Swalec Please Plug In! (SWALEC)

Member Name: English Lady

Product:	SWALEC
Date:	15/05/03 (1307 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not a one

Disadvantages: clueless, expensive

I have just recently moved house, which as anyone who has done this knows it is one of the most stressful things known to man! The new home I am now renting has both its Gas and electric supplied by a company called Swalec. I had never heard of them until finding out that to switch to manweb (Scottish power) at my new address I would first have to contact my current supplier to tell them I was changing supplier. And also obviously to sort out payment details in the meantime.


So duly I ring Swalec, I tell them my meter readings and that my electricity meter is a token meter and that the gas meter isn?t.

Problem number 1. They think my gas meter is a Quantum (card) meter. I am told not to worry that someone will sort it out

3 days later, lo and behold a letter drops through my new front door from Swalec not a new card for my electricity meters, as I expected, oh no, a card for my gas meter. A gas meter which has no slot to place a card in.

Once more I ring Swalec (oh and by the way the call is free so I guess that?s a plus) to tell them about my meter, I am told yet again not to worry it?ll be sorted out, oh and yes we?ll issue you another electric card whilst we?re at it.

A couple of days later the electricity left on my meter is getting low, so I ring again, listen to another round of ?love, love me do? then speak to another customer advisor, who gives me a number to use temporarily to purchase my electric. I was asked if I had received my gas card, so I told them yes and yet again explained how my meter wasn?t a quantum meter. I gave the lady all the information off the gas meter and was told the gas was on and it would be sorted out immediately.

Off to the shop I pootle to purchase £10 worth of electricity tokens, only to have it gobbled up by the last tenants debt, I ring my landlord who tells me that manweb (the local supplier) should have sent an engineer out to swap over the meter
. So I once again ring good old Swalec, give them my electricity meter readings (again) and I am told I will have the £10 debt refunded to me as 2 £5 electric tokens.


3 days later I receive a letter from Swalec, again not an electricity card but a request for info about my gas meter, the same info I have told over the phone twice to the nice people of Swalec. So guess what? That?s right I ring Swalec (I know have their number tattooed onto my memory) listen to a bit more of ?love, love me do? until I eventually get to talk to a voice.

Apparently the cards can take up to 10 days, so I should wait a little longer for my card, as for the refund tokens I was promised, well they hadn?t been sent and wouldn?t be sent.

I was confused, so the girl explained to me that I couldn?t have a token refund I could have a refund with my quarterly statement in the form of a cheque. Before I could point out I wasn?t going to be their customer still in 3 months time she hastily put me on hold whilst she found out if I could get my refund sooner. More ?love, love me do?.

I can have my refund as son as they get the shops record of my purchase. I should ring back Friday and I?d be told then what was happening.

What a palaver. Not one of the customer service person?s I spoke to had a clue what they were on about, I swear that they were just making it all up as they went along. Ok credit where its due they were polite and courteous but I really can?t say any of them were particularly helpful.

On top of all this my electricity is costing me a fortune! I am using approximately £1.20 of credit a day, compared to around 75p, which I usually pay with manweb. Ok so this is a slightly larger house, however it does not have the same number of electrical appliances as my old address had. I dread to think how much my gas bill will be when it eventual arrives!


This is my own personal experience, apparently there are w
ays you can save money with swalec, and I however have not found them!

My advice is to think carefully before changing your gas and electricity suppliers, do lots of research and do not commit to anything you are not fully sure about. You may be stuck with a bad deal for up to 12 weeks whilst you change supplier because it takes that long for the paperwork to be sorted out.


Based on my own experience I can heartily say Swalec Stink!

Summary: