HELP,First Utility 15 months gas bills overcharged

joolybooly

Im new so need lots of help please! Short story, been with First Utility since Nov 2012, rang to query large gas bill £758 around Jan 2013 told previous provider hadnt charged enough so that was why bill was so large for a short period, found that odd as had £149 chq refund off them, rang again in April 2013 as gas bill for 1 month, £582, told every ones bills high due to weather. Email off them in Nov 2013 monthly payment going up to £300. I spend 6hrs on New Years Day going thru previous 5 yrs bills to find they have charged for 3 times the amount of gas for the past year, check bills and meter to discover my meter is metric and they have it down as imperial so charged for nearly 3 times the amount of gas used! Customer service is diabolical, no reply to lots of emails other than automated receipt since 1.01.14, calling them you are in ques to get thru for over 1hr, get thru & they put you on hold again for 30mins or more, case has been escalated on 10.01.14 still no contact at all from them. What more can I do, I need 15 months bills recalculated but nobody is helping me.:mad::(

matelodave

I'd guess that this calls for an exceedingly stiff letter (not e-mail or phone call) marked very boldly that it's a complaint. Send it recorded delivery so you've got proof that its sent and they understand that you mean business.
That should start the clock ticking so that in 8 weeks you can take it forward to the ombudsman if it's not been resolved. Unfortunately they've got eight weeks to sort it out from the initiation of the complaint so you got to get the ball rolling.

[Deleted User]

Every supplier does this mess up occasionally. a leading zero is left out in the switching process by either the customer or the gaining supplier turning a metric meter ( 5 dials ) into an imperial meter ( 4 dials ). It results in you being billed 2.8 times more for your billing. Once its noticed its a straightforward thing to get your money back with usually some extra money as a recompense. Your problem is First Utility s complete shambles of a customer services. It really needs OFGEM to step in quickly with this company.

dogshome

An odd one
Supplier's Metric v Imperial meter mix-ups usually occur when the gas meter has been changed, not when moving from one supplier to another.

As advised WRITE to FU a letter headed Complaint, enclosing a photo of your meter that clearly shows it's m3 marking
As sacsquacco has posted , FU are not the sharpest knife in the box and the initials FU could well stand for their attititude to Customer Service.

Once the Complaint letter is written, FU have 56 days to bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion - Keep track of the days and if they don't conform to the timeing, contact the Ombusdman on Day 57

joolybooly

Thanks everyone, I wrote a 3 page letter of complaint after posting on here & I am aware of the ombudsman timescale, its just so frustrating that they are not replying to what seems on the face if it a relatively straightforward complaint to rectify. The minute I get my money back im shifting!

wakeupalarm

joolybooly wrote: »

...its just so frustrating that they are not replying to what seems on the face if it a relatively straightforward complaint to rectify.

Good luck joolybooly but this sums up the current state of the energy supply industry. Simple errors which should be recectified within a 5 minuite telephone call escalate into months long correspondence involving senior complaints management costing an arm and a leg which then gets passed onto consumers bills. The whole industry is a shambles with a toothless regulator.

grumbleranta

I wish I had never signed up with First Utility - utter shambles from the start. Even 3 months after switching to a new supplier, I still haven't had a single bill for my energy useage with FU despite regular calls to the customer services team (which invariably involves waiting for 40 minutes to speak to an operator whilst the chirpy voice informs me that it is due to unprecedented demand for their great offers) and submitting queries through the website (which are never answered). A simple matter of issuing a bill should not be a matter that needs to go through a complaints department but that is where I have ended up for the second time during my short stint with FU.

Here's hoping the contents of the bill don't lead to another 12 months wrangling.

Alex444

My lack of billing, DD and payments have now been going on for nearly 2 years now.

elizabeth_1066

I'm afraid I have had a dreadful experience with First Utility as well which has now been dragging on for 3 years. It all boils down to their dreadful administration and customer service.

I moved into my house 4 years ago and 'inherited' FU from the previous owners. I rang to give my details and meter readings when we moved in but heard nothing from them for months. Finally, after a lot of effort on my part I started getting bills which I paid immediately. Then 8 months after moving in I received two bills within a few days of each other - one drastically higher than the other - it turns out one was a back dated bill (despite me having paid the bill already). It took me months and months of frustrating calls (while pregnant I might add) for them to admit that it was a billing error on their part and they had changed my tariff but not updated my bills. The whole process has been going on since then and in the meantime I've switched to British Gas and have been with them for over a year now with no issues. I have had long periods of hearing nothing from FU (up to 9 months) then sudden letters and phone calls demanding money. The whole case is confusing and advice from Ombudsman has been useless as they can't help me. I believe the debt has been passed on to the Zinc Group but I have had nothing from FU to confirm this and I can't get hold of them (there's a surprise) to confirm it. Meanwhile, my credit rating which should be marvellous is likely dreadful and I am left not knowing how best to approach this. All I needed to ascertain was whether I do indeed owe money to FU or if, as it was their error, whether I don't.
Never.Again!

[Deleted User]

dogshome wrote: »

An odd one
Supplier's Metric v Imperial meter mix-ups usually occur when the gas meter has been changed, not when moving from one supplier to another.

As advised WRITE to FU a letter headed Complaint, enclosing a photo of your meter that clearly shows it's m3 marking
As sacsquacco has posted , FU are not the sharpest knife in the box and the initials FU could well stand for their attititude to Customer Service.

Once the Complaint letter is written, FU have 56 days to bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion - Keep track of the days and if they don't conform to the timeing, contact the Ombusdman on Day 57

You are right Dogshome that a metric/imperial mix can be done at meter change periods, but I ve seen so many imperial 4 dialers which get billed as metrics after a change of supplier, no meters are exchanged. Its not rare neither, what is very rare tho is anyone complaining about it on the "board " or to their supplier, they tend to keep quiet about it, getting really cheap bills 2.8 less. I remember finding two in a week a few years back .One lady burst into tears as she d been telling everyone to switch to British Gas they were so cheap .. Id say its about 50/50 in frequency, imp/met or met/imp mix ups.

mariefrancis

I am having similar problems with first Utility. According to them we owe inexcess of £1900 ??!! a crazy amount for a regular sized 3 bed semi. I have made numerous calls and emails ..so far with no effect. Customer service is terrible.