Utility Warehouse

[Quenched]

Ok so apologies because I have another thread about energy suppliers, but I've now plucked up the courage to mention about my case. 

 

Basically we joined Utility Warehouse UW for short last December, and a guy who sold us to UW came round our house and explained how they keep costs low. 

He said we keep your bills down by combining various utility bills all together, for example in our case we put our house insurance, phone bills, and electricity.

So if I break it down we were paying £80 for our electricity instead of £130 when we we're with Octopus.

So we were delighted at the time, as it seemed we were saving a small fortune. 

But and this is the BIG but. Little did we know we have been under paying for our electricity for a whole year. 

I had an email from UW just before Christmas stating that, we have done an annual review of your energy usage and your in debt by £988!!

I'm thinking hold on, the guy said we keep costs down by combining various utility bills, hence the companies name Utility Warehouse. 

But it seems we have been conned. 

So I started an official complaint, and they said we will shave off £500 of your debt, as I said we think its unfair as this could have easily been addressed sooner.

But they agreed for the next 12 months we only pat for what we use, but based on the last 12 months usage that would typically be £140 a month.

So basically we now have to pay £60 a month more, plus start paying off the £488.

Is this just a case of being screwed over? Shouldn't they erase the debt completely as we are now in financial ruin, and through no fault of our own. 

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

But that's all the more reason they should have adjusted payments accordingly to usage which we trusted they would do with information from the smart meter. 

 

Its almost like they didn't care we would get into debt. 

 

How can the consumer know what we're using if everything is hidden behind a smart meter that actually doesn't mean a thing to us. Which isn't very smart at all if the energy company who have all the information from it, yet refuse to adjust the bills. 

 

The era of ringing up the company with meter readings are long gone are they not?

I haven't done that for over 15 years. 

[barry1010]

My smart meter and app tells me how much I'm using, how much it costs, how much I've paid and how much debt/credit I have at that time.

I still get a monthly bill. There are no surprises.

[Massey65]

I read my own meter every month and put the reading through on my account via the computer.  I then check online what I am using and adjust my D/Debit if necessary.  I do not have a smart meter as both my neighbours had bad experiences with them. One had the smart meter giving them usage for £8.000.00 for one month for electricty amd nothing for gas and the other neighbour had a electric bill/gas bill showing usage of £35,000.00 for a month. Both eventually had them removed after almost a year of complaining but the amount they owe has still not been given to them.  They are reading their meters weekly at the moment to ensure that at least those reading will be correct.

[barry1010]

I had a smart meter because my old non-smart meter went haywire during lockdown and I didn't realise. It took months to sort out, with the help of the Ombudsman, and although the bill was finally adjusted I am still a few hundred pounds down. I will never get it back.

 

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

Yeah my smart meter tells me all that. But my point was Utility Warehouse said they would pull their own readings from the smart meter and adjust the payments accordingly, and they said we don't need to do a thing. 

 

So naturally we fell for it. We just feel lied to because we trusted everything was being taken care of. 

 

In hindsight it does make me think how could they provide electricity for £80 a month, but then I suppose we could have been on their tarrif which offered that, so I didn't question it.

 

Big big lesson learnt though. 

[barry1010]

I feel for you. Does the email really say that you are £900+ in debt?

I find it hard to believe they are willing to write £500 off, it would be very unusual.

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

£988 to be exact.

They shaved off £500 because I argued the case that we felt cheated as the guy that came in our house declared he could provide electricity for £80 a month, and he knew we were already paying Octopus £130 a month. So I said shouldn't we be paying more and he insisted no, and that payments would be adjusted from the smart meter accordingly.

So we didn't question it for the whole year, and so obviously my argument stood up fair and square, I also said we felt through no fault of our own we are now left with a huge debt, so they shaved off £500 from the £988.

 

But they agreed from now on I pay for what we use, when really that's what we should have already been doing in the first place. 

 

I told them that we feel conned, and that the guy was just using a sales pitch to gain us as customers, so they took all this on board and took off £500

[barry1010]

So how much will you be paying now per month?

Are you all electric?

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

Well based on the years usage up til now, they estimate we should pay £140 a month, and that's just for the electricity.

We are all electric, we don't have gas in this village, or any other form of energy. 

 

Does £140 seem a lot to you? We are only a 2 bed mid terrace house.

 

Before the energy crisis we only used to pay £70 a month, but thats 6 or 7 years ago.

 

Thats another reason we didn't really question the £80 a month Utility Warehouse quoted, we just assumed they had a better tarrif or whatever.

 

[barry1010]

Depends on how many baths and showers you have, how often you use your oven, tumble dryer etc. Hard to say if it's good or not

[barry1010]

As I said earlier it is cost per unit + standing charge per day that counts.

It won't take long to compare with other companies 

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

We do use the tumble dryer quite a bit as we haven't been able to dry clothes outside much as the weather has been appalling. We didn't even have a decent summer. 

[bednobs]

i think there's 3 of you there yove said before? and one of them is a child (therefore more likely imo to have more baths than showers?)  if so £140 seems great to me if that's your entire energy bil.  We are 3 of us similar sort of ages and our energy bill is £204 PM (gas and electric combined) pus £200 per 4 months for wood for our wood burner.  Personaly, i think you are really lucky - you got £500 free nergy this year and there's not many who can say that!

[bednobs]

also ATM there is not much difference IMO between energy companies prices/tariffs 

[Quenched]

bednobs, 

Thanks, yeah when you put it like that I suppose we're lucky in some respects. But I will say we rarely put any electric heaters on, we mainly use our log burner.  So I guess its difficult comparing with other people's usage. 

 

In hindsight we should have just stuck with Octopus. We just got a quote from them for £90 a month, but I know that is too cheap.

I do believe energy companies offer it cheap at first just to gain customers. Its something I am beginning to realise. 

 

 

[davebro3]

You said the UW deal is a "bundle" - what else is in it & are the items separately itemised?

[barry1010]

Just a thought - does your new monthly payment include repaying your £400+ debt?

[barry1010]

Davebro, his house insurance and phone but Quenched did say the £140 was just for electricity

[THECORBYLOON]

Did you ever check your account online to see if you were in credit or debit, month by month?

 

[Quenched]

davebro3, 

Yeah the other 2 items are my mobile phone and house insurance, but on my Utility Warehouse app it shows them as seperate identities, which to me doesn't make sense if their sales pitch is they keep costs down by combining various items. 

The only thing combined is the monthly payment. 

 

Obviously we were very naive to trust what the guy was on about, he said by combining items is how we drive costs down, so we thought great we got our electric down to £80 not realising we were building up a debt of £988 having been with them for a year.

 

Like fools we were even recommending them to my friends and family, because you get £50 with each new successful customer. So we now have to warn them of their fate.