Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

billsavings · 29 September 2008 at 11:06AM

keggs wrote: »

Hi 1Carminestock

I don't want to contribute here now to any great extent but will answer your question about GMTV. The Which magazine was published last week. On GMTV the next morning I believe Martyn Lewis was interviewed and admitted that Which was right about what it said about UW.

That's my understanding from what I was told.yesterday.

Regards
Steve

I did not see the programme but i was told by a UW Distributor that Martin MSE spoke about the Which? article and The Utility Warehouse in a positive fashion.

Their was a thread about UW price increases and the Which article which got out of control. It seems to have gone.

jellygoodfellow · 29 September 2008 at 11:17AM

They appear to have revamped their web site including some price and product changes.

https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/home/index.taf?exref=

I notice they now offer a cashback card.

1carminestocky · 29 September 2008 at 12:10PM

Very interesting development. Nice new look to the website as well, looks far more professional.

https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/home/benefits/CashBack_card.taf

The Utility Warehouse CashBack card

The only payment card that gives you an extra 5% savings on: food and fuel at Sainsbury's, as well as clothing, DIY, health and beauty products, household and electrical goods... at leading retailers throughout the UK!

louisebt · 29 September 2008 at 12:12PM

Utility warehouse, where to start?

We moved home in june and applied for landline, internet, gas and electric with them. The forms should have warned us as we waited ages for them then a fair while for any news from them dispite calling them frequently but as my inlaws were with them and had no problems we decided, maybe foolishly, to stick with it.

Rather than explain each individual complaint its easier for me to paste the complaint letter i sent in last week...

FAO Complaints department

This letter is an official complaint and I request for it to be logged this way.

After moving into our first property, in June 2008 we agreed to have Utility Warehouse as our supplier for gas, electric, landline telephone and broadband. This should have been an enjoyable experience but I can only describe the involvement of Utility Warehouse as a complete waste of time, money and as of yet, privacy.

We contacted Utility Warehouse and asked to move our phone line, broadband, gas and electric over. We were sent a stack of forms and we waited a fair while to receive contact from Utility Warehouse and spent a fair time on the phone chasing connections.

Originally we were advised out broadband would be activated within a week of the phone line being connected.. We signed the paperwork, paid £150 for the phone line to be ‘changed over’ and £50 for the wireless router we needed to use the broadband in accordance with our specific needs.

Our phone line was connected so we called Utility Warehouse and asked when the broadband would go live; we were told it may take up to three weeks, that being two weeks more than we were advised when we placed the order.

As Mr ****** works away, myself, Ms ****** relies on the internet to many every day tasks as I have a disability which means I can’t travel to be able to do such simple things as shopping. Utility Warehouse was advised of this when we made the initial enquires with the company about transferring over for this service.

Our internet access was finally activated approximately three weeks after the telephone line was connected.

We received our first bill, £171.68, and we were given to understand this would be paid by direct debit as per the details we had supplied when setting up this service.

We had written notification from Utility Warehouse after the direct debit was due to go out, informing us our direct debit had failed as we had given the incorrect bank details so Mr ****** phoned and paid via his debit card. Upon ringing to pay this bill Mr ****** was told the fault was the fact his bank account is held with HSBC and their account numbers are one extra digit longer than that of any other bank and that was the reason the direct debit had failed.

Upon checking our bank account a few days later we discovered the direct debit has in fact been processed and therefore Utility Warehouse had taken a double payment. I contacted Utility Warehouse to be advised I could not make the query as to why this had happened as my name was not on the account and Mr ****** would have to call and provide a password for me to be able to ring regarding the account. I contacted Mr ****** in work who rung and gave a password so I could resolve the matter.

I called back as soon as I had been informed of this password, the gentleman I spoke to informed me the direct debit had NOT been taken although I had my bank account on my pc in front of me and I could see both payments taken. He advised me I had to wait for a bank statement then send it in to verify this had in fact happened. I told this gentleman the dates and threatened to involve the police as it was, in my believing, theft, then, after a five minute disagreement, this gentleman ‘found’ the transaction in question. I was then informed it would take up to three weeks for a refund which I explained was unacceptable as the second transaction meant bank charges occurred, was told there was nothing that could be done it was standard practise.

