npower / yorkshire (Combined Utilities in general)

Member Name: samhain

Product:	Combined Utilities in general
Date:	09/06/03 (392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Call Centre takes ages to answer, Call Centre staff haven't a clue, You will waste your time trying to resolve an issue

I moved into my new house 18 months ago and had both the gas and electric utilities switched to yorkshire electricity, which is part of the npower group, as my parents had always been with them without any problems.

I set-up budget accounts for both gas and electricity and I settled in to domestic bliss.

Paying over the odds on the budget account, so as to be well in credit, I was shocked to receive an electric bill showing I was £15 in debit and as anyone else would do, contacted the company straight away.

All power companies are the same these days and estimate your bills, as they don't employ enough meter readers to read the meters every month in the way the nationalised servvices used to, which is the first indicator of a poorer less efficient service.

They asked me to take 3 meter readings over 3 weeks (one per week), which I did.
When I phoned them 3 weeks later with the readings, the felt as I did that the meter seemed to be recording increased useage every week, a clear indication of a meter fault.

They arranged to send out a man to test the meter for accuracy, the earliest appointment was made for 3 weeks later.

The day arrived and the meter man showed up and read the meter, but explained he had only been alloted 4 minutes to take a reading, not to test the meter.

I phoned up yorkshire who explained there had obviously been an error and explained it would need to be rebooked for a further 3 weeks.

I refused and called their complaints line and told them what had happened.
I ended up speaking to some disinterested, snot-nosed teenager in a call-centre, who had the audacity to tell me that I would be charged in excess of £30 for a man to test the meter.

I asked him who was going to pay my lost wages for having wasted the day expecting my meter to be tested, when all that happened was a reading due to a customer services cock-up.

He was unable to resolve the i
ssue (doubt he could register what day it was), so I informed him I was going to take my business elsewhere.

I have now been in touch with another supplier and am switching both my Gas and Electric over to someone else.

If anyone reading these reviews is a director of a power company, then try realising that people do not want to wait 30+ minutes to speak with customer services on the phone and when they finally do get through, they want a human being with a brain at the other end who has even an inckling of common-sense and professionalism.

In short, avoid yorkshire electricity like the plague.

Summary: