Experiences of Utilita Energy - Moved to them by Ofgem and think bills have been and are wrong

[mummytippy]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction here.

I was moved to Utilita Energy after my previous supplier Eversmart Energy went into administration in Sept 2019.

I switched to Eversmart from B Gas via Martin Lewis in May 2018 - fab rate - great deal... v happy...

Eversmart installed new meters outside and a new smart meter inside, replacing the B Gas equipment and my DD was set at £44 pm DD. However... I only ever received a welcome email from them and no bills... none at all! I paid £44 pm from May 2018 up to May 2019 then no more DDs were collected.

Next thing I know they've 'gone bump' and I'm moved to a company called Utilita Energy by Ofcom and receive 1/4'ly bills (old fashioned imo and never the cheapest option). The rate was extortionate too in comparison.

I learned of the change when Utilita wrote to tell me they've taken over Eversmart's customers and it was overseen by Ofcom.

As the tariff was so high, I went back on Martin Lewis and arranged a switch as soon as I could (back to B Gas as it happened - as cheapest deal) but had to pay my outstanding bills with Utilita to enable the switch - which I did all bar the final bill which hadn't been produced at that point.

As I was awaiting my final bill I took a note of the amounts on the smart meter and the bill was almost double the smart meter amount!

This made me wonder if the 3 months bills I'd just paid were accurate? Also B Gas wanted a meter reading (start reading) and when I went out to both of my meters... the screens were both blank (digital meters) with no display at all?! B Gas had said in their welcome letter that if I could not provide meter readings, they'd use the final reading from Utilita. This is what's happened but I feel like I'm stood on quick sand with no evidence of final/start reading as per the meters :-(

As I'm unsure what to do, I've still not paid the final bill as I want to query my previous bills in comparison to what the smart meter said to the actual bill I've received. I'm talking about the highest 1/4 of the year here too...Oct, Nov, Dec... and... to add to matters...
I've now received a 'REVISED' final bill which has £331.00 added to it for Eversmart Energy when they went into receivership, so should I not be waiting for a letter from an administrator in relation to this?

My bills with Eversmart were based on actual usage with B Gas for the previous 12 months before my initial switch... so peaks and troughs but DD was set at £44 like I say based on this.
For Oct, Nov and Dec with Utilita it came to £330.00 and their projected annual amount £ 980 so definitely close to double (as £980 / 12 = £81 pm) :-(

I did take a photo of the smart meter reading as evidence but lost the photo as my phone crashed.

Where do I start with this?! Any pointers much appreciated

Thank you in advance

Bump

I can’t help with the smart meter side as I don’t have one, but I was/am in a similar position in that I was with Eversmart who made an error with billing which they agreed to rectify, but was transferred to Utilita before that happened. Utilita have been an absolute shower of shit, they’ve made numerous errors in the bills they have sent, and they’ve failed to give me a bill showing the link between the Eversmart and Utilita billing. I spent months chasing before giving up and complaining to OFGEM. Can’t comment on that process yet as it’s not resolved but I believe companies are charged for every complaint which goes to OFGEM, so I get a tiny bit of revenge!

The first step is to raise a complaint with Utilita and wait 6 weeks. I know the money saving expert forums have lots of people unimpressed with Utilita who know their stuff so might be worth asking there?

Thank you @MLDP

Have you heard anything from OFGEM with regards to acknowledging your complaint yet? and second question, what were the errors in the billing you experienced?

I will check out the Martin Lewis forum too... I have managed to obtain an email for Utilita's customer service department so I will log my complaint

Hi again @MLDP I've logged into MSE Forum and there a few Utilita/Eversmart posts but cannot figure out how to reply or post a new thread on there! I don't suppose you can help?... I might be me but it certainly doesn't seem clear

We’ve had terrible problems too. We knew we owed eversmart money by the time they went bust - they were undercharging us based on our meter readings and they never provided a bill or give us access that worked to their online services. We too were shocked that the administration team passed everything to Utilita whose charges were criminally high. Like you we switched asap but were delayed switching by Utilita who refused to give us bills until the eversmart balances were known. We raised a Resolver complaint and rang Utilita numerous times. Finally in early March we got our bill for actual usage up until early November 2018 ( 4 months after we left them) based on our meter readings when under Utilita- we paid that. However they then sent another bill for £400 plus for the balance we owed eversmart prior to admin. We refused to pay this until they provided a full breakdown of our charges and usage and evidence of this debt.
After 3 weeks of escalating calls and resolver, they suddenly came back with a revised bill of £29.5!!😳

We settled that one!

Moral of story- challenge and ensure they send you full breakdown of your eversmart account balances - seems odd to us that they went from a debt of £300 to less than £30, when we insisted we wouldn’t pay until they provided evidence.

Hang in there and keep calling and maybe try Resolver- it worked for us

Good luck

@mummytippy sorry I haven’t actually posted on the forum so can’t help you there. With OFGEM I’m at the stage where Utilita have submitted their evidence (they’ve accepted there have been failings in customer service but are disputing that they haven’t provided an accurate bill), so I need to respond and then wait for the reviewers decision - fingers crossed this ass gets resolved!

*all!

