Feedback on Utility Point

griffb

My switch from UP to Symbio seems to be following much the same path. Switch date was 26th August. I had the "sorry you are leaving" email on 14th, and the subsequent customer service phone call to double check. Gave Symbio and UP the meter reading on 26th. UP produced a statement to 31 Aug estimating an extra 5 days usage, then took a d/d for September even though I am well over a month in credit. I've politely asked for that back, and an indication of when I might receive a corrected final bill and credit balance refund.


To be fair, I've had similar (and worse) problems switching between "Big 6" suppliers

tk47

So further to my post from yesterday above, I had an email at 09:30am which cancelled the erroneous, duplicated bill and now has the final bill in place.

Also promised the small credit will be refunded by cob tomorrow.

The final bill is not quite what I expected as it as used 1 unit different to that I gave both my new supplier and UP, but that may be the independent data collector playing silly bu99ers.
That's going to cost be an extra 0.0015p! :eek:
(providing my new supplier also uses the same figure - I'll post about that elsewhere)

A couple of things to note to those leaving UP:
1. Whilst you retain access to your online account, you lose access to all your meter readings history
(but they are available on your statements that remain online)
2. Similarly, your usage history graph has no data any more.

So if you want your meter reading history, and you don't have a record yourself, I suggest you grab the data before you get your final bill.
I'd also recommend you download anything else you may want in future (such as your statements) if you've not already downloaded them. Whilst they remain available online, no telling when UP may pull them.

griffb

Followed up on my email from last week this morning, got a reply almost by return. The August bill has now had the estimated use for 26-31 August removed, my final reading has been confirmed, account has been closed and my refund is in the system.

dtrain

tk47 wrote: »

So Tuesday was equally concerning when they produced a monthly statement for the whole of August. They had used the meter redaings we had provided in week 3, and estimated some readings until the end of the month. They also charged us standing charges for all days in August, despite not supplying us every day of August.
So another email complaint fired off. That too was responded to later that day. They apologised again, cancelled the incorrect statement for August (so the account balance has gone up again) and say they will now wait to produce the final bill (as they need the meter readings from the data collector and don't have them from the data collector yet)

So not without issues. But the issues we have had have always been quickly and saisifactorily resolved.
.

Cheers, tk47, that's helpful to know. It seems you have had much better success getting responses and money coming back to you. I eventually got a response to the request for a final bill, with the DD being zero rated, 2 weeks later. That was about 10 days ago. Still waiting on the refund even though the DD remains active.

tk47

dtrain wrote: »

Cheers, tk47, that's helpful to know. It seems you have had much better success getting responses and money coming back to you. I eventually got a response to the request for a final bill, with the DD being zero rated, 2 weeks later. That was about 10 days ago. Still waiting on the refund even though the DD remains active.

Do you have cause for complaint with the supplier? If so, are you following the supplier's complaint procedure?

As an update to my previous post, and UP havong waited for the 'validated' meter readings to produce my final bill, they did indeed get it wrong. This was indicated by my new supplier having used the meter readings I provided them, after they had them 'validated'

So I fired off another email early one morning, and had a response the same day, with another final bill.

As I mentioned earlier, they are not perfect, but certainly not a disaster either. They make some errors, but they are quick to rectify them once they are pointed out to them.

In regards to your direct debit, if the amount is set to zero, then nothing will be collected.

Unlike many other suppliers, after you receive a final bill, the supplier then actively closes the DD mandate. They do not do this earlier because until they produce the final bill they don't know if you owe them money or they owe you money.

If you owe them money, they will use the DD to collect it. If they owe you money, they will use the bank details from the DD mandate to refund you.

I know this to be the case due to their errors with my account. As they produced a final bill for me and refunded me the same day, they then closed the DD mandate a day or so later. But as the final bill was wrong, which I only notified them some days later still as I was awaiting confirmation from my new supplier, then they had to request my bank details to refund me the extra credit that the revised final bill produced.

HonestJohn

They are not replying to my emails. Definitely going to cancel my DD before they take another payment as they owe me now over 2 months DDs.

grumpycrab

HonestJohn wrote: »

They are not replying to my emails. Definitely going to cancel my DD before they take another payment as they owe me now over 2 months DDs.

They appear to be active on Twitter... https://twitter.com/UtilityPoint/

merchcon55

I used to use Facebook Messenger to contact them - always replied within a day, sometimes within a few minutes.

HonestJohn

I guess they just slow things down when they prepare the final bill to keep your balance longer. Needs to be a limit on time allowed to prepare the final bill.

Benight

HonestJohn wrote: »

I guess they just slow things down when they prepare the final bill to keep your balance longer. Needs to be a limit on time allowed to prepare the final bill.

They don't know what the final balance will be until they prepare the final bill