Absolutely SICK of first utility

zorgan

:mad:

my dad (who is a pensioner by the way and is in his late 70s) came to me recently about an issue.

He signed up for a deal with them around June 2016

Gave them his previous annual total of how many kilowatts per hour electricity and gas usage he had used previously with Scottish Power and decided to switch both gas and electricity with them and I was with him at the time he signed up with them.

They said with them it would work out at £68 pounds per month (totally way off what it has been and now realising this) I believe it was totally mis-sold, we thought it was too good to be true at the time, TOTAL misinformation and the figures we gave them were correct, as I said I was there with him at the time when he was signing up with them.

So a few months went past, he installed the android app and was entering his meter readings and he'd done a good job of it as I checked all the history. Things started getting a bit strange with his bills and they sent him a bill through January saying his new estimated bill is now £130 or thereabouts and that he is now in £230 worth of debt!

I logged into the online statistics for what they had been charging and recording I looked at the chart which was really broken in regards to what it should had been for example:

JUNE £1.32
JULY £2.54
AUGUST £5.34
SEPTEMBER....starts going up like a steep line £50
OCTOBER......goes up to £90

you get the idea, anyway its been going up a steep slope and getting out of control, totally MIS MANAGED BILLS and system.

The usage then affected his "new estimated direct debt" which went sky high so he went up to the bank and canceled stressed and worried, I have now paid off the debt of £230 for him.

• He has solar panels installed
• it's a two bedroom house with gas and electricity
• 3 people stay here myself and my parents
• the bills combined are usually around £85 a month in the past

not sure whats going on here, I have heard a lot in the news recently about the energy companies totally taking the !!!! recently but i'm really angry at them for not only mis-managing his bills but offering the deal the way they did in the first place.

really would not recommend this supplier, it's put a lot of stress into my dads life, I have found out that we are totally stuck with them, they are wanting to charge £30 per gas and elec to exit them and I want to change as I feel like they have not held up their standards in regards to managing everything, I also believe they have hiked their prices recently and this is also one of the reasons the bills are getting out of hand.

any advice is very grateful.

Terrysdelight

A mistake has clearly happened but it's not worth getting angry about. My dad was in his 70's and I took over responsibility for all of the gas and electricity switching etc, to avoid this sort of thing.

It might be worth you speaking to them and tell them you want the direct debit set up for X amount. I wouldn't leave it for elderly parents to deal with.

Incidently my dad has just passed away and now I'm peeved that he has been charged an exit fee of £60! It's not as if it was his choice to leave the utulity suppliers. I'm thinking of arguing this with them.