First Utility

finn67

I looked on the main site a few months ago and in a nutshell, I can save quite a bit by switching supplier, I was on an isave tariff that ends on May 31st 2015. I had an email offering me a new tariff until Jan 2018 which I didn't accept - HOWEVER, imagine my surprise when today I find I'm on THAT tariff?
First have switched me over without my permission to do so. The only reason I was waiting was I didn't want to pay the £30 per fuel exit fees, seemed silly with only a few months left.
Anyone else had this problem and any help is appreciated, I have contacted First today but I don't expect to hear from them until Wednesday at the earliest.


Thanks


Finn

finn67

PS. Also I submit my meter readings on the 2nd of EVERY month, why then are First using an increased estimate on my read on the 7th of the same month? Are they trying to justify something?

matelodave

regarding your readings versus the bill - when are your reading due. If the billing date is 7th of the month and you submit a reading before that date, FU will estimate the difference.

My billing date is 31st and FU request that my reading is submitted by 31st. I do not send the reading in early therefore I don't get any estimates - easy really.

Regarding swapping tariffs - I've just struggled a bit to get mine changed from iSave April 2015 to iSave April 2016 and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's swapped.

My account looks to be indicating the correct tariff although it differs from an E-mail that they sent me. I've also managed to change my monthly payment down from £85 to £77 and got a refund of £200 overpayment (my fault not theirs). I'm just waiting for the April statement to see if it's all worked.

However I must say that the staff at Futility don't actually seem to have the tools to do the job properly - I've phoned them on three occasions and every time it's taken them about 10mins of faffing about to find my account and they also seem to have a great deal of difficulty in understanding how to implement a simple tariff change - It must be a useless system that they've got to work with.

footyguy

finn67 wrote: »

I looked on the main site a few months ago and in a nutshell, I can save quite a bit by switching supplier, I was on an isave tariff that ends on May 31st 2015. I had an email offering me a new tariff until Jan 2018 which I didn't accept - HOWEVER, imagine my surprise when today I find I'm on THAT tariff?
First have switched me over without my permission to do so. The only reason I was waiting was I didn't want to pay the £30 per fuel exit fees, seemed silly with only a few months left.
Anyone else had this problem and any help is appreciated, I have contacted First today but I don't expect to hear from them until Wednesday at the earliest.


Thanks


Finn

On the face of it, this would fly in the face of the appropriate regulations which prohibit energy suppliers rolling residential customers onto a new fixed tariff, or a tariff with a early exit fee, unless the customer has agreed to this.

I would suggest you raise a formal complaint in writing following the suppliers complaint procedure
http://www.first-utility.com/help/__ka1D0000000030XIAQ/How-do-I-make-a-complaint

(Better than calling or using their online form, as then you can have a copy of your complaint for future reference if necessary)

finn67

matelodave wrote: »

regarding your readings versus the bill - when are your reading due. If the billing date is 7th of the month and you submit a reading before that date, FU will estimate the difference.

My billing date is 31st and FU request that my reading is submitted by 31st. I do not send the reading in early therefore I don't get any estimates - easy really.

Regarding swapping tariffs - I've just struggled a bit to get mine changed from iSave April 2015 to iSave April 2016 and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's swapped.

My account looks to be indicating the correct tariff although it differs from an E-mail that they sent me. I've also managed to change my monthly payment down from £85 to £77 and got a refund of £200 overpayment (my fault not theirs). I'm just waiting for the April statement to see if it's all worked.

However I must say that the staff at Futility don't actually seem to have the tools to do the job properly - I've phoned them on three occasions and every time it's taken them about 10mins of faffing about to find my account and they also seem to have a great deal of difficulty in understanding how to implement a simple tariff change - It must be a useless system that they've got to work with.

Thanks for replying Dave, I have just looked at the e-mail requests for readings and they do indeed state by midnight on the 7th? Seems silly to allow them before if they are getting an accurate reading 2nd-6th, thinking about it too, why bother with that estimate, I'm on a DD payment, the readings are always submitted on the 2nd as I have a reminder set up on my phone, if they wanted them on the 7th they only needed to request them on the 6th. I'm not too worried about it being Wednesday before I get a response, I have to take the Easter break into consideration as well, my main concern is I was only running my existing contract down so I didn't incur £60 of leaving penalties, I now want to know on who's authority my tariff has been changed to the iSave 2018? I do not like faceless people making decisions that affect MY bank account balance! I will get to the bottom of this and I WILL post the results on this thread. Thanks again!

finn67

Thank you footguy, that is an excellent piece of advice and information, I will certainly be following that through and as I've said to Dave in the post above, I will post results of each step as I get them on here for the benefit of others in this situation!

finn67

I have now sent my complaint to FU