephoning them - I find their customer services people to be nothing short of thieving, lying thugs. The final straw has been them sending me notice of applying for a warrant to enter my home and fit prepayment meters. I took time off work last week and put my case to the Magistrates and produced evidence. The Magistrates refused the request for the warrant. I am going to now sue these monkeys in the County Court. Do not use Utility Warehouse they are very bad news

HD444

Just received a huge bill from Utility Warehouse, in the £500 range. Apparently after checking our meter they have found that we have been undercharged, and so this month they want us to make up for all of this in one go (making up for a number of months I believe).
Really not happy about this as we are just about getting by and this is going to be quite a huge blow. Plus if they had been more accurate with their billing to begin with then we could have made certain changes to cut down on this cost, the main one being a dodgy boiler which I believe has been the main culprit in making it so high.
So not very happy that their lack of accuracy and communication has led to such a huge bill when it could have been avoided if we had known, or the fact they are expecting us to pay it all off in one go Any advice? Many thanks.

tazzyb

Ring them up and agree a new monthly payment that includes repayment of the outstanding money.

This has happened to me with them and I found them great to deal with, they sorted out a new payment no problems.

Nada666

What do you mean 'checking your meter'? Do you mean only they have been issuing estimated bills? If so there is no case - the meters are in your house and at any time you could have read the reading used on any statement and compared it with the actual reading on your meter.

Or is it is more complicated (an imperial meter thought to be a metric meter, eg).

If you are only 'getting by' then you surely must have read your meter yourself to check how much how much you used was costing.

You can ask to repay it over a longer period - if you can't make it by next quarter they should let you clear it over two quarters. Alternatively you can switch to paying by direct debit and automatically have a longer time to repay.

HD444

Thanks for the advice guys. Nada666, I have not had this problem before. This is the first time I have been asked to pay so much for bills that were not estimated properly, as far as I was concerned I was paying the correct amount, the amount they requested. Plus as I was just getting by I was fine as long as nothing unexpected occurred, this was something I didn't consider would crop up as it's not happened before.
But I will ring them up and ask to pay it over a longer period, just a bit shocking it is so high. Will have to ring our maintenance company to check the boiler.

tazzyb

I had trouble with my meter being read as the company who are contracted to do it kept saying the could not find my house!

I know ring up and give UW my meter readings every couple of months.

HD444

Hummm thanks tazzyb, I guess this is what I should do from now on as well. I think the bill we received is covering about 6 months, I'm not sure how often they are meant to check.