Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Meeper

Another link from 2009. Well done.

How is the current quote misleading? For customers taking 4 services or more from us, they qualify for our Unique Price Promise, which is as above. If they are able to find standard gas, standard electricity or standard dual fuel from any other supplier, they will get double the difference back.

As part of the conditions, they need to take 4 services from the 5 available. The promise also does not cover things like Online tariffs and introductory deals as these are designed to draw in the customer before hiking up the price shortly after signing up, or locking in the customer for a period of time with a supplier with an overhang from the cheaper introductory tariff onto a much higher follow-on price. It is the view of UW (and anyone with any common sense) that things like Online and Introductory tariffs are there to hoodwink new customers into taking new deals then locking them in whilst jacking up the price.

Say what you like about UW - they don't do things like that.

So, before I joined, I did a little research. In my area (Manweb - region 13), UW were not the cheapest provider for gas and electricity. But they weren't the most expensive either. They were somewhere in the middle. I went back and dug out the data for the prices in my area going back over a 3-year period. I compared this data for UW, and 4 of the "Big 6" energy suppliers, so 5 companies in total. I used the standard tariffs for each and ignored any online discounts, introductory offers or anything else. I found that whilst UW was never the cheapest at any given time, over the entirety of the 3 year period in question, they were the cheapest overall because all of the other providers changed their prices so often while UW kept theirs relatively constant, UW came out well on top in the long term.

Of course, you can switch to the cheapest provider at any given moment, and I concur that UW will not be it, because there are myriad online and introductory discounts available to dupe individuals into getting locked into deals then see their prices get hiked. If you always want the cheapest numbers though, you'd best be prepared to switch your provider roughly every 3 months. I'd rather save myself all of that bother and aggravation and just take out a contract with the company which provides the best long-term value for money.

And gosh, I haven't mentioned any of the other benefits!

My mum pays British Telecom £32.70 per month for phone, broadband and unlimited calls. She pays Scottish Power £60 per month for gas and £45 per month for electricity. UW electricity for her based on the same usage was £46 per month and gas was £62, so in total on energy it was £3 per month more. Add in the monthly membership fee and she was paying £5.50 per month more. Our phone & broadband bundle, however, was only £19.99 per month for her level of usage, saving £12.71 per month, for a total saving of £7.21 per month, or £86.52 per year. Oh, and I forgot about the calls, of course! Due to taking 4 services, Mum now gets free calls to UK landlines and 10 countries around the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so she can now call her brother in America instead of only being able to communicate via e-mail with a day or two's delay. Also, everything's on one bill, she can earn discount for doing online shopping, and so on.

Yes. UW are terrible...

Meeper
--correcting idiots since 2010

MillicentBystander

Yes, but Meeper, you are forgetting that BT have the advantage over UW of that minimum 18 month contract, those wonderful overseas call centres and the £5/mth extra for your mum's 24/7 inclusive calls to the USA. Wait a minute....:D

Quentin

Meeper wrote: »

Another link from 2009. Well done.

How is the current quote misleading? For customers taking 4 services or more from us, they qualify for our Unique Price Promise, which is as above. If they are able to find standard gas, standard electricity or standard dual fuel from any other supplier, they will get double the difference back.

It is the view of UW (and anyone with any common sense) that things like Online and Introductory tariffs are there to hoodwink new customers into taking new deals then locking them in whilst jacking up the price.

Your rudeness doesn't deserve the credibility of a reply, (wonder what UW warehouse think about their reps coming here displaying such unprofessional and rude behaviour)

However when you use posts here as an opportunity to post more misleading "promotion" for your company, then don't expect to get a clear run.

1) You accuse me of exposing "old" training videos/audios for UW. I don't know how old they are, only that they are on the net, but as you accused me of quoting a post from another UW rep from 1972 (when Martin Lewis probably was in a nappy) we can't take too much of what you say at face value regarding dates.

In any case the training must be current - otherwise why would UW keep it on the net?

Regarding the signing up of the gullible Spanish teachers ising the worthless guarantee, this is it's introduction to get your reps to view it:

This excellent video is an opportunity to watch Gary Robertson in action signing up a new customer to multiple services. Gary is a highly accomplished customer gatherer, with over 1200 personal customer sign-up's under his belt and Marketing Director status - so he knows a thing or two. Take note of Gary's simple approach and avoidance of excessive detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdZcBC0Kf9k

And this is what they say about the audio training:

....in the call, an excellent example of avoiding too much detail and leaning on the third party articles such as Which?..... . What to say when you are asked what the rates are for gas and electricity...leaning on the triple value guarantee.....

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/audio/jc/Customer_Appt-111209.mp3

2) You seize the opportunity to blatantly advertise your current "cheapest UK energy" promotion. Yet just mislead us.

This new worthless guarantee actually isn't as you describe at all.

You tell us that if UW customers can find cheaper energy from anyone elsewhere UW will refund double the difference. That should be a piece of cake!

