Utility Warehouse - warning to any prospective new customers

MWT

UKPN can't really help as it is a meter configuration issue which they cannot fix, it has to come from the supplier to the DCC.

24febstarter

Thanks for the tip. I managed to get someone to call back but they were only able to confirm that the supplier side of energy provision, even loss of E7 circuits, is not something that they would get involved with. Nor do they put pressure on suppliers to restore an energy supply.

I'm in the process of changing supplier and hopefully the new one will be able to restore the heating circuits soon. They are probably reliant on UW providing correct information to them which, given how unhelpful UW have been, seems unlikely.

Also keeping a record of Utility Warehouse activity (including the concerted lack of activity) to take to the Energy Ombudsman.

Swipe

24febstarter said:

Thanks for the tip. I managed to get someone to call back but they were only able to confirm that the supplier side of energy provision, even loss of E7 circuits, is not something that they would get involved with. Nor do they put pressure on suppliers to restore an energy supply.

I'm in the process of changing supplier and hopefully the new one will be able to restore the heating circuits soon. They are probably reliant on UW providing correct information to them which, given how unhelpful UW have been, seems unlikely.

Also keeping a record of Utility Warehouse activity (including the concerted lack of activity) to take to the Energy Ombudsman.

Who are you switching too? I hope you get it sorted quickly. I know how you feel. I had a similar experience earlier this year with E.ON Next but luckily it got sorted within 8 days.

24febstarter

Swipe said:

Who are you switching too? I hope you get it sorted quickly. I know how you feel. I had a similar experience earlier this year with E.ON Next but luckily it got sorted within 8 days.

We are switching to EOn Next. The night rate is slightly higher but their day rate is 8p lower. Instead of £100 a month we will be paying just £80. In hindsight, it's almost as if Utility Warehouse set a budget that included charging the heating at the wrong (day) rate?

But thanks to their deliberate act of sabotage it will be mostly the day rate we'll be using. At least for the next week or so to the end of the cooling off period, when our new supplier is able to update the meter settings. And switch the heating back on.

Apparently, even though our energy is being provided by another supplier Utility Warehouse are still liable to pay compensation for having cut off our Economy 7 circuits.

24febstarter

This is very strange. If EOn cannot change the meter settings that would imply that UW would not have been able to do so when they took over my supply last month. It's possible that UW may have been passed the wrong timings from my previous supplier, which was EDF Energy.

EDF have previous form on this. They tampered with our smart meter timer switch before Xmas 2021, leaving the heating on all day long. I was having to turn each of the heaters off in the morning and remember to them back on at night. At first they insisted the timer switch was not part of the meter (?) then waited 28 days to 'fix' the problem and then miraculously re-enabled it remotely. They also disabled the heating on a separate occasion. Amazingly, they have a dedicated Customer Interference Team - presumably, interfering with customer's smart meters? I could start a separate thread on them.

It was only because EDF claimed that the meter was 'broken' that the Ombudsman ordered them to replace a perfectly good meter that they'd installed only a few months earlier with a newer one. On top of paying compensation to me for the inconvenience they caused. And now it looks like they may have given invalid metering information to another supplier...?

Perhaps Utility Warehouse can counterclaim from EDF Energy for causing them to lose a customer?

None of this excuses UW deliberately switching off our Economy7 circuits last week. That was very bad. 

Swipe

Don't worry, if after your switch you still have no heating, if you let E.ON Next know, they will send someone out the very same day to replace your meter if they are unable to resolve it remotely. One of their meter engineers told me all their E7 smart meters are pre-programed for 00:30 - 07:30 for off peak circuit switching.

24febstarter

Swipe said:

Don't worry, if after your switch you still have no heating, if you let E.ON Next know, they will send someone out the very same day to replace your meter if they are unable to resolve it remotely. One of their meter engineers told me all their E7 smart meters are pre-programed for 00:30 - 07:30 for off peak circuit switching.

Utility Warehouse will also change your meter on the same day if you call their emergency service number. It feels like a sledgehammer solution when, as their electrician cheerfully advised, resetting a switch inside the meter would take 5 minutes, if that.

We've already had 2 new smart meters in 2 years and don't need a third one. It seems highly unlikely that the meter is broken, more often it's the supplier's metering and technical teams that may be. It makes you wonder where they all end up? Somewhere in the UK there must be small mountain of discarded smart meters.

Swipe

I don't think E.ON Next will be any different then. Their customer service is just as bad.

Reviewreader9

Do not sign up to this company whatever you do, they are an absolute joke and will try to illegally con you out of money and will then offer the poorest customer services I have ever known and ignore you and lie to you! One of the most unprofessional and untrustworthy con artist of a company I have ever dealt with

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

It would be helpful if you told us what happened to make you hold those opinions.