please help

gammy22

i had a salesman at the door from utilita offering me all these great deals with smart metres etc so i signed up , but when i recieved the key and card for my metres its costing me twice as much as my last supplier when i phoned them up the said i am stuck to a 12 moth contract and cant get out of it....
the thing is the salesman who came to the door told me a pack of lies and said they are the second cheapest on the market and lied about when the smart metre would be put in (which hasnt been fitted yet)
i phoned to cancel and the girl i spoke to made out i had 2 options to cancel 1 was them not offering me a date to install my metre and the 2nd was me paying to get out of the contract, she then changed her mind and offered me a date for the metre to be installed on the 28th of febuary.
can they keep me to this contract if ive been told a pack of lies?
thanks in advance for any help.

nixe

i have just got one of the meters on friday, so dont know the costs yet, i really hope it dont cost double. i got mine as it said on one of those sites where you compare the price that it would be cheaper.
i hope you get yours sorted soon.
i have found though that whenever anyone knocks at the door then i have never benifited from it.

Horseunderwater

Not too sure what you think you signed up for, but it sounds like you are on pre pay meters and I did not think that smart meters were available for those. At least my supplier told me they weren't. So have you signed up for a credit account for the gas and electric which is for 12 months? I think you need to find our exactly what it was you signed by reading the small print all the way through. It sounds like they have sent you their key/card for now and that you will be changing over to a credit meter on the 28th?
However, you may be able to get out of it by claiming undue pressure selling on the doorstep. Not sure how you would do it, but I am certain that many others have been in same position and will be able to advise better.

gammy22

we were on pre payment and thats what we signed up for ,and were told we would get a card for the new metre which would have been fine but its the whole 12 month contract and the prices being more expensive than what we were on??

macman

Why did you sign up at the door and not go away and do you own research first? You've also given away the agent's commission that you could have had yourself by using a cashback site and signing up online.
Check your contract to see what the cooling off terms are-how long ago did you sign up? I suspect that period has now expired though.
The new rates may be higher, but they cannot be twice as high.

SwanJon

Utilia use different meters to most of the opther suppliers - they are prepayment with a keypad on it. (I think they are the same as Northern Ireland Electricity use).
They also have 12 month mimimum terms on their contracts as they install these smart meters.
Check Utilita's prices on a comparison site - do they match the paperwork you had?
You could also put in a Sales complaint and see if they'll release you from the contect.
Once the meters are in it will be harder to undo.

gammy22

just phoned again and aparently if they have not installed your new metre within 8 weeks you are entitled to cancel so great result and will definately learn by this mistake , thanks for suggestions

fannyadams

don't the 7 day cooling off period count here?

gammy22

no we signed the contract on december the 4th and recieved the key and card a week ago to realise there prices dont match what they say online or what the salesman said , we were with SSE and were paying around £15 a week for electricity when we moved to utilita it has cost us £28 for a weeks electricity (it doesnt figure) even the guy from SSE said in theory utilita are cheaper until i told him.

HappyMJ

In theory they are cheaper. What region are you in and what's your annual kWh usage for the gas and electricity?

macman

gammy22 wrote: »

no we signed the contract on december the 4th and recieved the key and card a week ago to realise there prices dont match what they say online or what the salesman said , we were with SSE and were paying around £15 a week for electricity when we moved to utilita it has cost us £28 for a weeks electricity (it doesnt figure) even the guy from SSE said in theory utilita are cheaper until i told him.

Forget ££'s per week, at present your bills will soar anyway due to the cold weather! You need to compare your weekly cost based on actual consumption. As I said before, the new tariff cannot be twice as expensive as before-the odds are that in the week you spent £28, you used nearly twice as much power. Check your actual kWh figures, that's the only figure that matters.