@Cfdmorris

Thank you so much for your detailed input and for the advise of going via Resolver. I too will demand a full breakdown of all usage and bills. I guess they hope that if they just add an amount on to the final bill (Revised in my case) that I'll just pay it out of fear. I too can't believe the Administrators have just sent the amounts to Utilita to collect without so much as evidence... quite frankly unacceptable imo!

As said, I also need to establish that the money I have already paid on previous bills was accurate as I already feel I've overpaid.

The figures on yours are unbelievable as you say... £400 down to £29??? very disconcerting but glad you got it resolved and settled Wish me luck!

Thanks for coming back again @MLDP and confirming the current status of your complaint.
I've had a letter from Utilita's legal team now - chasing the January account but I'm going to add in to my complaint email that I feel that it's completely inappropriate considering the current financial climate we are all finding ourselves in.

No, worries on the MSE forum posting... I just wondered and I still can't fathom it!

Good luck with your case against Utilita/Eversmart

I'm having terrible issues with them too. I'll be following the advice and raising a complaint. I was switched to them from Eversmart.
I was trying to leave Eversmart when they went bust and was told I had no debt and could switch. It took me 3 attempts to leave Utilitia. They couldn't give me a final bill and were shocking, this was October. Fast forward to last month and I got a utilitia bill for 360. I called to complain and the woman was so rude. One comment was "I clearly need to explain this to you slowly. Don't I?" Then she said do you want me to generate your final Eversmart bill? Like a threat. I said no, that account is clear. This week I got a final Eversmart bill for another 300! I feel like it's been done on purpose. Loads of people are struggling and they are sending out bills, all over the place!

@seizethecuttlefish

They truly are a nightmare aren't they and seem to be a law unto themselves. Have you raised your complaint yet? I'm tackling mine this afternoon. I'm almost certain I've been overcharged and judging on the other comments on my post I'm hopeful of a refund on what I've already paid and reduction on the amount they say is still outstanding. You're right too on that their timing is terrible in escalating things at the financially trying time

@mummytippy I need to get everything together but planning on doing it today. Between childcare, homeschooling and working from home lol. They are a nightmare. I worked out that they've calculated my bill as 830 for 3 months! I'm struggling to see how it got to that as I was paying enough every month to clear my bills apparently!

Relieved to discover I’m not the only one having a nightmare with Utilita, as a previous Eversmart customer. I have switched to nPower as the Utilita tariff was ridiculous but getting a final bill from Utilita has been so difficult and as a result we have ended up paying them £1.3k for the past 6 months usage! Every time they sent me the final bill, I thought ‘Fine, I’ll just pay it so we can move on and switch to nPower’, but then they contact me a few weeks later saying that I still owe considerable money on the account?!

I’m kicking myself for not paying closer attention to meter readings and the payments they were demanding from me, now it’s escalated to such a large amount :-( I’ve requested a full breakdown of usage and bills from Utilita in the hope I can match this against meter readings to prove they have been overcharging. I also intend to complain to Ofgem.

Good luck. I thought my 300 for 2 weeks was bad! Every time I pay them, I get a new bill. I've raised a complaint as frankly their customer service is appalling. They have never apologized or offered any gesture of good will. They sent me a final demand for the last amount with no bill. They've just sent me 12 months Eversmart bills and told me to work it out myself! I'm not confident that if I paid them again I wouldn't get another bill. Apparently Eversmart let me run up a debt but didn't bill me for it and now they are billing me. I left last year. I called Eversmart and settled my very small balance as they blocked my transfer and then crashed into administration 5 days later.

I'm also an ex customer of eversmart who was transferred over to utilita. After leaving them in march and receiving a final bill of £96.99 which was paid, I've now received another final bill of £490.15! After talking to customer services they've claimed that this is the final bill from eversmart and they'll be sending a detailed copy in the post. No idea what to do now.

I've been having a nightmare with Eversmart/Utilita for various reasons. Ne w smart meters with readings were not been shown on the bills correctly, so they were still using the old meters. They then tried to correct it, wiping all my previous bills off their system and recharging me for the consumption twice! I got a final eversmart bill for £564.24! After getting nowhere with them, even though I provided evidence, receiving 2 emails basically telling me they were right, I was wrong and also spoke to me like I was stupid. So I've taken it up with the energy ombudsman. They've revised the bill to £374.25, but its still wrong. I feel Utilita are trying to rinse unfortunately Eversmart customers of as much money as they can. I'm not paying a penny until it's resolved properly.

You should ask them for copies of all your eversmart bills. Do you have any of your previous bills with them. Try to check the readings and if they tie into each other, and if no joy from Utilita in amending the bill, and I doubt you will, complain to energy ombudsman who can investigate it for you..Good luck

I'm just off the phone to them this morning and I'm escalating it. It was the worst customer service ever and I don't think their complaint handling procedure is compliant. I'm fully expecting to be forced to pay over 300 for 2 weeks supply with them! They are appalling. I suspect (as before) I'll pay this FINAL bill and they will produce another. The agent basically lied to me, called her colleague a liar and then panicked and put me on hold. I put in a complaint over a month a go and the complaints team haven't even been in touch to acknowledge it. I sent an email last week asking for an update and it turns out the logged the email as a new complaint! I was thinking of trying Resolver but have been told they are rubbish.