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Tykva wrote: »

I'm not sure what went wrong but I'm not happy.

I helped my father in law (living alone in a one bedroom flat and saving energy as much as possible) to switch from Npower in October, 2015. There was an offer from https://thebigdeal.com/ which recommended First utility. Last week my father in law received his first bill from First utility for £90, whilst he was paying £82 in Npower and was always in credit so that so in their last letter Npower dropped his fee to £42! can somebody explain what went worng??? a rip off by The big deal!

Oh dear - you may have unwittingly fallen for all the hype. The good news is that your FIL will only pay for the energy used at the agreed tariff price. The bad news is that a Big Deal for someone living in London may not be a good deal for someone living in Liverpool as all suppliers have regional tariffs. The only way to know which is the best deal is to use a comparison site and enter the projected usage in kWhs/year not £s.

It is worth looking at FU's FAQs as it does say that they use the EAC for electricity and AQ for gas when setting the monthly payment. This may explain the difference or it could be that the FU tariff that you have signed up is just more expensive than the old tariff. I would run a comparison to check. Your FIL's old bills should enable you to calculate past usage.

KMA

have been with first utility since October 2013, have changed fixed price tariffs with them twice and my costs have gone down (was £80 a month for gas & electric - now £59 a month).


Am due to consider switching in april 2016 - might consider a variable tariff switch out via energy club and cashback, seeing as energy prices are coming down, fixed price less desirable.


I like updating my reading monthly so I get an accurate bill, they were quick to amend my direct debit (have solar PV) so electric costs have reduced somewhat

sweetcorn12

Used to be no exit fees if you switch to a another tariff which was longer than the life of existing tariff. So if you were in the middle of 12 month tariff and you switched to another 12 month tariff, there was no exit fees charged.
NOW they charge you unless new tariff is longer than the term of the existing tariff.
Can't see any announcements made, instead they are hiding behind the term "may be exit fees".

beereight

Avoid. Been with them 6 months and its been a nightmare. Switched through makeitcheaper to issuply energy but somehow ended up with fu. It was cheap so i decided to give them a chance. Its been an absolute nightmare. The erroneous transfer requests started late october. Utilita Energy have tried to sign my electricity over in the name of mr a void. Contacted first utility to stop this transfer. Was promised in an email that it would all be sorted out..... 7 weeks later have had to make this email through resolve web site......Hello. This is another official complaint.
You have aquired my energy supply in error. Utilata must know this as i have spoken to 2 of your reps and they assured myself that my energy would not be transferred to utilata. My present supplier have tried to stop this erroneous transfer but you have stopped their attempts. You insist that my name is Mr A Void. Is this a joke? Why would i switch to utilita? I would have to pay an exit fee to first utility and i would be paying considerably more for my electricity. Why would i change my name to mr a void, pay an early exit fee and pay more for my electricity?
In my phone call to Raj(would not give his full name) he said he understood how ridiculous the situation was and would rectify the situation. Instead Utilata decided to block first utility taking my supply back. Why was this? Raj also said that you would stop the gas transfer but instead Utilata went ahead. Why was this? Has Utilata got a vendetta against myself?.
Helen( would not give full name) when she rang said my energy supply was given to her from a company called money angels who sign up empty social housing properties and my adress was added by mistake. Now if Helen knew this 5 or 6 weeks ago why did utilata aggressively pursue my supply. I have contacted my present suppliers and both say utilata refused to cancel a contract that was made up by money angels of a false empty property with a name of mr A void. You have sent letters saying my(Mr a void) energy was not getting transferred and the next week a "welcome to utilata"
You have told me over the phone that i could relax over christmas as all this would be sorted out yet i(Mr A Void)have started recieving bills with estimated usages- not bad for an empty property!
This is all utilata fault. I did not ask for this erroneous transfer. My present suppliers do not need erroneous transfers. Utilata in my oppinion has lied and stolen my supply and im sick and tired of it all. This email and all other documents i have will be forwarded to the ombudsmen. I will not be paying utilata one penny and i never will. This whole affair is making me ill and is putting me off ever changing supplier again.
Customer reference number.

Now dali gas has blocked the transfer but first utility could not. Says it all.

I diddnt know energy companies could sign up empty properties? Money angels said they got my adress from an agent from a social housing association. So who is paying the agent? Who is paying money angels? We are out of our bills! Its a layer cake which shows the energy market is broken and its a free for all for agents. You my be next. Energy companies do not need your name to change your supply over. They only need your meter refference number. So if your unscrupulous you can earn a fortune going round finding empty properties. Sign them up through quidco,use the name mr A Void and you will earn 40quid cashback. And as first utility has shown it does not need to be an empty property.