In fact it's NOT "If they are able to find standard gas, standard electricity or standard dual fuel from any other supplier, they will get double the difference back." as you claim.

But....they can only use their previous supplier to compare with! Now if their previous supplier was cheaper, why would they want to sign up for more expensive energy in the first place? Unless of course they were mislead by the rep!

That's a big difference from your misleading post!

(And they can only get refunded once!) And they must stay with UW at least a year before making the claim (during which UW will have charged them their monthly membership fee as well as made them take at least 2 telephone/internet services from UW as well)

No wonder UW is confined to this thread. Shame you carry on with your ingrained misleading posting (and blatant rule breaking advertising)!

3) You say that UW say online tariffs offered by your competition are just to hoodwink us into really signing up for more expensive tariffs is probably libellous!

Mike_by_the_Sea

Quentin wrote: »

Maybe you need to discuss this with your rep colleague Mike by the Sea who you will see posts from above defending the worthless guarantee, and tries to tell us it actually is a real guarantee of your company's "competitiveness"

Even more interesting, your interpretation of postings do, forgive me for saying, demonstrate a need to find some straw to cling to.

My posts "from above" merely pointed out that the TVG states what it does in both the "big print" and the "small print"

Quentin

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote: »

My posts "from above" merely pointed out that the TVG states what it does in both the "big print" and the "small print"

You posted in defence of the worthless guarantee, claiming it is a real guarantee (that UW will be competitive).

But what does that mean? How do your members claim against it etc etc. Of course it's not a real guarantee - even the UW director conceded it is a marketing tool!

(I see you make no comment about your colleague rep using this forum to misleadingly suggest that if we join up with UW and find cheaper energy anywhere else UW will refund twice the difference???)

All UW reps get tarred with the "misleading" brush, seen regularly in posts made here as well as in the online training we have been able to see/eavesdrop!

Maz

As a distributor of around 4 years, I have a vague recollection of the TVG as 'something we used to do' and to be honest, if you mentioned it to any distributors that joined in the last few years, there's a good chance they wouldn't know what you were talking about. I think it's fair to say that as a company and its products and services develop and changes, the training would also do the same to encompass these. Some things remain and other things don't. Pretty pointless training people on components of the company that are no longer used!

That will give you an idea of how out of date Quentin's information is, which he seems to base his argument on. I reckon it must be at least 4 years since Quentin was a disgruntled distributor. That's a long time to be grinding an axe!

Quentin wrote: »

In any case the training must be current - otherwise why would UW keep it on the net?

So some of the old training is still on the net, so what? I can watch old films like Star Wars on the net (c.1977) and there's no way that would be considered a current piece of material,( if we were to follow your logic on this one).

UW ID

Quentin

Maz wrote: »

As a distributor of around 4 years, I have a vague recollection of the TVG as 'something we used to do' ........I reckon it must be at least 4 years since Quentin was a disgruntled distributor.

It seems some UW reps now want to distance themselves from the worthless guarantee (even though it remains as a major sales point on the UW website).

Shame they didn't point out to UW all those years ago what a misleading and worthless piece of "marketing" it is!

And to correct your "reckoning", as previously posted, I have never at any time had any connection whatsoever with UW.

MillicentBystander

Quentin wrote: »

It seems some UW reps now want to distance themselves from the worthless guarantee (even though it remains as a major sales point on the UW website).

Shame they didn't point out to UW all those years ago what a misleading and worthless piece of "marketing" it is!

And to correct your "reckoning", as previously posted, I have never at any time had any connection whatsoever with UW.

So you are effectively hacking into their distributor-only site? :eek:

Quentin

Maz wrote: »

As a distributor of around 4 years, I have a vague recollection of the TVG as 'something we used to do' and to be honest, if you mentioned it to any distributors that joined in the last few years, there's a good chance they wouldn't know what you were talking about.

Maybe you now have selective amnesia.

You toed the line and defended the worthless guarantee here! (Far more recently than 4 years ago, as you only started posting here 2 years ago!)

eg:

Maz wrote:

The brochure states that 'To ensure our prices remain competeive, we comapte them every month against BG, your regional electricity supplier and the average of teh cheapest direct debit tariff. And if necessary, we wil adjust them in line with out TVG'

OK?

And another:

Maz wrote:

How is the TVG guarantee useless when the sale brochure states quite categorically that prices are on a like for like basis

Mike_by_the_Sea

Quentin wrote: »

You posted in defence of the worthless guarantee, claiming it is a real guarantee (that UW will be competitive).

If you actually read my posts, rather than extrapolating inferences, you would quickly see that I was defending the merits of the clarity of the TVG given that Cardew had taken the time to add the information to his post.

Whether you personally find it "worthless" is your own opinion, and should not be seen as the definitive position. Perhaps one day we will see such personal references in your posts rather than the sweeping generalisations that we have had to endure ad nauseum.