TelecomPlus Exposed

COS

Yawn-aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Is it time to wake up.

MarkE, I am very happy with my new service with TP. I have been misadvised by alot of companies and ripped off by the same of which i previously mentioned on this site.

It has been implied that you are a MLM type Pyramid seller ?  :o

I wonder why the shares in TP are doing so well, if TP are that bad a company should this not reflect on their prices and would'nt they be under investigation for making false claims

I look forward to your reply, and please don't refer us to the answer you gave to the right honourable Smartasss once before . ;D


[move]ROUND TWO[/move]

karl60

my beef about TP is that there is no mention of the £1.76 in their literature- it is just a hidden way of adding a hidden cost to their bill

and secondly there customer service is so poor.

COS

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Utility;action=display;num=1065035890;start=

You might like to read this,also insert TP Plus into the search section. I winged and complained to MarkE about these hidden charges and then took in to account the poor service I recieved from Simple Energy,Atlantic, Scottish Power, Virgin Energy etc etc etc..................

The bottom line is I plumped for TP of which I will remain for the next 12 months, why, MarkE TP PLUS advisor only for the GAS/ELECTRCITY has stayed faithful to this site from the early days, a little trust has been ear'nt on his part so if the dirt hits the fan I know who to question- Besides TP'S shares are doing awfully awfully well, now wheres my portfollio  ;D

I forgot, there is mention of the fee in the paperwork, also mentioned on this site.
   

energyhelpline_company_representative

Dear all,

Sorry to prolong this discussion but is it possible to clear up a couple of issues?

1. Do Telecom Plus really charge all their standing charges upfront? If so, a high user customer in London would be whacked for £120 of standing charges upfront. This is unheard of with any other supplier. All others spread the standing charges evenly through the year.

2. If so, if you leave during the year is your standing charge refunded pro-rata?

3. Do Telecom Plus make people pay by direct debit in advance i.e. first monthly payment on their first day of supply and so on? Only Basic Power do this - everyone else allows the person to chose any day in the month (1-28) on which to pay their DD in arrears.

4. In the Telecom Plus contract I have got hold of it says that if people want to terminate that they have to give 28 days notice in writing. Do they enforce this? No other supplier that we know of enforces such a clause.

5. The Telecom Plus contract also says that they may object to a transfer if there are any unpaid debts on the account. Current energywatch rules are that transfers should only be blocked if more than £100 is owing - otherwise the debt should be transferred if left unpaid. Does anyone have experience of them blocking transfers for amounts under £100?

As Telecom Plus are so small in terms of gas and elec (only 10,000 customers) they are pretty much off energwatch's radar screen and so they have been unable to help me with these things so far.

All help appreciated.

Mark Todd
Director, energyhelpline.com

energyhelpline_company_representative

The 8) should have been an eight and then a ) !!

Smartasss

Are you really posting here to ask about Telecom plus Ts + Cs?

From my own research into this outfit, I can answer some of your points, but surely you want the answers from the horses mouth!

1) They charge all utility standing charges in advance monthly.

2) Don't know

3) They do make you pay the standing charges in advance (eg. start contract on 15 February 2004 - get first bill on 15 March 2004. This will have standing charges on it from 15 Feb 2004 till 30th April 2004). The next bill - 15/4/04 would have standing charges for the month of May on it.

(This up front payment isn't mentioned anywhere in their literature - is it legal to do this?)

They charge for consumption monthly in arrears (so the first bill in the example above would have consumption on it from 15 February to 29th February, and the total (consumption to 29/2/04 and standing charges to 30/4/04 and their 'club' fee to 29/2/04 - £1.76 (per month or part month) would be collected via DD on 31st March.

4) Don't know (it definitely is in the Ts + Cs)

5) Don't know

Their Ts + Cs can be downloaded HERE

Jackie_Welsh

We are in a position to answer the questions posed by Mark Todd as we have been actively transferring customers to Telecom Plus for just over a year now.

