Utility Warehouse - any good?

1carminestocky

Yes, and I've seen a Post Office Home Phone user subtly touting for referral income, lol...;)

Cardew

Maz wrote: »

[And yes, I am a distributor (amongst other things). But given the inflammatory and anti UWDC 'contributions' from certain rabid factions on here (you know who you are, Q & C et al!) I feel that unless other posters declare their interests in being representative of the competition i.e. other utlity companies, this is a descriminatory approach and unworthy of MSE as a forum.

I personally don't give a tupenny !!!!!! what the pompous and pontificating detractors have to say but they should at least have to declare whether they work for or are representative in any way, of any other utility provider. You're not going to get a fair and balanced view otherwise.

Whilst undoubtedly anti UW, why are the 'contributions' from Quentin, myself and many others 'inflammatory' and 'rabid'?

All of the invective in this thread has come from UW representatives - or potential UW reps!- Your post quoted above being a mild example.

Quentin in particular has consistently been accurate in his statements on UW, all that we ask is UW and their reps follow his example - be accurate.

The post above by Miss Chrissy illustrates why many of us dislike the ethos of UW.

In fact here I disagree with Quentin in that I have little doubt that she honestly believes all she wrote about the 'triple guarantee' is accurate. I would hope that she wouldn't have let her family join UW whilst being aware of the facts.

At least she had some reservations about advertising on MSE, but went ahead anyway!!!

Is it so difficult to admit that UW prices for gas and electricity are amongst the highest available?

Why not start from that basis and then explain the 'fringe' benefits and argue those on their merits.

Cardew

Rich-T wrote: »

I really can't understand the negativity towards this company.

The negativity is because of the 'modus operandi' of the company, and many of their 25,000 representatives.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

The negativity is because of the 'modus operandi' of the company, and many of their 25,000 representatives.

Many?

PS Hugh, I think you need to edit your earlier post to make it entirely clear energyman didn't actually write that, it was Maz, lol. Energyman is actually on your side, I know it gets confusing on here at times. Bless.

Energyman_2

Cheers 1Carminestocky

I didn't write that! I can't even spell ponpeous and pomtificating!

Its amazing the reactions this company gets - up to 11 pages already in one day - I think that says it all. - Check out the facts carefully and do the maths.

1carminestocky

Energyman wrote: »

Cheers 1Carminestocky

I didn't write that! I can't even spell ponpeous and pomtificating!

Its amazing the reactions this company gets - up to 11 pages already in one day - I think that says it all. - Check out the facts carefully and do the maths.

I think you've done old Hugh Jeego a massive favour, energyman. He's been on this thread for the last 15 mins worrying about his mistake but fretting because he claims not to read my posts. :rotfl: He can now edit his mistake safe in the knowledge that someone else has highlighted it.

SwanJon

I think the issue most people have with UW is not with the product, but some of it's 'employees'. I'm hoping this is down to poor training and/or poor support. (If they are trained well and it regularly produces the likes of Miss Chrissy above the company is in real trouble.)
I don't think anyone can argue that the vast majority of UW distibutors that post on here are 'bending' the rules for their own benefit.
However, that same majority rapidly dissapear very quickly and we are left with a few, commonsense distributors.
Can we also draw a line under the risk associated with the Pre-paid card? Treat it in the same way as any other credit with any other supplier. If I am in credit with my supplier and they go bust I am a creditor in the same way. (Two business energy suppliers went bust last year leaving many customers in exactly this situation).
Regularly topping up and using the pre-paid card can obviously lead to a credit, but if you are going to use this, you pretty much have to drop the 'avoid all the effort of checking comparison sites for the best deal' argument. I'm sure the effort of loading the card once a week is comparable to checking the comparison sites once a quarter.
Sorry, just felt that this (like all the other UW threads) was going round in circles, and therefore was of little use to anyone.

1carminestocky

Brilliant post, SwanJon! :beer: It all gets a bit po-faced on here at times, doesn't it? Something i readily admit to contributing towards, btw.

