TelecomPlus Exposed

Lewis_Gerolemou

Dear Smartasss,
I'm not in a position to order you to do anything (we quite obviously don't have that sort of relationship), you choose to post on this site.

Section 5.5 is not irrelevant, you have not responded to the first part of my last  posting, you  introduced the matter of telephony customers paying up front, I responded by quoting that section.

You also said "you won't find this information in their literature" (March 4th 10.46pm, referring to energy and telephony up front payments). We now know it is in the literature. Don't blame me if you make a claim that is subsequently shown to be wrong, you have relentlessly pursued Telecom Plus on these boards, I'm not going to help you when you trip up.

You claim to try to ensure that people have as many facts so they can make decisions knowing all the possibilities - very laudable , we all try and offer help to fellow money savers on this site but you may find it useful to avail yourself of all the facts before you offer advice to others.

Incidently BT charge millions of people in the UK up front for their line rental. I know its not gas and electricty but your altruism would be helping a lot more people if you "exposed" them and helping others, as you say, is your aim.

Lewis Gerolemou,
Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus

PS Will you accept my challenge  and save my customer in Canterbury more than £105 a year.

Smartasss

Thank you - Lisyloo - you do a good job too!

Smartasss

Hi Lewis

With regard to you "ordering" me to read up on T+ - my use of that word (ordering) was intended as a jocular remark - I hadn't taken any offence!

Please read again what you wrote - it does have the ring of the sergeant major to it!

Smartasss, Read section 5.5 on the back of Telecom plus application form

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You wrote:

you have not responded to the first part of my last  posting

Now, this Board always says "There's no such thing as a stupid question on here", and I always try to answer any direct question.

You posted a quote from me regarding T+ standing charges being paid in advance for telephone, gas and telephony services and asked:

so who wrote the above

I didn't respond because I took the question to be rhetorical!

You know I wrote it!

If your point is why did I mention telephony services when the main thrust has been about gas and electric service charges, this was because the matter of advance charges had originally been raised by what appeared to be a genuine question from another poster - my answer was as complete as possible - and indeed corrected a misconception that the original poster was suggesting (i.e. did T+ charge its standing charges 12 months in advance). In any case this thread is entitled "TelecomPlus Exposed", and it is obviously useful for as full as possible an answer to be given to any query.

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I stand corrected on the point that you make that if you read page 6 of the booklet you will discover that the charges are collected in advance.  (You won't find this in the Ts+Cs, the application form for joining the club or the application form for electricity or gas service, the tariff booklets, your club booklet, or your website)  - and of course the booklet which does contain the information you say gets "sent to all Telecom Plus energy customers".

Presumably this is after they have entered into a contract with T+ - and then too late to do anything about.

If it is the case that this booklet only gets sent to your customers after they have signed up, it is a little unfair to berate me for not having all the facts to hand! (At least, people now know the situation before having to enter into a contract!)

You clearly knew the answer to the question over whether or not T+ charges in advance for its standing charges, but chose not to tell us!

Readers of this thread will know that we have learnt a lot more about T+ from posters not connected with T+ than we have from both insiders at T+ or industry "experts" (who have now come to this thread to ask questions on T+!).

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BT's practices have been well and truly exposed elsewhere, and introducing them here is a red herring! (Remember the title of this thread).

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Your cheapest utility challenge could be constructively turned into a 'cheapest utility hunt' for your Canterbury customer! (Though there is no doubt that by manipulating the whole market one money savings expert worth their salt could always come up with a cheaper 12 month deal than the next MSE expert!).

I don't claim to be able to find the cheapest deal for utilities! (That claim has been made time and time again by only one supplier, and time and time again that claim has been found to be incorrect.)

lisyloo

Five months ago (October 8th) I asked for some info from the utility-shop website.

I got an email on Friday (March 5th) and for some stuff in the post this morning (March 8th).

Five months later !!

Based on this and other experiences, I feel that Telecom Plus have some way to go with getting to grip with new technology (like email).

Smartasss

Lisyloo, there is a danger that anyone reading up on T+ here might come away with an impression of them being inefficienct.

It is worth pointing out that they do manage one thing with great efficiency for their organisation.

