First:Utility – My First Bill Experience

[Deleted User]

Joined them in September 2014 and they took a direct debit payment straight away. My first bill arrived early November and I submitted my meter readings again on 30 Nov. It’s 8 Dec and they have not produced a bill for this reading but I really don't have a problem with this.

What I do have a problem with is their web page display of my account and balance. Firstly, this provider does NOT tell you what is owed at the point of entering meter readings unlike for example British Gas or E.ON. Secondly, on the bill page my bill summary is there with its date and it shows a value of £70 but it doesn't tell me whether it's a debit or a credit. Downloaded the PDF and yes the £70 was there alright and it was a debit. However, underneath was the actual value when the credits had been factored in. The account was £88 in credit that is they owe me £88.

The problem is, another direct debit amount was taken out late November and I don't have a clue what my balance is except to assume the account is still in credit. What F:U is clearly doing is holding onto customer cash to fund their business. And they are clearly doing this by not telling the online customer that they are in credit. Their online billing leaves a lot to be desired in these respects.

Fortunately, I log meter readings on a spreadsheet on the last day of each month so that I know what is owed by whom.

Shrimply

I'm not a big fan of First:Utility at the moment, having also just switched to them and had a few issues, but I've also just received my first bill.

I'm struggling to see exactly what your complaint is about though. Yes it takes them a few days after you submit a meter reading to generate a bill. But is this really a problem, given that you aren't actually paying that bill amount anyway, but by regular direct debits.

The value you are showed is how much you are being billed for. I don't think this is confusing. In the month you used £70 of energy which is what you are actually due. This seems logical to me, on the page it shows your recent bills and recent payments. Surely fairly easy to work out whether you are in credit or debt.

And if you download the bill on the very first page it tells you your balance. I'd hardly say they were hiding any of this information. Or making it overly confusing.

And yes they owe you money, but it's expected that as it gets colder you will be using more than the direct debit amount, so how much you are in credit will slowly decrease. This is all very normal.

If you are that bothered then why not change to a variable direct debt where they only charge you for what you use each month?

As I say I'm not a huge fan of theirs right now, but just because they do things slightly different to what you are used to. I don't think it's fair to say they are hiding information from the customer. I was really pleased when I downloaded the bill to see that they used all my meter readings and it was exactly the amount I expected to be charged.

[Deleted User]

Shrimply wrote: »

The value you are showed is how much you are being billed for. I don't think this is confusing.

I suppose its a question of being economical with the truth in a way that favours First:Utility. The bill contains both debits and credits which added together showed I was £88 in credit. So why does the web page summary only show the debit amount and fails to display the bottom line figure of £88?

If the summary had said £88 CR then I might not have read the PDF. The fact that they only show the debit amount means that I have to open the bill to find out what the bottom line really is.

I have the same problem with supermarkets. On the itemised bill they show the amount paid including VAT and place a mark against the entries that accumulated VAT. Supermarkets are hiding the amount of VAT being paid by the shopper as a total and they get away with it because its a retail spend. Lidl on the other hand always give a VAT total so why are the Germans able to do this and we can't?

Yes I could pay by variable direct debit but I'm not going to. The reason I was pleased to go with First:Utility regardless of some short comings is that they bill monthly. This allows me to pay off any amount that the direct debit doesn't cover. Just had the latest bill and I'm now £104 in credit but as you say this is a good thing as we are now heading into the winter quarter.

Shrimply

[Deleted User] wrote:

If the summary had said £88 CR then I might not have read the PDF. The fact that they only show the debit amount means that I have to open the bill to find out what the bottom line really is.

But they are never suggesting that amount is your balance, it's the bill amount which is going to be debited from your account.

Yes they are maybe missing what the balance is, which is perhaps an over sight, but given on the same page they are showing what you are being billed each month and what you are paying in each month it's hardly hiding anything, and why wouldn't you open the bill if you wanted more detailed information than that.

And finally, what is the point of paying by fixed direct debt if you are going to pay off the extra if you ever end up in debt? So you are never letting the account go into debt? Why?
If you are doing that you'd be far better paying by variable direct debt and putting what they'd be holding in credit somewhere it will earn interest. Otherwise they are sometimes holding on to your money that you can't earn interest on, but not the other way around.

And supermarkets are not hiding the VAT, because its set, so anyone who cares that much can check what items have VAT added and work it out. Most people don't care because the price on the receipt is how much they pay. I hardly think them asterisking it and saying "Hey look, you are going to be pay VAT on this, chances are it will be 20%" is hiding it.

[Deleted User]

Shrimply wrote: »

And finally, what is the point of paying by fixed direct debt if you are going to pay off the extra if you ever end up in debt? So you are never letting the account go into debt? Why?

I have an online basic bank (budget) account which I use for paying my bills. It gives me a debit card, allows direct debits and standing orders but no overdraft facility. I need to make sure that my account is always in credit with enough to cover direct debit amounts due in any month.

If I payed using a variable direct debit then the debit might bounce because not enough money was is in the account and they would charge me £8 for the default. If it happened often enough they would withdraw the direct debit facility. By using a fixed direct debit the shock to cash flow is a lot smaller than it would be by using a variable direct debit. The alternative is to keep a huge amount of cash in the budget account just sitting there doing nothing. I have better uses for this money.

