If you’re moving within Australia, do yourself a favour and avoid UtilityOne, a company that offers to handle all your utility connections and disconnections for free. After giving it a go, I found the service overpriced.
It all begins with a box on your lease application. “Tick here and UtilityOne will contact you to arrange your utility disconnections. This is a free service.” I’d allowed my skepticism to rule in past moves, but this time I decided to give it a shot. Within a few days of lodging my application, UtilityOne called me on my mobile phone to get all the details.
The phone call was friendly and straightforward, and basically consisted of confirming my details and then asking me if I’d like them to handle the migration of each of my utilities in turn: electricity, gas, telephone and water.
Though the company bills itself as an expert in dealing with utilities, that expertise doesn’t mean it can deal with lots of different companies. For each utility (electricity, gas, water, telephone), it has selected one or two providers that it works with. If you want to use someone else, UtilityOne can’t help you.
I use Origin Energy for my electricity and gas, because its GreenEarth programs let me pay a little extra for services based on renewable resources with zero greenhouse emissions. UtilityOne doesn’t deal with Origin Energy.
I use iiNet for my home telephone, because I can bundle its competitively priced telephone services with its superior ADSL service and save money. UtilityOne only deals with Telstra.
There isn’t a lot of competition for water services in Melbourne, so UtilityOne was able to hook me up with City West Water. But two months later I received a water bill for my old address. City West Water says UtilityOne never contacted them about disconnecting it.
So I gave UtilityOne a call about it. Here’s what the helpful agent on the line said:
Ah, I see what happened. We didn’t organize the disconnection of your water service because you didn’t ask us to.
So apparently, although the company will proactively ask to arrange the connections of each of your utilities, you have to ask for disconnections yourself if you want them. I guess disconnections don’t equate to referral dollars.
To be fair, a quick poll around the office hasn’t indicated that any of the other companies offering similar services in Australia do much better. My advice: If you want something done right…
Interestingly, this post is currently the highest ranked Google search result for “UtilityOne” after the official website itself.
Oh, well. I wish I’d stumbled on your site BEFORE I ticked the box! My girlfriend and I have just bought a house in Brisbane and the UtilityOne option was aided and abetted by the conveyancing firm doing our legals, who had it as an option on their letter of instructions. Like you, I usually steer away from these things, but thought “What the hell?” on this occasion.
Our experience was very similar to yours- it would have been simpler and easier to have made the arrangements ourselves, given the amount of times we had to go back to Utility One to get them to correct their errors.
I am, however, deeply satisfied to see that your post remains amongst the highest ranked Google search result for “UtilityOne” after the official website itself. Your line about their service being over-priced was very apt.
Many thanks for your post. I am moving in a couple of weeks, and will steer well clear of Utility One. I thought about using their service, but have no problem with doing it all myself.
I worked at Utility One and I can assure you that it is a great service. We deal with hundreds of customers a day, and in case you havent noticed, everyone makes mistakes! so a couple of people out of a thousand customers we deal with we may make a mistake with, well deal with it! What company has never made mistakes? and just because I use to work there doesnt mean anything, the people there are nice, however the managers are pretty rude. But every time we make a mistake, which isnt too often, we always give the customer a gift, to say sorry, For example, a customer recieved a free mobile just the other day, and it was a very expensive one. So stop being sooks and grow up. Every single company makes mistakes, so do something worthwhile with your time than just complain.
utility one connected all of my utilitys to my new home i found them to be very helpful. i was not familiar with the companies that they would connect me to and i voiced my uncertanties, they were nice enough to send me an e mail regarding all the details and special offers going on with the companies that they would connect me to if i was to accept their free help. the email was very easy to understand for someone who doesnt know that much about this sort of thing. i do not regret letting utility one connect my utilities as i am very happy with the companies that they have connected me to,and am glad i did not have to ring up all the different companies and get everything connected myself.
i would recommend to those who need their utilities connected to use utility ones free service.
I am moving my house in Melbourne and now in double mind whether to go with Utility One or not. Though I have ticked the box in the application form, they still haven’t given me a call (its only like 2 days since I got the confirmation). So I will wait for the call but not sure whether I will go with them or not.
Utility one shouldnt make ANY mistakes, if they claim to be good and or helpful there is no excuse for any mistake, because one minor mistake can cause an ample ammount of issues for the client! I would never go with them… No one wants a free guilt gift, we just want good service.
I’d stay away from their services and as an employer too!
I used their services. They also stuffed it up. I was moving from Melbourne to Brisbane and the thought of a company taking care of that side of things really appealed. Even though I also wanted to stay with my providers, they managed to connect my phone line to their supplier anyway and the electricity took almost two weeks to connect to!!! I was in a house without any power. I didn’t get ‘gift’ or anything. I just wanted stuff to happen like it should and good service. I followed up on the progression of my electricity connection at the time and all I could do was leave messages on their main phone number – bloody hopeless. And people make mistakes – sure but its the attitude which stank.
My brother used work in the UO Sydney office (briefly I might ad) and they are the biggest bunch of tight asses. The management would scrimp and penny pinch on staff functions and stationary, basically anything. They treated their staff like crap considering they were the ones bringing in the money! No wonder the staff get it wrong. Stuffing up peoples connections happened all the time (like every day). They used to pressure my brother to work back when he couldn’t and the main guy who ran the company was an absolute tosser, not to mention the other managers!
So if I have any advice for anyone considering UtilityOne – DONT!!! Its much less hassle doing it yourself. Steer clear. Plus why support such a bad employer.
Doesnt surprise me at all that this is the highest ranked google searched item under their own website.
Not sure what the other companies like this are like – try them instead if you need to.
I, too, ticked the box on my lease application. Interestingly enough the agent repeated the recommendation in my lease offer:
“Utility Connections are the sole responsibility of the tenants, please ensure that you make contact with the relevant Gas, Electricity, Water and Phone providers or utilise the free connection service via Utility One 13 18 19. This needs to be arranged at least 48 hours prior to the commencement date, [we] take no liability for utility connections.” It seems the agents get a kickback.
Within 24 hours I had received no less than 4 missed calls on my mobile and 2 text messages to contact UtilityOne urgently. A rep finally caught me. I told him I hadn’t even signed the lease yet, and I would be in contact if I chose to avail myself of their services.
So – rather aggressive marketing.
Thanks for the heads up, Kev.
I got the expected call from UtilityOne (see above), and was treated courteously. The rep apologised that UO were not able to offer Optus or Origin. So I requested that I be removed from their books – he said he would do that immediately and wished me well for my move.
When I spoke to Optus to make my own reconnection arrangements, I pointed out to them that I was a loyal customer, resisting the overtures of other providers. They consequently agreed to waive the reconnection fee of $55 !
Not so lucky with Origin, however, when I pleaded the loyalty card. But moving my gas and electricity using their online system was simple.