Telephone "signed up contracts"?

haggis57_2

It cannot be right that the utilities can start a contract over the phone which is then deemed to have been "signed up" to when no-one has put pen to paper and actually "sign up" for the utility to supply gas and/or electricity. Then unless the customer gets in touch with the utility company within 14 days this so-called contract will go ahead and they will start sending you bills and the contract has still not been signed up!!??

vuvuzela

Just wondering, would you prefer to have to do everything in writing and have the electricity / gas cut off for a period of letter-based correspondance where you write to them, they write back, you write to them with the signed contract and they then reconnect your utilities ?
Or is the easy way where you simply call them just that bit better ?

undaunted

I agree with you it isn't right as call centre operatives usually fail to give ful & proper information - though in theory they should send written terms & conditions out after which you have the opportunity to cancel.

As to vuvuzelas question for me the answer is yes, dinasour that you may think me!

Cardew

haggis57 wrote: »

It cannot be right that the utilities can start a contract over the phone which is then deemed to have been "signed up" to when no-one has put pen to paper and actually "sign up" for the utility to supply gas and/or electricity. Then unless the customer gets in touch with the utility company within 14 days this so-called contract will go ahead and they will start sending you bills and the contract has still not been signed up!!??

Welcome to the forum.

You don't have to accept the present situation.

Years ago when an occupant left the house, the gas and electricity was disconnected.

The new occupant, in advance, had to contact the gas and electricity company(companies) and sign a written agreement and usually pay a deposit. You then made appointments for the gas and electricity meters to be read and then to be reconnected.

Often this meant there was no gas and electricity for days after you occupied the house.

The companies would no doubt prefer that situation to exist, no problems trying to trace occupants and chase them for money, lots more work for company employees(meaning increased prices)

When gas and electricity was privatised, the government insisted on imposing the principle of 'deemed contracts' on companies. i.e. you actually could walk into a house with connected gas and electricity, but the moment you used any gas/elctricity you were on a legally binding deemed contract.

You are quite at liberty to demand a written contract before moving into the house - from any company - but you cannot move in without entering into a deemed contract. Shouldn't take more than a few weeks to set up;)

A question:

If you move into a house with gas and electricity connected, and don't like the terms of the written contract, what do you think should happen?

Companymole

Hi

A standard change of supply can take between 4 - 8 weeks. The old supplier will be your supplier for this time the alternative is to be cut off for up to 2 months whilst supply goes through, this is if your in contact on day one. If you do move into a new property the tariff that you would be "deemed" to be on wouldnt have any ties or term fees so you would be free to leave at your leisure.

Any "signed" contract on the phone would be recorded and then a written copy of the contract sent from sign up date there is a mandatory 12 cool off peroid. Again if all contracts had to be paper and you had no supply when you moved in by the time everything is done you would be looking at 3 months before you had a supply.

TIMMY85

A complaint at the moment is the time it takes to change suppliers. If this had to be done by post it would take at least twice as long to allow for receipt of documents from company to consumer, consumer to action and sign and return, processing by supplier, cool off period...agreeing by phone means you agree, documents sent. 14 days later switching process starts.

thistledome

I agree with OP.

Daft OH agreed to change phone suppliers over the phone and we ended up tied to a 5 year contract with a very dodgy firm.

No length of contract was mentioned by them and OH didn't ask. There was a nearly £500 charge for cancelling the contract early so we were stuck with them for 5 years. Even when we failed to renew contract after 5 years, they gave us no end of hassle for months and months afterwards.

At the very least you should be sent a copy of the T&C in the post to sign and send back. It wouldn't take that long surely?

Cardew

thistledome wrote: »

I agree with OP.

Daft OH agreed to change phone suppliers over the phone and we ended up tied to a 5 year contract with a very dodgy firm.

No length of contract was mentioned by them and OH didn't ask. There was a nearly £500 charge for cancelling the contract early so we were stuck with them for 5 years. Even when we failed to renew contract after 5 years, they gave us no end of hassle for months and months afterwards.

At the very least you should be sent a copy of the T&C in the post to sign and send back. It wouldn't take that long surely?

Presumably this was for a commercial tariff?

No domestic tariff has such conditions.

For a business it is buyer beware.

macman

A verbal contract has exactly the same validity in law as written one. No signature is required to make a contract.
The difference comes only when the contract is disputed-without a written record it's one party's word against the others.
It's up to the buyer to ask the basic questions.