1. Telecom Plus do not charge their standing charges up front. They operate exactly as all other suppliers.

2. Not relevant

3. Customers can pay by either Direct Debit or Quarterly bill, exactly as all other suppliers - they do of course have different tariffs rates for different payment methods.

4. No, they operate in accordance with Industry Guidelines where any supplier can expect to receive 28 days notice. We have transerred customers away from Telecom Plus, where this has been appropriate and in fact they turn out to be very quick at releasing a customer when requested.

5. Again this is not how they operate in practice, they operate in exactly the same manner as most other suppliers.

Also just to clarify another point in case anyone is unsure, TelecomPlus normally charge a £10 adminstration deposit when signing up with them direct. If you use Energylinx to sign up to a Telecom Plus contract then you do not have to pay this fee.

In terms of customer numbers their customer base is growing exceedingly fast.

Hope this helps.

Jackie Welsh
Regulation
Energylinx
04 03 2004

COS

I find it strange that Mark don't know this information already as I have been a customer of TP for 2 months now and all the info is freely available, may be he as other motives behind his questions as the same as been asked of another post with in the forum, also I would had thought MARK would be alittle more informed as he is the Director of energyhelpline.com, may be he's after some free advertising ??? although your site is aimed at giving the cheapest Gas and Electricity and gives us the opportunity of "quote" giving pushy salesmen the boot .

I thought it was a case of because the Doorknockers are no longer welcome the people who were getting the overrides are now setting up shop on the Net to make their money that way  ???

alared

Posted on the other thread:

This is the headline that greets you when you visit energyhelponline.com

Here to help you
Save up to £200 on gas
and electricity for your home
I doubt if you have ever saved anybody £200 and it`s only a headline grabber to fool people into thinking they can make massive savings.
All the comparison sites are there to make as much money as they can by pushing the suppliers who are paying them.
I`ve just tapped my details into your site and surprise surprise it could`nt save me anywhere near £200.
But it`s our old friend TP that`s going to save me er,£15,er,£45 or even £76 depending what tariff it decides each month that I`m on.
Oh, hang on when I click on for enquire (for all three tariffs) I`m now told the following:
"Unfortunately TP does not currently support our service
for this tariff"
"We would urge you to consider switching to one of these great deals"
Both can save me £12-50 a year with Southern Electric
(what a con from £200 to £12-50)

Smartasss

Jackie welsh wrote:

Telecom Plus do not charge their standing charges up front. They operate exactly as all other suppliers.

That is incorrect.

As I have stated previously, Telecom Plus service charges for their Gas and Electricity (as well as their service charges for their telephony services called Mobile plus, Replacement Phone Cover, and go-plus) are charged one month in advance.

You won't find this information in their literature, Jackie, but if you take the trouble to phone them I'm sure they will confirm that what I say is absolutely correct.

(Perhaps you could do that - it will prevent you getting any more 'egg on your face' by seemingly speaking on their behalf when you have been misinformed)

All the customers you say you have transferred to them seemingly found this out the hard way - when their bills started to arrive!

Alternatively, please say why you are so certain that my answer to this particular query is wrong.

(I am absolutely right on this matter - do you fancy a £50 bet on it, with the loser paying the stake to the winner's nominated charity?)

Before accepting this wager bear in mind that were I wrong, you can be certain that one of their reps would have pounced on the opportunity to post in this thread to correct my earlier post - and get some free publicity!

This also posted by Jackie Welsh

Customers can pay by either Direct Debit or Quarterly bill

But that is not so. Their Ts + Cs (5, (b)), only offer monthly billing, or prepayment meters.

You can pay by cash or cheque as well as Direct Debit, however this is a very expensive alternative.

If you don't pay by Direct Debit, then they charge an extra 10% on the whole bill every month. Also you won't receive the annual discount of £10 which they give out, (subject to a clawback if you stop taking a service within 15 months), for each service you take after the first one.

Finally, Jackie Welsh posted:

Hope this helps.

You speak from a position which should have some respect (a supposed authority - as should the poster from energyhelpline be).

If you are giving out this incorrect information on Telecom Plus, how can we take as read any other information/advice you give out?