New homeowner - Which provider for Elec and Gas

LupoLover

LupoLover

LupoLover

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Joined
15 Jul 2008
Posts
1,225
Any advice?
Just bought my 1st property, 3 bed semi usual working young couple. Gas for heating and elec for cooking. Who would you guys go with? Im guessing one of the smaller companies but which one? (NOT TOUCHING FIRST UTILITY!)

Cheers

Sheldon
 
recently switched over to ovoenergy - if you go onto the moneysaving expert site they have a section which compares all the current rates available (including the ones that don't pay commission to comparison websites!)
 
Cheers Im on there. Looked at reviews but of course you can find bad reviews of all companies, so hard to choose! Im using logic if I ring and dont speak to anyone within 5 min or they dont speak english well enough for me to understand the phone goes down!
 
Ovo are good, they have live chat too which is useful. They're one of our clients so I've been to their head office and all their staff are UK based (mainly in Bristol). And when we looked they were the cheapest, and 15% green, too.
 
I have gone with Ovo.

First Utility:

Average phone call till someone answers is approx 30min (20-40min) Ive done it 6 times now!

They have not communicated ANYTHING in 48 days. Basically I signed up, they said I would get a welcome letter with change over date etc....
After 2 weeks I ring saying I have no letter, they said I was being impatient and I had to give 28 days (Oki fair enough). After 35 days I ring them back saying still nothing. All they would tell me is yes they would be taking over my supply but couldn't tell me when and my account number. Great what use is any of that to me? 46 days later ring again and get no more information then before.

Rang Energy Omburdsman, they said it was quite normal for them, you probably wont ever here from them! I took their advice and rang First Utility who were actually very good (once I got through) and said yes its their mistake, we are sorry, we will cancel your contract and discharge you. Which basically means I can go with whoever I want.

So they were Oki in resolving it, however took ages on the phone (Which isnt 0800 like Ovo) and generally useless and couldn't tell me anything on the other 5 attempts when I rang! As you can imagine I have very little faith with First Utility now so have gone with Ovo.
 
Weird.

I've recently switched over to them, the only time I've had to ring them I was on hold around 10 minutes (the alert was a 10 minute wait list so pretty spot on) and when I spoke to the person they seemed fairly decent.

I'll keep an eye on things.
 
Marvt74 said:
Weird.

I've recently switched over to them, the only time I've had to ring them I was on hold around 10 minutes (the alert was a 10 minute wait list so pretty spot on) and when I spoke to the person they seemed fairly decent.

I'll keep an eye on things.
Click to expand...

My girlfriend recently left them it took her an hour to do so.

She was charged extra for having paper bills. When she originally asked for online only they said 'sorry it's not letting me do it you'll have to pay'.

They couldn't tell her how much her final bill was, but instead said she will have to wait until it comes out her account.

They didn't take any money for four months of being in the property, despite numerous phone calls they kept on saying they knew nothing about her.

They had the best price for me when I was looking, I avoided them because of the above.
 
Weird, I've found first utility to be fine. switched over to them and don't have a single complaint.

I think once companies get inundated with customers because they have the lowest prices (on comparison sites especially) the workforce struggles to keep up.
 
Bit of a hijack, the previous owners of our new house had a prepay meter and we want to go to direct debit. Do we have to go to the current supplier first (British Gas) to change the meter before we shop around or can we shop around now and switch?
 
Yeah ring up old person supplier and say Il go on standard tarriff as took on property and I will be moving to another company soon. Then ring up who you want to go with and get them to send to request internally to transfer over. The meter belongs to whoever has the contract with you so doesn't matter who removes it as such.
 
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