First Utility con

lvladskillz

Hi guys,

I have been reading various posts regarding this and I don't seem to be the only person.

Basically my mother an father are OAPs and they have switched to FU as they offered a very attractive £50 a month for gas. 3 months down the line they have now emailed saying that the monthly bill has risen to near £190!!

Firstly my parents do not have that type of money, they do not work no more and do not even get enough benefits to cover it never mind put food on the table. The predicament is, if they were to pay it they would be getting ripped off. If they left there is the hassle of finding and trusting another supplier and also paying cancellation fees that they charge!

I really just want some legal advice or pointers on were we go from here.

Regards

Roy

macman

Major misunderstanding here: there is no such thing as a fixed '£50 a month for gas'. If they have signed up to a fixed tariff, it's the unit cost that is fixed, so you still pay more if you use more units. It's not an 'all you can eat for £50' tariff. If they thought it was, they may have been using the gas without constraint.
It appears that their consumption has either been badly underestimated, or their usage has soared, or both. Consequently their £50pm did not cover their actual usage, and has now been hiked dramatically to recover the arrears over the quarter. How was the £50 figure arrived at originally?
Is the bill based on actual or estimated readings?
If you post their actual kWh consumption from the quarterly bill then proper advice can be given. DD figures alone tell us nothing. It would also help if you post their anual kWh consumption, as that makes it possible to caculate the approx level that the DD should be set at (without any arrears).
There is no 'legal advice' that can be give, if the energy has been used and correctly billed then it must be paid for.
£50pm is rather low for a house with gas CH and DHW which is occupied in the day by OAP's. That would be about 15,000kWh pa, less than the national average of 16,500 kWh.
The real lesson from this is never to agree a contract based on the DD level initially offered. What matters is the actual annual cost based on a comp site comparison using annual kWh figures. That figure divided by 12 should represent the approx monthly DD level.

lvladskillz

To my fathers understanding he was told it was a £50 monthly charge. It is the iSave v12 plan they offer. Maybe my father doesn't understand it well. Does this mean the bill is going to be that much every month or when we have lowt costs in the summer it comes down in erears?

Wywth

lvladskillz wrote: »

To my fathers understanding he was told it was a £50 monthly charge. It is the iSave v12 plan they offer. Maybe my father doesn't understand it well.

No maybe about it; macman has already explained.

macman wrote: »

Major misunderstanding here: there is no such thing as a fixed '£50 a month for gas'. If they have signed up to a fixed tariff, it's the unit cost that is fixed, so you still pay more if you use more units. It's not an 'all you can eat for £50' tariff.

lvladskillz wrote: »

Does this mean the bill is going to be that much every month or when we have lowt costs in the summer it comes down in erears?

Again macman has already explained.

macman wrote: »

What matters is the actual annual cost based on a comp site comparison using annual kWh figures. That figure divided by 12 should represent the approx monthly DD level. .

macman

iSave v12 is a variable tariff that is fixed for the first 3 months. Your father has not checked the terms of this tariff before agreeing it.

Tariff Features

• Fixed energy prices for 3 months.
• This tariff has a standing charge.
• Paper† or online billing options available.
• Monthly Direct Debit only.
• Dual fuel only - you must take both gas and electricity.
• Early termination fees apply if you leave in the first three months: £30 (inc. VAT) for gas, £30 (inc. VAT) for electricity (a total of £60 for dual fuel).
• Notes: This tariff is not available with prepayment meters. Customers must own the property where the services are located. Those who are not on the electoral register or have a poor credit history may be asked to pay a deposit. This tariff is not available to customers whose gas is supplied via an Independent Gas Transporter (IGT) network. †Paper billing is charged at £4 per month (not included in the results).

However since there is no ETC applicable after 3 months, he can switch again without penalty, as long as he can pay off any arrears.
It's impossible to say why the initial DD was set so low (presumably as a ploy to ensnare him) and now so high, unless you post the info requested in my original post.
How much was he paying before, prior to this 'very attractive' offer?
To emphasize the point, no supplier offers a fixed price contract-they only offer variable or fixed unit price contracts.