Is anyone else having problems getting service from first utility? I signed up for electricity in December and gas later in January, but they have still not provided the smart meter. I have phoned repeatedly over the last 4 months but so far they have done nothing!

Applied via uswitch on 2.3.2009. After calling them they gave gas and electric dates for changeover of 4th and 6th May.
Understood this to be the smart meter installation. No new meters installed ( they are external ) so called again. This is the changeover dates I am told. They can now arrange a contact date for smart meters they say.

I hope they survive the the upfront costs and set up costs. I believe that smart metering is essential for energy use awareness and smart grid real time pricing for plug in electric and demand side management of electricity use by products such as fridges and freezers.

I hope that when the others are forced to install smart meters , that the technology is the same as first utility. Read today that ecotricity are planning smart metering in 2010 if I remember correctly.

James2708:Applied via uswitch on 2.3.2009. After calling them they gave gas and electric dates for changeover of 4th and 6th May. Understood this to be the smart meter installation. No new meters installed ( they are external ) so called again. This is the changeover dates I am told. They can now arrange a contact date for smart meters they say.

Good luck with getting a date for the meters! Are they still quoting a "guideline" of installing them within 30 days of the changeover? I am on 135 days and counting..... Actually they did do the gas meter, but it doesn't help because it needs the electric one to send in the data.

Hi, my name is Stacey Roberts and I am Head of Customer Service for first:utility. Your post has been brought to my attention. Please contact me direct via email (stacey.roberts AT first-utility.com) or alternatively please contact customer service on 0845 215 5000 and ask to speak with me and I will be happy to investigate the matter personally.

Similar position,

Transfer dates :- Electric on 28th May & Gas on 5th June.

No contact yet regarding the installation of my nice new smart meters

( The main reason for transfer of suppliers)

No mention of possible further 30 day wait for the meters,when I placed the order for changing suppliers.

Would have thought the 28 day period before transfer, was enough time to arrange for installation of both meters,

on the said transfer dates.

Well Roger i dont want to upset you but i transfered on 5th may for electric and 7th may for gas,rang them the other day as on their website you can now sign up and it gives you a date for meters,i was told we would get ours installed first, i still have had no call and as you can see i transferred a month ago but signed up 9 march,2 years wont be long away at this rate and no sign of what we both want SMART METERS Kevin

I have rang them with my meter readings for May so i dont get a stupid bill estimated as thats not what i want, and they said their team of engineers would contact me about installation of meters(when ,who knows?),will keep you posted

As promised up to date 1st July gas meter and electric smart meters now installed and fully working as from today it has taken 2 months from transfer but at last,so looks like it could be Aug for you Roger Good Luck

I'm sticking with fixed monthly direct debits because I don't fancy "accurate" billing during the winter period which I think will be a financial disaster for many people. Realised that a day after switching to First-Utility and reading the small print. Was very easy to cancel the switch, possibly they don't have many meters.

As Promised UPDATE Yes the Smart Meter etc are now in, and fully working as from today both meters well installed and use their own electic man to install, good job well done, soon forget the wait but i am sure they will improve soon,taken just 2 months from transfer to them .

SandyI:

James2708:Applied via uswitch on 2.3.2009. After calling them they gave gas and electric dates for changeover of 4th and 6th May. Understood this to be the smart meter installation. No new meters installed ( they are external ) so called again. This is the changeover dates I am told. They can now arrange a contact date for smart meters they say.

Good luck with getting a date for the meters! Are they still quoting a "guideline" of installing them within 30 days of the changeover? I am on 135 days and counting..... Actually they did do the gas meter, but it doesn't help because it needs the electric one to send in the data.

I signed up 9 3 2009 Both meters installed 1 7 2009 now connected and working fine,if you are still not connected email stacey.roberts she is at first utility .com very,very helpful Kevin

Roger H 1948:

Similar position,

Transfer dates :- Electric on 28th May & Gas on 5th June.

No contact yet regarding the installation of my nice new smart meters

( The main reason for transfer of suppliers)

No mention of possible further 30 day wait for the meters,when I placed the order for changing suppliers.

Would have thought the 28 day period before transfer, was enough time to arrange for installation of both meters,

on the said transfer dates.

Update to posting of 6th June

Another month has gone bye - Still no meters installed

Far from Happy !!!

Roger H 1948:

Roger H 1948:

Similar position,

Transfer dates :- Electric on 28th May & Gas on 5th June.

No contact yet regarding the installation of my nice new smart meters

( The main reason for transfer of suppliers)

No mention of possible further 30 day wait for the meters,when I placed the order for changing suppliers.

Would have thought the 28 day period before transfer, was enough time to arrange for installation of both meters,

on the said transfer dates.

Update to posting of 6th June

Another month has gone bye - Still no meters installed

Far from Happy !!!

I would say about 30 July to 5th Aug this seems to be the standard time Kev

Dear All, I would tread carefully before signing on the line. Here's my history of involvement.

