Utility Point collapsing ? They don't answer the phone, and owe me money

Pete_J75

Just a warning to others: Following on from my message of 2 days ago I decided to leave and switch to E.ON, I have been submitting regular meter readings to UP recently to try to keep my account up-to-date and so as to avoid any nasty surpises. Only a few days ago my credit had actually increased to about £170, but after the latest bill (received today) it has swung back to being £11 in debit. Which i assume will delay my switch to E.ON. Very suspicious, it's almost as if UP are deliberately holding part of the fee back so you get hit with it when you decide to switch. Thus trapping you with them.

UnclaimedEnergy

Most smaller suppliers take DD from customers a month in advance, which is how much customers end up being in credit (even by maybe £50 or so). Even though you have set up a switch to E.ON it will still take a week or so to be completed on average, once the switch is complete and the suppliers agree on a final reading you'll then receive a final bill from Utility Point.

I think unless you're in considerate debt to a supplier, they shouldn't be objecting to your switch away because of it.

Pete_J75

Thanks for your response. There is definitely a delay in terms of submitting meter readings and getting billed for the previous period which i perhaps wasn't completely alert to - though it doesn't help that after being a customer of UP for years i only realised today that the little 'Bill' icon on the My Statements page is actually a link to a detailed pdf bill, the website does not make this clear at all. But as you say, hopefully a small debt should not prevent switching.

ortolickus

I'm in the process of switching to UP after YE went bust and transferred me to SP, with whom i've had problems in the past. UP came out as the cheapest for me using the MSE comparison tool, and their customer service score was good (although the DD amount they quoted - even for the winter - seemed excessive). However,  checking again today, there is no sign of them in the MSE results so maybe they have gone bust! Out of the proverbial frying pan...

Should i cancel my switch and stick with SP, who may be cowboys, but at least are unlikely to collapse?

Pete_J75

The funny thing about UP is that i was actually happy enough with the amount I was paying and actually wanted to reduce it further by fixing the tariff for 12 months again. Yet their business model seems to be about having low tariffs because they don't employ any staff which means they aren't able to actually sign people up to them, so people leave! Not exactly a winning approach. I finally gave up when i tweeted them 5 times and they didn't bother responding. 

As to whether you should sign up or not, I just would say yes they're cheap but don't believe the customer service score (visit the website and see if anyone responds on the chatbot, they probably won't), you are basically sacrificing customer service to save money, and if you do that i would keep on top of your meter readings so you don't end up either massively in credit/debit as when you contact them to address it, either to pay off the debt to leave or recover the credit they are unlikely to provide a speedy resolution to such problems.

MichelScarff

I switched from Utility Point in October 2020 and my credit with them still has not been refunded. I have sent many emails of complaint and have now escalated it to the Ombudsman. I did phone them this morning and after listening to some lovely music and several general announcements my call was finally taken after 20 minutes. All I got was platitudes saying that she agreed that this refund timescale was unacceptable but she would be escalating this to a manager and couldn't give me any timescales. I am not holding my breath!!  

Gerry1

sevenonine said:

I have been told that I would have no trouble switching to another supplier but I want to clear my dues and I certainly want to switch from UP.

Then switch today !

Ofgem regulations mean UP must send you a final bill within six weeks and refund any credit within a further two weeks, with compo due if they fail to do this, so what's stopping you?

sevenonine

Gerry1 said:

sevenonine said:

I have been told that I would have no trouble switching to another supplier but I want to clear my dues and I certainly want to switch from UP.

Then switch today !

Ofgem regulations mean UP must send you a final bill within six weeks and refund any credit within a further two weeks, with compo due if they fail to do this, so what's stopping you?

I rang UP and for once was able to speak to someone. I had clicked on the link for renewal and told the advisor their direct debit amounts had been the minimum for 9 months so I had a debit of £64.72 to clear.  She gave me details of their account and said I had been transferred to their Sapphire account, being at the yearend of supply.

She then said she would advise me to take their cheaper tariff: Ruby.  She was very reasonable and offered to sign me on to Ruby whose tariff was £52; I said I'd prefer to pay £60 to which course she agreed (I thought it best to agree) and I have been sent the contract giving me 14 days to change my mind. 

I really want to know whether other customers of UP have been getting their sizeable credit amounts refunded.

Gerry1

sevenonine said:

Gerry1 said:

sevenonine said:

I have been told that I would have no trouble switching to another supplier but I want to clear my dues and I certainly want to switch from UP.

Then switch today !

Ofgem regulations mean UP must send you a final bill within six weeks and refund any credit within a further two weeks, with compo due if they fail to do this, so what's stopping you?

She then said she would advise me to take their cheaper tariff: Ruby.  She was very reasonable and offered to sign me on to Ruby whose tariff was £52

You do like doing things the hard way !

She didn't offer you a 'tariff of £52'.  She may well have suggested a monthly direct debit of £52, but that's fairly meaningless because there's no guarantee that this payment of £52 will prove to be sufficient to keep up with your bills.  She might as well have offered a DD of a fiver a month.  Ruby is cheaper than what?

You need to make sure you have established your annual kWh usage from actual meter readings, and then you need to compare the annual costs of getting other suppliers to deliver those kWh.

If you think that paying £52 per month represents an All You Can Eat tariff, then it will all end in tears when your DD 'bait' suddenly gets hiked to £80 per month or whatever.

jamesperrett

sevenonine said:

I really want to know whether other customers of UP have been getting their sizeable credit amounts refunded.

Lots of problems with getting refunds from UP. I've been waiting a month and a half but others have been waiting since October.