Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Blusox69

We have the UW cash back card, telephone, gas and electricity and I was happy with their prices and service until today. We have been with them for 371 days, thats 1 year and 6 days. Over that time we have built up a surplus on the gas and a deficit on the electricity. We wanted to pay off the defecit with the suplus, leaving us £50 in debt on the electricity. This wasn't a problem, the £50 woudl be on our next bill. I was happy to do this as we had the £100 bonus coming next months bill as there was a £100 credit offer after 12 months when we joined. Unfortunately we're now not getting the £100 credit. Why? Because our 3 month meter reading was 3 days early and our 12 months reading 1 day late. I wasn't even aware that we even had to give our readings on those specfic dates as we were told the £100 bouns was for moving to them, not giving regular meter readings. I feel that UW have wormed their way out of giving us the credit we though we were getting and that it was completely misrepresented when sold to us.

Quentin

Shame you didn't come here earlier!


This shameful way of treating gullible new customers (who would be paying for the £100 bonus anyway by way of having to buy uw expensive energy for a year) was pointed out (in post 6041) here:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/25195233#Comment_25195233

Their reps are trained not to go into detail when signing up new members, (who they are encouraged to get from amongst their family and friends) and you have found out a reason why! (We don't normally expect a friend encouraging us to join their club to miss out such important details).

janninew

Quentin wrote: »

Shame you didn't come here earlier!


This shameful way of treating gullible new customers (who would be paying for the £100 bonus anyway by way of having to buy uw expensive energy for a year) was pointed out (in post 6041) here:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/25195233#Comment_25195233

Their reps are trained not to go into detail when signing up new members, (who they are encouraged to get from amongst their family and friends) and you have found out a reason why! (We don't normally expect a friend encouraging us to join their club to miss out such important details).

Do you really believe that uw only supply 'expensive energy?' I ran some figures through USwitch as a low user in the North West and UW actually showed as being cheaper than BG! They clearly aren't a bad choice if you are a low user, who likes montly accuarte bills and no min term contract.

janninew

Blusox69 wrote: »

We have the UW cash back card, telephone, gas and electricity and I was happy with their prices and service until today. We have been with them for 371 days, thats 1 year and 6 days. Over that time we have built up a surplus on the gas and a deficit on the electricity. We wanted to pay off the defecit with the suplus, leaving us £50 in debt on the electricity. This wasn't a problem, the £50 woudl be on our next bill. I was happy to do this as we had the £100 bonus coming next months bill as there was a £100 credit offer after 12 months when we joined. Unfortunately we're now not getting the £100 credit. Why? Because our 3 month meter reading was 3 days early and our 12 months reading 1 day late. I wasn't even aware that we even had to give our readings on those specfic dates as we were told the £100 bouns was for moving to them, not giving regular meter readings. I feel that UW have wormed their way out of giving us the credit we though we were getting and that it was completely misrepresented when sold to us.

Was this information not in the terms and conditions?

Mike_by_the_Sea

Blusox69 wrote: »

We have the UW cash back card, telephone, gas and electricity and I was happy with their prices and service until today. We have been with them for 371 days, thats 1 year and 6 days. Over that time we have built up a surplus on the gas and a deficit on the electricity. We wanted to pay off the defecit with the suplus, leaving us £50 in debt on the electricity. This wasn't a problem, the £50 woudl be on our next bill. I was happy to do this as we had the £100 bonus coming next months bill as there was a £100 credit offer after 12 months when we joined. Unfortunately we're now not getting the £100 credit. Why? Because our 3 month meter reading was 3 days early and our 12 months reading 1 day late. I wasn't even aware that we even had to give our readings on those specfic dates as we were told the £100 bouns was for moving to them, not giving regular meter readings. I feel that UW have wormed their way out of giving us the credit we though we were getting and that it was completely misrepresented when sold to us.

Hi Blusox69

I am sorry to hear of your plight and I wonder if there might be an opportunity to review the outcome with UW. I would suggest that you get in touch with your distributor and see if they can help in some way.