I called Utility Warehouse back ten minutes later to be informed it would be refunded within a week, which it was.

I should, at this point, also add that on neither occasion was this password, which they insisted on, asked for.

Our second bill came through the beginning of September, this time for £123.32. A while later a letter arrived informing us our direct debit had failed and as they had our debit card details they had taken the money from the card. This letter also stated next time Utility Warehouse had to use our debit card to claim our payment we would be charged an extra 10% of our bill to cover costs.

Again I called and asked who had given them permission to draw from this card as, in my eyes, this again was theft. I was informed this way ‘in their conditions’. I asked for the card details to be removed from their systems to stop this happening again, this, I believe has been done.

In between the two bills we received a letter from utility Warehouse saying they were sorry we were moving our gas supply to another provider, so again I called and asked what this was about. I was informed someone had applied to take on our account, they could not tell me who, so I explained we had, on no occasion, authorised anyone to do this. I was told by Utility Warehouse (Who again failed to ask for the password on the account) they would sort it and not to worry.

Today (24/09/08) I received my latest Utility Warehouse bill, for £15.30. I called to ask why this bill was so low. There was a credit of £10, which, I assume, was because of previous problems, I am unsure as no one told me, plus there was a credit of £44.80. Upon comparing the bills I could see this was the overpayment we were charged last month for the gas. The lady I spoke to first said that as our monthly payment plan had been cancelled the gas overpayment was refunded. I then asked why, if that was the case, then the electric overpayment had not been returned. The answer was that the electric payment plan was indeed in place and the gas plan was cancelled as we had changed gas supplier.

Needless to say this was quite a shock as we have not agreed this with any persons. I asked the Utility Warehouse advisor if she could tell me who this supplier was, I was informed it was Scottish Power and she gave me a number to contact them. The Utility Warehouse advisor also advised us NOT to pay who ever was providing us with gas for gas we had used, we would indeed need to pay Utility Warehouse, this did not make sense as Utility warehouse had, obviously, not been supplying us.

Upon giving Scottish power my details I was informed we were not in fact a customer of theirs. They kindly checked for me to find we were being supplied by British gas.

I called British Gas and was informed we had never been removed from them to Utility Warehouse in the time we have been at this property. So we have been on the thinking that we were Utility Warehouse customers, paying their prices, when, in fact we’ve been with British Gas all along!

I called Utility Warehouse back, I was passed back to the lady I had spoken to earlier in the day. I informed her we were not with Scottish Power, which she said was untrue and I said we are indeed with British Gas and have been all along, having never received ANY gas from Utility Warehouse, even thought we had paid Utility Warehouse a standing charge for gas from 16th July 2008 until 19th August 2008. We also paid Utility Warehouse an amount for gas we were told we had used.

When I repeated to this lady that I was unhappy with the mistake she asked if she could pop me on hold to ‘investigate further’. I had given her our meter number for her to confirm things on our account she came back and informed me than rather than take over the gas supply of our property, number 31; they had, in fact taken over the gas supply, in error, of number 3. How this could possibly occur when ALL our paperwork was sent back in one envelope one does not like to imagine.

In the few months we have been with Utility Warehouse I feel the level of service we have received has been appalling. I feel we have been fed a pack of lies, we have been failed under the Data Protection Act as we set up a password which has not been asked for on many calls and at the end of the day our gas supply is currently with a company who are, in fact, more expensive than the company we thought we were with. In my opinion Utility Warehouse have failed us over and over and illegally used our debit card details to collect monies instead of contacting us get our bills paid.

I await your comments in writing with regards to these complaints. We are seriously reconsidering who will supply our utilities in future.

Yours sincerely

I emailed my complaint in and the following day I had a call from UW, Some gentleman tried telling me we were, indeed, with Scottish Power.

In short, after an hour on the phone to him we've concluded UW did indeed mess up, they took over the gas supply to another house in the street instead of ours.