DeepSporran

sweetcorn12 wrote: »

Used to be no exit fees if you switch to a another tariff which was longer than the life of existing tariff. So if you were in the middle of 12 month tariff and you switched to another 12 month tariff, there was no exit fees charged.
NOW they charge you unless new tariff is longer than the term of the existing tariff.
Can't see any announcements made, instead they are hiding behind the term "may be exit fees".

I've just had to complain about exit fees of £60 that appeared on my account - lucky I checked. I had been on a long fixed rate tarriff due to expire in April. Got a sales call from First Utilities few months ago advising me that I would be better off on a different tarriff. I asked about the exit fees and was told they don't apply if your new tarriff end date is later than the existing one. I thanked him and said I would look into it on their website and do the sums.

Website confirmed what the salesman had said about the exit fee being waived so I went ahead and switched tarriff online.

I was somewhat miffed to get a communication from them a few weeks later (December 20th or so ?) to say they would be applying a £60 exit fee to my account.

Eventually got through on the phone to complain, and was told that the communication was an error, there would be no charge, and the adviser had heard of several similar complaints like mine that day.

I thought I'd better check my account online today just to see if all was OK - and discovered, surprise surprise, that they had stung me for the £60.

Phoned them up and was told, OK, they would refund the fee. They had changed the terms in early December but had neglected to tell their consultants or to update the website. No apology was given, just an explanation (if you can call it that) of what had happened.

I'm a serial switcher of suppliers, but First Utilities will have to offer a very attractive deal to lure me in again.

(Rant ends)

DCurrer

I'm not happy with First Utility's recent change of policy on exit fees. I used to be able to switch to a lower-cost First Utility tariff during the term of my fixed tariff free of exit fees, provided I was moving to a longer fix; ie changing from a fix ending in December 2016 to one ending in March 2017. But when I just tried to do this, I was told I'd have to pay £60 in exit fees to make the switch, following a change of policy I hadn't heard about.


They're saying that, as their prices are coming down, they 'have' to apply exit fees if I want to switch more than 49 days before my tariff ends. In other words, as their own prices reduce they're insisting that I continue to pay higher prices until November!


They operated a much fairer system in the past. The new policy simply means I'll be looking to leave First Utility as soon as I can find an alternative tariff that will recover the cost of my exit fees. Well done, First Direct - you'll soon be losing a customer.

jblackmore

I've just found out about F:U new exit fee scam today, I've switched a few times to cheaper/longer fixes - did this again a few weeks ago only to get the £60 fee email today!

Not sure how this is legal, as its clearly a change of T&Cs which they deny, also seems to be against licence condition to treat customers fairly and behave in an honest and transparent way ?

There 'treating customers fairly' brochure says they will "offer you the chance to change tariff if you can get a better deal" which isn't quite the same as charging you £60 to change to their own cheaper tariff in my book !

Richard422

Hi Alex, I had a similar problem with no bills for months. I wrote to their Top Director explaining my problem and he passed it into His Team who phoned me and sorted it in a few weeks. I left First Utility with an apology, no leaving fee and an apology payment. Try Ovo, found them friendly and fully functional!!!

davidsfell

I am in the process of switching from a First fixed price deal to anther First fixed price deal - with a longer end date. In the past, a longer end date meant they waived any early exit fees as they kept you as a customer. NOT ANY MORE!! They sneakily changed the policy in December and now charge you anyway. The customer service guy I spoke to about this said they have had a load of disgruntled customers - I'm not surprised. I will be changing supplier on this basis.

michaels

davidsfell wrote: »

I am in the process of switching from a First fixed price deal to anther First fixed price deal - with a longer end date. In the past, a longer end date meant they waived any early exit fees as they kept you as a customer. NOT ANY MORE!! They sneakily changed the policy in December and now charge you anyway. The customer service guy I spoke to about this said they have had a load of disgruntled customers - I'm not surprised. I will be changing supplier on this basis.

Thanks - I am going to call them about precisely this - I have switched 'short fix' 4 times in the last 12 months with no fee, just did it again and suddenly the £60 fee - communicated by an email after the event rather than any message of the switching screen.

I think it is short-sighted, in the past the reason I switched but stayed with First Utility was because the £60 fee generally exceeded the savings (inc switch cash back) available by switching out - now that I have to pay to switch and stay I can simply look at what the best deal is.