I agree with janninew that there should have been some T & C's supplied when you joined that would have explained the terms of the offer. For example, the current offer states:

You must give us three meter readings for each energy service we are supplying to you; each reading must be given to us within a 10-day window (five days either side) of the following dates:

This gives some flexibility in the timing of readings.

Good luck

Mike

PS I am a UWID

Quentin

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote: »

I agree with janninew that there should have been some T & C's supplied when you joined that would have explained the terms of the offer.....

The uw loves its ts + cs.

In fact there are currently 14 different sets of ts + cs which are available for their members to read and abide by.

The main products and services ts + cs run to 21 pages of small print!

Having read that, members have another 13 different sets of docs to run through!

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote:

This gives some flexibility in the timing of readings

Easy for them to bury this (clearly unfair set of ts + cs) amongst that lot:

You must give us three sets of energy meter readings, within the following 10-day windows:
a) Firstly, within three days before and seven days after the date on which each of your energy services
go live, so we can start billing you accurately;
b) Secondly, within five days before or after the end of the third month after the month in which the
second of your energy services goes live (it usually takes about two weeks longer for your gas to
transfer to us than your electricity), so we can check your Budget Plan has been set correctly; and
c) Thirdly, within five days before or after the end of the month during which both energy services have

been live for 12 months, so we can ensure your annual budget plan review is done accurately.

Hard luck if you were on a fortnight's holiday when any of the tight 10 day windows arrived! Your idea of giving new customers "some flexibility" is actually pretty draconian!

jellygoodfellow

Blusox69 wrote: »

We have the UW cash back card, telephone, gas and electricity and I was happy with their prices and service until today. We have been with them for 371 days, thats 1 year and 6 days. Over that time we have built up a surplus on the gas and a deficit on the electricity. We wanted to pay off the defecit with the suplus, leaving us £50 in debt on the electricity. This wasn't a problem, the £50 woudl be on our next bill. I was happy to do this as we had the £100 bonus coming next months bill as there was a £100 credit offer after 12 months when we joined. Unfortunately we're now not getting the £100 credit. Why? Because our 3 month meter reading was 3 days early and our 12 months reading 1 day late. I wasn't even aware that we even had to give our readings on those specfic dates as we were told the £100 bouns was for moving to them, not giving regular meter readings. I feel that UW have wormed their way out of giving us the credit we though we were getting and that it was completely misrepresented when sold to us.

The distributor or call centre person who signed you up should have explained this to you at the point of sale,and given/sent you the T&C.If they did not do this and left you to find out after the year was up then you have grounds for complaint.

If you dont get anywhere with the distributor or them complain to Consumer Direct. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_195918

Quentin

The energy ombudsman is another body to take the complaint to if you get nowhere with UW.

No company should get away with such unfair conditions, and their rep just lets us know how they feel about "fairness" by coming here and claiming the 10 day windows you must comply with to notify readings give "flexibility"!

janninew

Quentin wrote: »

The energy ombudsman is another body to take the complaint to if you get nowhere with UW.

No company should get away with such unfair conditions, and their rep just lets us know how they feel about "fairness" by coming here and claiming the 10 day windows you must comply with to notify readings give "flexibility"!

Surely if people thought these conditions were "unfair" they have the option to not join up and go elsewhere? If its there in black and white, I can't see what your complaint is?

Nobody seems to bother reading the small print (I include myself) and sometimes it comes back to bite us!

Quentin

janninew wrote: »

Surely if people thought these conditions were "unfair" they have the option to not join up and go elsewhere? If its there in black and white, I can't see what your complaint is?

Nobody seems to bother reading the small print (I include myself) and sometimes it comes back to bite us!

Luckily for the rest of us, unfair contract conditions are not enforceable.

This series of 3 very tight 10 day windows during which you must take meter readings is clearly unfair, and designed to catch out as many people as possible. And the ombudsman would surely agree.

As I already pointed out, hard luck if you happen to be away from home during any of those 10 day periods.