Yes, posters like Miss Chrissy annoy me also, I'm forever pulling spammers up elsewhere on the board (mostly in the Grabbit forum) because I don't like it. But I genuinely believe there are some commonsense UW distributors on here who contribute positively to this thread and, incidentally, don't go touting for business in the other threads.

UW provides an interesting alternative to the Big 6 IMO, nothing more, nothing less. It will appeal to some and not appeal to others.

To be fair to them, this really isn't the usual fly by night company often associated with 'agent selling/ referral marketing' in the sense that it appears to be extremely well-managed (I think some of the Big 6 could learn summat in this regard) and on a firm financial footing. And it does keep picking up awards from highly-respected sources.

Decado23

It's amusing in a perverse kind of way seeing distributors trying to sell here - frankly this really isn't our ideal target market. The kind of people who are willing to watch energy prices, cashback offers, use multiple phone override providers for the best rates to any given destination etc are going to get good deals anyway. There is clearly less (if anything) for these people to gain by using a company like UW.

I also find it fairly amusing to read the anti UW posts. Clearly there's at least a couple of people that really don't like UW. Fair enough, no company pleases all of the people all of the time - even UW only claim 94% of the customers they surveyed would recommend UW to friends. Still, 94% isn't too bad eh?

And that 'worthless' guarantee. Worthless? Compared to what? What guarantee do any of the big 6 offer? Do they guarantee not to put your rates up over the next few months/years until you're paying considerably over the odds? Do they guarantee that if they can afford a lower tarrif all similar customers will be on that tarrif, not just 'new customers only'? I received an email the other day, to paraphrase - "5 of the big 6 have announced price cuts, in line with the triple value guarantee, we're cutting our prices at the end of march". Considering I was already paying £50 per month less than with my previous supplier (left it too long between switches so was basically being ripped off) I don't consider the guarantee to be worthless at all.



Of course, there are a considerable number of people out there that have never switched suppliers. Sure they can switch when someone from a 'Big 6' company comes knocking on their door, and they'll almost certainly save money. At first anyway - I'm sure I saw something on tv a while ago claiming that most people who had switched, but only once, saved a whopping eighty something pence over the course of a year (or some equaly pointless amount). Some people had actually ended up losing money. Now, they could do a bit better by switching again, and again and so on. Clearly, they are not inclined to do that. For people that want to pick a supplier and stick with it for a few years or more (my neighbour was with the same supplier for 11 years before finding out about UW) then UW represents a very good deal, especially when you factor in the multi service beneft (free calls), cashback card, discount directory, customer discount plan.

And then of course there's the people that see value in more than just price - they like having all (or most) of their utilities on a single bill and a single monthly payment, they like good customer service, they like the convenience of not having to switch regularly. Of course, many of these people can save money as well, compared to their current supplier.

Now, I don't claim UW is perfect, that would be silly. But please, if you are going to bash uw, how about giving an alternative supplier that gives long term good value and would appeal to the second and third types of people I've mentioned, not just the first. I'd love to hear it.

Quentin

Decado23 wrote: »

And that 'worthless' guarantee. Worthless? Compared to what?

Compared to any proper guarantee.

With a real guarantee, you are given the means by which you can claim against it if the guarantee fails. Yours isn't even a proper guarantee, as although the small print lists all the exclusions (like you don't include any dual fuel discounts/on line tariffs/price fix tariffs/the mandatory club membership fee etc) the guarantee won't be honoured for, it doesn't actually guarantee anything other than your prices will be "competitive".

No-one will define what you mean by that, so the description worthless is accurate.

What it seems to be is a piece of marketing copy, which (as demonstrated on here time and time again) your colleagues twist to "we are guaranteed to be the cheapest". When this is repeated to their gullible prospects (many of whom apparently are friends/relatives and wouldn't expect to be tricked like this), some clearly fall for it.

So when you say the people who come here aren't your ideal market, how right you are. The people who come here get to hear the truth, not the truth as spoken by Miss Chrissy etc.