Three cheers for my utility supplier

For many years I have been with one utility company for my gas, electricity, landline, mobile and internet needs. This is the Utility Warehouse Discount Club, part of the TelecomPlus group of companies. I have to say that I was particularly grateful for their exemplary service this morning. Let me explain ...

With this supplier the norm is to pay monthly by direct debit. Whereas many folk like to spread their energy payments evenly over the 12 months I prefer the option of paying for what I use as I go; this necessitates me taking the readings on the last day of the month and phoning through to the company's automatic reading service. So far as my electricity meter is concerned well it's one of the old fashioned ones where you have to read several dials - a bit of a pain then. Usually I'm very meticulous about my readings but slipped a bit this morning. The result was my trying to give their computerised system a figure suggesting my consumption was about ten times more than usual! Which of course it wasn't! So totally my fault.

Now this is the clever bit. The company's system wouldn't accept my grossly wrong readings! After the third go it gave me the chance to hold and put me through to a real human being. In about ten seconds this happened and I'm pleased to say that the helpful lady at the (British) call centre spotted the problem and sorted it out.

One of the real pluses with dealing with the UWDC is their reputation for very quick telephone response and that there is no language problem to deal with. And I'm pleased with their product too. One small complaint is that their customer services and internet helpline is not available 24/7. But that is not a major downside.

Going back to this morning then it was a case of 10/10 for my utility supplier.