1. Placed order for two new meters and transfer of supply mid Jan 09.
2. Gas & Electricity meter installation finally completed 6th May - took lots and lots of hassle with way too many people involving far too many unfulfilled promises.
3. Now early August and I still can't see my usage on line despite contacting the poor customer support team who 'will speak to the technical team'. I ask to speak to the technical team and they cannot / will not put me though. They even asked me for my log-in details on one occasion over the phone as they wanted to check, but did not have the ability to perform the check at their end!
4. HERE'S THE KICKER..... So far, EVERY bill has been ESTIMATED, which flies in the face of their own marketing message.
5. Worthy of comment: the Customer Service people never email or rarely call you back. You'll have to chase them.

I've just contacted Stacey Roberts with a last hope of getting it to work.

I appreciate that without any mandate from the government, FU are attempting to seed an early adopters market. But frankly with kit which never works, coupled with ineffectual customer interface, I don't hold much hope for their future.

Finally. Please Stacey have your outbound automated message removed. "Here at First Utility, we're dedicated to giving you the best possible value and service". This statement is clearly untrue unless your judgement of 'best' is way different to the rest of your potential customer base.

My experience of this company is pretty much the same as the post above. The customer service is appalling and their promises are meaningless. I joined them on the 5th and 7th of May and I'm still waiting for the smart meters. I have complained repeatedly and was evetually (in July) told that I was on their 'priority list' for an install. I was eventually offered some dates in August, one of which I accepted. However when I called them to confirm the date they said that they have no record of me requesting it as the person I emailed was was "off work" so no one was accessing her email. I did point out that I actually emailed their generic customer services account, but apparently that makes no difference to them.

On Monday I was told they they have outsourced the installs to a company "that can do the installs much quicker than they can" (that can't be difficult, trained monkeys could do that!) Now I'm waiting for this outsourced installer (Onstream) to contact me, but all FU will commit to is that they will contact me when they see fit.

After chasing them, I received my first 'estimated' bill the other day. I think they have estimated it on the assumption that my home is a small factory as the bill bears no relationship to my usage during the summer and certainly isn't based on any meter readings, estimated or otherwise, in fact they haven't provided any details to explain their estimation.

I have emailed Stacey today, but I'm not holding my breath as I'm sure that she's been named on many of the emails and letters that I have exchanged before.

I have advised her that I will cancel my direct debit if they try and bill me in September on the same basis as the first bill. Instead I will take a meter reading and will calculate the bill based on actual usage and pay it by electronic transfer rather than pay their dreamed up bill. I simply refuse to bank roll them. If they need finance, they should take out a loan instead of relying on interest free payments from their customers.

If this continues for much longer I will simply switch to another company where I can, at least, be assured of accurate bills and probably a lower tarrif. First Utility can whistle for any exit fees, as the only possible justification for applying them would be the costs of the smart meters. I will let them take me to court if need be.

My advice would be to avoid this company for at least 12 months and monitor forums like this one and then only consider signing up if they get their act together.

AlistairF:

A few points of well intentioned advice. Firstly, less of the "monkeys". It's not true and I could suggest other reasons why not.

Secondly you keep on the right side of the Terms & Conditions. By that I mean do not cancel your direct debit if you have agreed monthly payments by direct debit.

Next, you either want to leave or you don't. If you do, switch. If you are billed the termination fees, ask once nicely for the fees to be rebated in the circumstances and if they refuse, settle and launch a formal complaint. If First-Utility don't settle the complaint to your satisfaction before it reaches the Energy Ombudsman, they will be hit with a hefty case fee regardless of the outcome.

Do it properly avoiding the "whistling bravado" and you will avoid any potential for damaging your credit history - and you will have escaped.

For anybody else reading this, I considered First-Utility once. I rejected it not because of reviews I had read but the realisation that I didn't want accuarate monthly gas bills during the winter period of high consumption, I wanted fixed monthly payements throughout the year. I feel there is a serious flaw in the accurate billing model which will result in winter payment problems for many people.

Jalexa,

Thanks for your reply. I do appreciate that staying on the right side of their terms is important, even if they breach them themselves. My last post was just me venting my spleen as the apparent lack of progress and decency from them, I have raised the issue of the payments to Stacey. My experience to date is that their customer services are really friendly but useless and I always get irritated when I am repeatedly lied to in the way that they have lied to me. The result of their inept behaviour though means that I have effectively left an open wallet on the table for them. When they do decide to bill me, it can be for whatever sum they dream up, with no justification and getting an explanation has proven to be impossible.

I don't know about you, but I can't afford to simply leave my household finances open to the whim of obsure and unknown formula for calculating a bill that bears no relationship to my actual or even historic usage. Effectively what I think people need to be aware of is that First Utility are failing miserably yet while this continues, they can, for as long as they see fit, get the customers to subsidise them in the form of grossly over estimated bills while we only have to hope that one day, in the distant future and of their choosing they will acknowledge that my account is credit and stop billing. I see no incentive for them to fix their problems on this basis.

In response to your point about the variable bills, this was concern to me too, however I had been planning to arrange for the direct debit to be paid from a little used account and I will then set up a monthly standing order from my main account so that any excess in the summer months can be used in the winter months. Basically it means that I will budget the same amount on a monthly basis as I used to do with my previous supplier. The added benefit being that I earn any interest during the times that I am 'in credit' and can monitor the balance to ensure that I top it up if I need to.

Despite what I have experienced with them, I still think their offering has some merit, but I have now set myself a deadline by which time I will transfer elsewhere as the hassle and potential financial hardship they could cause me is just too much.