uSwitch are ****ing useless - FACT (and npower aren't much better)

[Stan_Lite]

Before I came away to the rig this time, we decided to check if we could get our gas and leccy cheaper, so we chucked our details in uSwitch and right enough, uSwitch said we could save over £200 by switching from Scottish Power to npower. Excellent. So we told them to go ahead and gave them my bank details etc and we were told we would receive a confirmation e-mail within 2 days. I eventually got the confirmation e-mail 9 days after we'd requested the switch. That wouldn't have been a major problem but they had our address wrong. The e-mail said that if any of the details were incorrect, to contact their customer services dept. - so I did.

They replied two days later with this:

Dear Mr Johnson

Re: Enquiry
Thank you for contacting uSwitch.com with your enquiry.

Unfortunately, since it has in facet been longer than 7 days since you processed the switch with us I am unable to make any amendments. In order to do so I sould recommend contacting your new supplier directly.

If you have any further queries regarding Energy, Home Telephone, Broadband, Digital TV, Car Insurance and Financial Service tariffs please do not hesitate to contact us directly on our free phone number.

If you'd like to contact uSwitch, you can do so by replying to this email or by calling our Customer Services team

Not only are they fobbing me off, but they're trying to flog me more of their services to boot

Anyway, I sent npower an e-mail a couple of days ago and I just got their reply now:

Good afternoon Mr Johnson,

Thank you for your email.

After checking our records I can confirm that we have already processed a uswitch application for you at XX XXXXXXX Terrace, as you live at XX XXXXXXX Terrace this application is erroneuos. Unfortunately we have already arranged to switch your neighbours supply to npower, rest assured we will return your neighbours to thier rightful supplier and they will not receive any bills from npower, this process can take 6-8 weeks .

I understand that you have already highlighted this issue as a complaint with uswitch.

To quickly move things forward please re-apply for the correct address, as we have not received any new or amendment application from uswitch. You can apply for our online tariffs at www.npower.com or via uswitch or another online broker. It would always be in your best interests to use an energy suppliers website such as our own or a broker approved by the ombudsman, such as uswitch, moneysupermarket, energyhelpline, ukpower etc.

Kind regards
npower customer service

So, to summarise; uSwitch forwarded a switch request to npower without checking that my details were correct and only contacted me after it was too late for them to amend any errors. They then fob me off to npower, who tell me that they have already switched my supplier at the wrong address - also without checking the details. Also, as is sadly common these days, spelling and grammar in both e-mails are not what one would hope to expect from such large, successful corporations.

I sincerely hope the people at the other address won't be too badly inconvenienced by this debacle

I'll have to remember this when I find someone I dislike. I'll simply arrange to have their energy supplier changed. No-one will check whether I actually live there and by the time my foe realises what has happened, he will be in the middle of a complete shambles.

Rest assured, both parties will be receiving firmly worded e-mails from me in the next day or two. I may have something to post in BBx's complaining thread