As it stands I have a refund of gas we paid (and obviously did not use), a refund of the gas standing charges, a 'goodwill' payment for the phone calls I made (9 hours in two days to different companies etc trying to rectify the problem) and when out British Gas Bill arrives for the gas UW are, apparently, going to refund the difference between our BG bill and what UW bill would have been.

Oh and when I spoke to a local UW distributor, who lives 2 houses away, I discovered I was being charged 10% more for my electric ad UW cancelled out Direct Debit, this also is being refunded.... but is the stress worth it?, now one bill has been correct so far!!!!!!

Quentin · 29 September 2008 at 12:15PM

1carminestocky wrote: »

Very interesting development.

The Utility Warehouse CashBack card

You don't get any cashback from their card. You ned to be a member of their club (£1.76 to £3 each month) and take at least one service from them first.

You must first preload it with money, then when you use it in partner stores (sometimes you need to meet certain spending minimums) you get 5% of the spend credited to your uw bills.

They charge you £10 to get a card, then they make ongoing charges after 6 months of £12 a year. Additionally they charge 35p every time you top it up.

1carminestocky · 29 September 2008 at 12:20PM

Quentin wrote: »

You don't get any cashback from their card. You ned to be a member of their club (£1.76 to £3 each month) and take at least one service from them first.

You must first preload it with money, then when you use it in partner stores (sometimes you need to meet certain spending minimums) you get 5% of the spend credited to your uw bills.

They charge you £10 to get a card, then they make ongoing charges after 6 months of £12 a year. Additionally they charge 35p every time you top it up.

Are you sure you aren't a distributor, Quentin? :eek: You know an AWFUL lot about this company, lol. It IS a cashback card, Quentin, the 'cash/credit' accrued looks like it is applied to your bills, that's all. Either way, you get the benefit! They can't call it a 'credit' card because it isn't! It would appear to be a good card for parents to load money on it so that their kids can spend up to it but no more (kids 13 and over are allowed to have a card).

Quentin · 29 September 2008 at 12:30PM

If the only way the so called cashback is paid to you is via credit to a uw bill, then it cannot be a cashbackcard!

And if you have to pay the ongoing charges mentioned, then it is impossible to get the 5% they claim! (Not only do you have to pay the charges, you lose interest on your money as the card must be preloaded)

But seeing misleading claims from adverts from uw is nothing new!

1carminestocky · 29 September 2008 at 12:37PM

Quentin wrote: »

If the only way the so called cashback is paid to you is via credit to a uw bill, then it cannot be a cashbackcard!

And if you have to pay the ongoing charges mentioned, then it is impossible to get the 5% they claim! (Not only do you have to pay the charges, you lose interest on your money as the card must be preloaded)

But seeing misleading claims from adverts from uw is nothing new!

Talking of misleading, what's happened to a load of your posts regarding the way you believe UW sell their products, Quentin? I can't find them.

PS Load it up from your debit card just before shopping, spend £100 and save £5. 35p to load. You would have used your debit card to buy the shopping, anyway, so the interest argument is about as vacuous as most of your others.

Quentin · 29 September 2008 at 12:52PM

You pick up on the point that you lose interest by having to charge the card in advance of using it and you show how to "spend £100 and save £5".

1) You ignore that the £5 is credited against a uw account, for which you have to pay a monthly membership fee, and for products like gas and electricity you can get probably get cheaper elsewhere.

2) You ignore the 35p to top up (making the £5 now £4.65)

3) You ignore the initial fee and ongoing charges for having the card

4) When claiming the misleading £5 saving figure you ignore that you cannot use the card everywhere - only at nominated retailers who may not be the cheapest.

Choc · 29 September 2008 at 1:48PM

So guys after your deliberations will the card be of any use to anyone?
Lets say for example i spend £500 per month on this card,thats means minus the £1 monthly charge and the 35p top up charge i would recieve £23.65p back off my bills.That cant be bad can it?

Mark
By the way i like the new website layout.

Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

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