Advice needed - At which point should I complain?

sonyhamster

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of advice here...

I recently moved to a new apartment that uses First Utility's Smart Meters. The landlord insists that we stick with First Utility, so I don't have much of a choice in all this.

Anyway, I moved in at the beginning of April and I immediately picked up the phone to First Utility to set up my account. They took all my personal details, meter number, address, bank details, etc.

They said to me that everything is done online and that I would receive an email once my account has been set up which would be within three weeks.

3 weeks later - nothing. I rung them and their operators tell me 'there's no way that they can find me as I would be on an application list, waiting to be processed - they would only have access if I was a current customer.

I sent them an email after 4 weeks - no reply.

This week is the fifth week, and I have just sent them an email.

However, here's the thing - if I moved in and I wanted to switch to say, British Gas, then First Utility are effectively prolonging my account so that I would have to pay them as much as possible, before I can switch over.

Should I complain and on what grounds do you think I have an argument to say that they prolonging my application unnecessarily?

dogshome

Hi sonyhampster - You are in bit of a bind. It seems you landlord has claused your lease that you stay with First Utility, and, the initials of First Utilitiy spell out their attitudes to customer service.

To start your campaign to Switch but stay within your lease, WRITE to FU complaining about the amount of time they are taking to set up your account and copy this letter to the landlord. - If you don't get a response from FU in 2 weeks, WRITE again with copy to the landlord and keep repeating this every 2 weeks till you do have an account

FU's billing when you get it is likely to be inaccurate, if it is WRITE again to FU with copy to the landlord - The name of the game is to build up a file in the landlords office that shows just how bad FU are, and how disadvantaged you are by not being allowed to switch

ifonlyitwaseasier

doesn't matter what the landlord says, so long as you let them know who the supplier is when you move out they can't dictate who you use.