Help with First Utility

Bingley1

Hi
I changed gas and electricity supplier to First Utility over two years ago to have smart meters installed with the aim of saving money. Without noticing the meters failed and my gas and electricity was estimated (I know I should have checked the bills) I only really noticed when they started taking £300 a month out of my bank account by D/D! I couldnt afford this and having complained and had two engineers out who didnt fix the meters I stopped the DD until they resolved the issue - this continued for about 12 months and I have racked up a bill of around £1300 - four months ago they resolve it and I am paying £200 back each month to clear the debt. Just printed my bill off today and noticed the gas meter is being estimated again!!! I am paying nothing off my debt as the gas & Elec was £15 more that than the £200 I am paying!! I am fed up with spending 20 mins a time on hold with them to keep ending up in the same situation - sorry for the long message but can anyone offer any advice?

penrhyn

FU seem to have a lot of problems, my advise would be to switch away asap.

victor2

Not sure what you mean by "the meters failed"?
Estimated readings are used if you do not provide a reading, or are not in when the meter reader calls, and do not respond to the card they usually leave.
If you didn't pay for a year and didn't put money aside towards it, then you would get a big bill.

penrhyn

The OPs point is that they have 'Smart' meters that should send readings directly to the energy company. I guess you can manually read them as well though.

pooch

Bingley1 wrote: »

Hi
I changed gas and electricity supplier to First Utility over two years ago to have smart meters installed with the aim of saving money. Without noticing the meters failed and my gas and electricity was estimated (I know I should have checked the bills) I only really noticed when they started taking £300 a month out of my bank account by D/D! I couldnt afford this and having complained and had two engineers out who didnt fix the meters I stopped the DD until they resolved the issue - this continued for about 12 months and I have racked up a bill of around £1300 - four months ago they resolve it and I am paying £200 back each month to clear the debt. Just printed my bill off today and noticed the gas meter is being estimated again!!! I am paying nothing off my debt as the gas & Elec was £15 more that than the £200 I am paying!! I am fed up with spending 20 mins a time on hold with them to keep ending up in the same situation - sorry for the long message but can anyone offer any advice?

Oh dear, that'll have cost you dear :cool:
http://www.first-utility.com/wp-cont...nditions_0.pdf

pooch

penrhyn wrote: »

FU seem to have a lot of problems, my advise would be to switch away asap.

The supplier won't allow that whilst the OP has an outstanding debt