Having read a recent thread saying F:U were playing silly beggars when the customer switched by making it difficult to submit a final meter reading. My contract ends in September so by switching to variable direct debit say in June when bills are small it would avoid these problems but I will have to ask F:U if they automatically return credits and I'm not sure they do?

[Deleted User]

[FONT=&quot]First:Utility sent me an email today 11-Dec-2014 with the above good news.

It said "To make sure your fixed Direct Debit payment is right for the amount of energy you use, we periodically check to ensure you’re not building up too much credit or debit." Triggered no doubt by the credit exceeding £100.

Very helpful reduction of £10 per month - thank you.

:T


[/FONT]

fred246

You will have to write loads of letters and threaten First Utility with legal action before they will return any money to you. How bad does customer service have to be before people stop using these companies? They have the most horrendous online reviews but people keep going to them. They are thieves. No other word comes close.

george1939

[Deleted User] wrote:

I have an online basic bank (budget) account which I use for paying my bills. It gives me a debit card, allows direct debits and standing orders but no overdraft facility. I need to make sure that my account is always in credit with enough to cover direct debit amounts due in any month.

If I payed using a variable direct debit then the debit might bounce because not enough money was is in the account and they would charge me £8 for the default. If it happened often enough they would withdraw the direct debit facility. By using a fixed direct debit the shock to cash flow is a lot smaller than it would be by using a variable direct debit. The alternative is to keep a huge amount of cash in the budget account just sitting there doing nothing. I have better uses for this money.

Having read a recent thread saying F:U were playing silly beggars when the customer switched by making it difficult to submit a final meter reading. My contract ends in September so by switching to variable direct debit say in June when bills are small it would avoid these problems but I will have to ask F:U if they automatically return credits and I'm not sure they do?

If you have any surplus in June ring F:U they will place it into your bank account and switch you to a variable direct debit at the same time. This they did for me within a 5 minute call. Which meant only the odd pound was owing for the final bill . {The final meter reading gas/elect is given by you to the new supplier when they ask you to submit it] Cheers

Kendall80

I've been with them 2 months now.


They charged me upfront for the first month just as they did with the OP.


I've no issues at present though. I changed to a variable DD and didn't have a request for a reading for 1.5 months. However, all is proceeding as normal now and the recent 1.5 month bill amount is what my excel sheet expected.


Their site is straightforward and submitting readings is hassle-free. I've also had my £30 from MSE. Ta very much.

birtwistler

Account number 773812
I wouldn't recommend First Utility. In fact I've actively discouraged friends and family from signing up with them, as they were absolutely shambolic. If you don’t want to read the whole of this rant, I don’t blame you. But the length of it is just to try and get over my annoyance.
The first few months were fine (up until November 2013), I sent my readings in and the bills corresponded. After about six months, the gas readings I sent in were completely ignored and estimates were used instead. After four months, the bills were 170 units more than they should have been and I was constantly having to fend off attempts to increase my monthly direct debit to cater for the over-inflated bills and deal with their customer services, who never seemed to read any of the history attached to my account, as I would have to repeat myself again and again. And this continued in the following months, with the estimates drifting further and further away from reality.
Then a break through; first utility reversed all the bills and then recalculated. Using estimates again… So the final bill was just as wrong as the original works of fiction.
As soon as the tie in period was up, I switched. But first utility’s final bill was over estimated. So I contacted customer services and explained it all again. Their only response was another email demanding money with menaces. So then I wrote to them and had a phone call from a nice lady in customer services. They couldn’t pay my money back, as my account was closed, so I would have to pay the full bill and they would then send me a cheque for the amount they owed. I was a bit dubious, but I didn’t have any other option. I paid and waited. Not surprisingly, no cheque arrived.
Again I got in touch with customer services by email. Eventually I got the response that the money had been paid in August. No it hadn’t. I phoned them. After an extraordinarily long wait, I spoke to a chap who told me that it looked like the money had been paid into my first utility account rather than my bank account. He’d get the request raised, so that a cheque was sent to me.
Sure enough, I got an email telling me that my ‘goodwill’ payment would be with me within 7 days. After ten days there was still no sign of the cheque. A robust email was sent asking where the money was (and asking them to not refer to the payment as ‘goodwill ‘; it’s my money that they owe me)
The reply was infuriating. Again they said that the money hadn’t been paid because it had already been paid in August. No it hadn’t. Do they not read the history? So by now I was bouncing. Completely disproportionately to the amount they owed me, but by now it was a point of principle. A fairly ranting reply followed. Somebody seemed to get the message and a cheque arrived. The final irritation was that it was called a goodwill payment again.
If anybody from first utility reads this and would like to actually send me a goodwill payment, you might be able to find my details from the account number above. It might actually make some amends. I’ve spent probably a full day in total dealing with my energy supplier trying to get them to do their job properly. As it is, there is no happy ending to the story I’m telling everybody (other than I’m finally free of them); the final moral is, stay away from this bunch of incompetents.