This is in the field of collecting money from their customers.

(Of course, we have seen that this does include taking £10s incorrectly should you use their site to sign up, taking standing charges in advance, taking full month's compulsory membership fees to their "club" (even if you only were a member for part of the month - or in your case, Lisyloo, not even yet a member), taking advance payments for their pigs, and now Energylinx have posted above, (March 5th, 10:35 am), that T+ will take a £50 up front deposit from anyone applying for gas alone from them).

Only fair to point out they do manage something with efficiency!

(Shame we can't calculate the cost to their customers who have to sort this lot out and reclaim from them any money incorrectly collecting!).

On the subject of the club fee, it seems that as they charge £1.76 per month or part month, that all their customers in fact will have to pay 13 fees to cover only 12 months of service (unless they can get the service to actually start on the first day of their first month of service!)

System

Dear alared et al.,

Thanks for the comments about the save up to £200.

The average savings for energyhelpline.com do vary by source of traffic. People from moneysavingexpert.com like yourself who have already switched will generally be able to save but probably not more than 10-15%. Generally £50-100. So the savings you saw £15-60 with Southern Electric would not be untypical. And would seem quite OK.

Other users who have not switched and have a normal family sized home generally save £150.

We have had many users that have saved £250-500 so far several hundred.

We have even had a lot of people switch and not save money as they are unhappy with the current supplier.

Also as we do business energy we often save people £'000s. We have just saved a group of amusement arcades £17,000 off a £50,000 annual bill.

So I personally don't believe it is misleading.

Everyone, thanks for the comments on telecom plus I have also asked them these questions but also wanted to get the info from the horse's mouth - people who have already switched to them are often a better source of this info than a company itself who will generally talk up their position.

Many thanks again,

Mark

lisyloo

Five months ago (October 8th) I asked for some info from the utility-shop website.

I got an email on Friday (March 5th) and for some stuff in the post this morning (March 8th).

Five months later !!

Based on this and other experiences, I feel that Telecom Plus have some way to go with getting to grip with new technology (like email).

I would like to withdraw my comments here.
I have done some further investigation.
It would seem that the Tplus website form (in common lots of other systems) uses the incumbent ISP to send an email.
From looking in details at this, it appears that the message was held by the ISP for 5 months and TPlus did not receive it for some considerable time.
They then acted swiftly in replying and sending out the information.

I am very suprised by this as I did this at work where we have a commercial ISP and 4 system administrators (and 100 employees who would notice within 30 seconds if email stopped working).

However it does appear that it was held for some time and not sent on.

So on this occassion I have to say that I was wrong and the fault did not lie with TPlus.

Tiger_3

Hey Mark

thanks for the comments on telecom plus I have also asked them these questions but also wanted to get the info from the horse's mouth - people who have already switched to them

Perhaps you (or one of your staff) should have switched to Telecom plus first before earning commission on it?

Given all they controversy that surrounds T+ wouldn't that have been the smart thing to do?

Tiger

alared

From a recent article about TP

"The company has gained more than 52,000 customers over the past 10 months, taking its total to over 160,000. For a utility company, this is small fry, but because Telecom Plus has spent next to nothing up- front winning new business, it has done wonders for the company's bottom line. Telecom Plus reported in November that half-year profits had almost doubled to £4.9m on sales of £37.2m.

To spread its message, Telecom Plus has hired 12,000 agents. They don't receive any salary but take a small cut from each customer's bill. Like Mr Wigoder, they are encouraged to use every opportunity to promote Telecom Plus. "If they choose to talk to their friends in the pub, at work or in the gym then that's up to them," says Mr Wigoder."

And of course non-stop on these boards

Lewis_Gerolemou

Hello Alared,
Many thanks for once again allowing me the opportunity to post on this board . I am not aware of any thread that has been started by a Telecom Plus distributor to promote the Company. You and others have started topics with comments about the Company and we have replied, that's fair isn't it. Your last post has just allowed me to do exactly what you complain of.

Why don't you come to one of the Telecom Plus Career
Opportunity Presentations, it may help you think better of the Company and get a more balanced view.

Lewis Gerolemou
Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus