Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Did the £53 monthly bills show your meter readings?


Somewhere on those bills it should show a debit balance??


Some UW tariffs are complex(e.g. Double Gold) and you have to take other services to qualify. Are you being charged for these?

MoneyMattersUK

Ouch! - I see now! Yikes. Not the best lesson to learn. Many thanks for clarifying. I guess I now just need to settle up what's owed and switch to a cheaper supplier.

Many thanks again.

Cardew

What do you see? a debit balance or other charges?


If you weren't informed that you have to take other services, then put in a complaint to UW and if the charges are not waived, put in a complaint to the Ombudsman.


Meanwhile cancel your DD.

MoneyMattersUK

We now see the Debit Balances, we were not aware of these at all up until you very kindly explained how they work. I am guessing the previous occupants could only ever afford to pay the £53 a month and so these extra costs just kept mounting up!

I will make a complaint with UW in the hope they can waive. I have always been happy to pay what I owe, I just thought it was the £53 a month, I had no idea a debit balance was building up behind the scenes

MrsMcDonnell91

Hi all,

I'm having a really big problem with Utility warehouse and really need some advice.

Our bill has always been around £68pm for gas and electricity and we received a letter this morning saying that we owe £412.56 because of a 'deficit' and that this months bill will be £86 but the following month will be £102pm. We have always paid our bills on time and our gas is on a timer each day so we use the exact same amount of heating etc almost every month. I've spoken to three advisors who pretty much had no clue what they were saying and told me different things each time and were rubbish at explaining everything.

I've had to start working part-time due to ill health and we don't have any extra money to pay for this, I honestly don't know what to do.

Nathan94

MrsMcDonnell91 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm having a really big problem with Utility warehouse and really need some advice.

Our bill has always been around £68pm for gas and electricity and we received a letter this morning saying that we owe £412.56 because of a 'deficit' and that this months bill will be £86 but the following month will be £102pm. We have always paid our bills on time and our gas is on a timer each day so we use the exact same amount of heating etc almost every month. I've spoken to three advisors who pretty much had no clue what they were saying and told me different things each time and were rubbish at explaining everything.

I've had to start working part-time due to ill health and we don't have any extra money to pay for this, I honestly don't know what to do.

Is the bill accurate?
i.e based on actual meter readings?

If not, give the supplier accurate readings and request a revised bill.

(Actually you don't usually get a bill at all if you pay monthly by DD - you get statements. If the account starts to fall into arrears, even if based on inaccuarate, estimated readings, then the supplier normally just revises the monthly payment so you repay over a period on months)

But accepting you have actually got a bill that needs immediate payment, and it is accurate (based on accurate, actual readings) then I suggest you go to the Debt Free Wannabe board here who I am sure will help you further

Cardew

Nathan94 wrote: »

(Actually you don't usually get a bill at all if you pay monthly by DD - you get statements.

Monthly payment by DD with UW means paying for actual usage every month.

We will produce a monthly Bill or statement in respect of the
Energy supplied to your Property, except where a
prepayment meter has been installed or we have agreed
otherwise in writing with you. We will also produce an annual
statement in respect of the Energy supplied to your Property.
On each Bill or statement we send you, we will include key
information about your Tariff, your charges and your Energy
usage along with information (if applicable) about any
cheaper tariffs we may have available at that time. When we
produce your Bill or statement we will use an actual meter
reading if this is available (whether provided to us directly by
you, or indirectly by a meter reading agent working on our
behalf, or remotely from your smart meter), provided we do
not consider any such reading to be erroneous; if no actual
meter reading is available, then we will calculate a
reasonable estimate of the Energy usage at your Property.
You agree to pay the cost of your estimated or actual usage
as applicable. If we have used an estimated reading, and
you subsequently provide a meter reading to us that we
reasonably consider accurately reflects the amount of
Energy you have used, then we will use this in calculating
your next Bill. We or any person or company we authorise
will read the meters from time to time.

So, as you suggest, it is probable that previous bills were based on under-estimated or inaccurate meter readings.

The other possibility is described in the posts preceding yours(posts #3481 to #3485) i.e. some UW tariffs(e.g Double Gold) require you to take other services(mobile etc). If you don't use those services you still pay.

Nathan94

Cardew wrote: »

Monthly payment by DD with UW means paying for actual usage every month....

Thanks, but that being the case, it would make the post even more befuddling.

If the poster was being billed on a variable monthly basis (i.e. paying what was actually owed every month), then if the account is now £412.56 in deficit, then one would expect the amount to be paid this month would be £412.56, similar to post #3481 you referred me to, rather than £86 this month and £102 next month the poster suggests here. :cool:

MrsMcDonnell91

Hi all,

Thank you so much for getting back to me on this. Unfortunately I've been very ill over the last few days so my husband has been looking into this for us.

We supply a meter reading every month to utility warehouse and have done since we moved into our house 2 and a half years ago. The bills have always been around £68 - £75. We have all our heating on timers so we know it exactly how much heating we use every day - even in the winter we didn't use more than our timed slots.

My husband has rang utility warehouse and they are being a nightmare. One person told us 'to ignore the bill it was a mistake'. Luckily my husband didn't believe him and rang again, another customer service person told us we owe '£350" and that our bill was wrong and then he rang the third time just to confirm something else and we have now been told it's £271 that we owe. We have been told we can pay the lump sum or pay £110 for 24 months for pay back the costs

No-one is being clear to us and they are just plucking numbers out of thin air and no-one has been straight and told us how we got the deficit in the first place. I've had my parents around to my house who are just as confused as we are and they have been utility warehouse customers for five years with no problems.

If they don't get back to us with a clear answer we're going to have to talk to the ombudsman. I'm just very conscious that they make try and take the full figure out of our bank this week with our regular payments going out on the 30th - however god knows how much they will try taking out.

samrwill

I'd like some advice here.

Just over a year ago I was approached by one of our local tradesmen, who is also a UW rep/salesman/associate, whatever they call them. He assured me that UW could reduce my gas and electric bill if I signed up with them.

I made an appointment where he came to my house, sat down with me and my last years utility bills from Ovo (which had always been around the £200 a month) and went over some figures. To sum up, he was adamant that my combined bill would be significantly lower with UW....£900 per year lower he said. I trusted his figures, we'd been sat there for a while going through paperwork and calculations and he seemed very confident of the saving.

I duly signed up with UW for gas and electricity and a mobile contract and phone and they sent me an initial letter showing extremely low monthly payments. I have sent them meter readings every month since that time.

A couple of months ago, I receive a letter from UW advising that my account was in arrears and that my future direct debits would be increased to something close to £400 a month to cover the debt and future estimated costs. I was furious.

In my view this is a clear case of misselling. The guy even went to my neighbour and told her to sign up and that he'd saved me £900 a year. He was wrong. Despite the face I had the previous years statements to hand, consumption figures and tariffs, he was adamant that the savings he was suggesting were an accurate figure.

I regret ever having switched suppliers, it has cost me money and I feel I was deceived and then pressured into taking out a contract for a phone in order to 'maximise' savings through the different plans offered by UW.

I am planning on switching to npower through our local authority crowd funding scheme, how should I proceed with UW and claiming compensation for this mis selling?