Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

MillicentBystander

jellygoodfellow wrote: »

Any idea why Utility Warehouse have failed to publish their customer complaint levels for the past two years?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/01/scottish-power-ofgem-customer-complaint-requirement

JohnJames? He must have racked up thousands of complaints on his own.

HappyMJ

haysof wrote: »

gees oh guys, you really are passionate about what your talking about, you should be UW distributors.

From my earlier post yes the prices are correct but what I wanted to point out is that you arent looking at the bigger picture. How ever later posts by Happymj, kinda have said all I was going too say.

I do agree with the objectors in 1 way. That even as a UW distributor, all sides of the market should be shown to a potential customer.
I do believe that here are some distributors out there not showing the bigger picture, the situation and misleading people.

Would you meet me half way and say that, unlike a few people here, that know what they are talking about. there are a lot of people who dont really know much about utilities, and who are being ripped by larger energy companies. Also that UW ID's should use there knowledge to shine light on the subject, to give people another option rather than just going for the hard sale.
After all UW is supposed too be built on recommendations which is supposed to be defining point about the company.

On the flip side though, taking advantage of the 10% discount,in the first year, then coupled with the cashback card, and the share and save, for the long term, do you not think that although you may have the cheapest deal somewhere else, you will never be able too get it any cheaper.
That UW giving you the ability to eliminate your bills, or at the least significantly lowering them would be a viable option for many people for the long term who dont usually shop around every year for the best deal, or simply find it too much hassle.

With UW there is no let's meet half way. It's very very polarized. Yes people who have never ever switched are being ripped off by British Gas and the local Electricity supplier but they aren't reading these boards and wouldn't even be interested in switching to UW as it is as you say "too much hassle".

Taking advantage of UW's 10% discount in the first year will probably be cheaper but....it isn't for the second year onwards so the customer who is taking advantage should switch again to get a better deal but is forced to wait for 15 months to do that due to the discount clawback. It's worse than Npower's £105 annual discount.

Eliminating your bills requires a lot of effort. Yes it can be done but is it really worth it?

haysof

Yes i do believe it is worth it.

Talking as a customer and not a distributor for a second.
If people didnt have as high or as many bills would you need to work extra hours, or have to find extra money at the end of the month.

I have halfed my house hold bills and some months have eliminated my bills(when i booked a holiday), with the cash back card and share and save. UW didn't keep the extra money and tell me i was in credit they gave me the extra money in to my back those months.

Because of this Im looking at next year to reduce my working hours, to hopefully only about 30 hours. That is huge for me as i normally work at least 60-80 hours in hospitality which is terrible pay, and is currently allowing me to study to get a decent job.

This is not the situation for everyone, but there are plenty of people out there who could work towards a longer term solution, not a quick fix.

HappyMJ

haysof wrote: »

Yes i do believe it is worth it.

Talking as a customer and not a distributor for a second.
If people didnt have as high or as many bills would you need to work extra hours, or have to find extra money at the end of the month.

I have halfed my house hold bills and some months have eliminated my bills(when i booked a holiday), with the cash back card and share and save. UW didn't keep the extra money and tell me i was in credit they gave me the extra money in to my back those months.

Because of this Im looking at next year to reduce my working hours, to hopefully only about 30 hours. That is huge for me as i normally work at least 60-80 hours in hospitality which is terrible pay, and is currently allowing me to study to get a decent job.

This is not the situation for everyone, but there are plenty of people out there who could work towards a longer term solution, not a quick fix.

That's very much a UW sales pitch. I don't "need" to work any hours at all. Not that I am minted or anything it's my careful budgeting and discount seeking ways that allows me to live on very low income. My bills are way below average and they are lower than UW's combined bills with discounts. UW distributor even said to me it's not worth switching. Everyone needs to be able to compare properly and compare their own usage. Not everyone wants a £10 a month mobile plan and a £20 home phone and broadband package when comparing gas and electricity prices.

To eliminate bills of £10(mobile)+£20(phone+BB)+£45(Elec)+£45(gas)=£120 would require me to spend £48,000 on the card each year. I don't earn that much let alone try and calculate the before tax and before other cash payments have been made and I certainly wouldn't be able to spend that much (at selected retailers). That's what I don't like about the claim it is very difficult to meet it and if I earnt that much I'm sure to have a better mobile and the top BB plan causing the spend requirement to increase even more.

edit: ok I was bored I did work it out assuming this family is well off they would be university qualified and have student debt to repay or would have a pension if student debt has been paid off. They would also have a mortgage eating 1/3rd of their take home pay. They would need to earn £137,000 a year taking home £72,000 after tax and spending £24,000 on the £500,000 mortgage on the £1,000,000 property leaving £48,000 to spend at Sainsburys and similar.

MillicentBystander

I think eliminating bills when you have gas electric phone broadband mobile with UW would be difficult TBH. I can certainly see some UW customers who maybe don't have all their services with them (like me who has just broadcall and mobile, for instance) experiencing the odd month where the bill comes to nil. Certainly around Xmas time.

haysof

HappyMJ wrote: »

That's very much a UW sales pitch. I don't "need" to work any hours at all. Not that I am minted or anything it's my careful budgeting and discount seeking ways that allows me to live on very low income. My bills are way below average and they are lower than UW's combined bills with discounts. UW distributor even said to me it's not worth switching. Everyone needs to be able to compare properly and compare their own usage. Not everyone wants a £10 a month mobile plan and a £20 home phone and broadband package when comparing gas and electricity prices.

To eliminate bills of £10(mobile)+£20(phone+BB)+£45(Elec)+£45(gas)=£120 would require me to spend £48,000 on the card each year. I don't earn that much let alone try and calculate the before tax and before other cash payments have been made and I certainly wouldn't be able to spend that much (at selected retailers). That's what I don't like about the claim it is very difficult to meet it and if I earnt that much I'm sure to have a better mobile and the top BB plan causing the spend requirement to increase even more.

edit: ok I was bored I did work it out assuming this family is well off they would be university qualified and have student debt to repay or would have a pension if student debt has been paid off. They would also have a mortgage eating 1/3rd of their take home pay. They would need to earn £137,000 a year taking home £72,000 after tax and spending £24,000 on the £500,000 mortgage on the £1,000,000 property leaving £48,000 to spend at Sainsburys and similar.

Gees you have too much time on your hands....

Your only working out that the cash back card is worth 3%, on average over a year it is worth min 6%, that would mean, based you you example above
eliminate bills of £10(mobile)+£20(phone+BB)+£45(Elec)+£45(gas)=£120 would require me to spend £48,000 on the card each year.

You would need £24000 to spend, which is far more realistic.
When you add in share and save even only getting 10%, you would only need to spend, a little over £20000, to completely eliminate, but to simple half your bills say, based on you example again. You would only need to send around £12k in a year to half you bills and that with out share and save. Add in share and save and its just under £10K a year.
At least keep you examples realistic, and in line with the economic status, average household income and spend.

Cardew

haysof wrote: »

From my earlier post yes the prices are correct but what I wanted to point out is that you arent looking at the bigger picture. How ever later posts by Happymj, kinda have said all I was going too say.

I do agree with the objectors in 1 way. That even as a UW distributor, all sides of the market should be shown to a potential customer.
I do believe that here are some distributors out there not showing the bigger picture, the situation and misleading people.

Would you meet me half way and say that, unlike a few people here, that know what they are talking about. there are a lot of people who dont really know much about utilities, and who are being ripped by larger energy companies. Also that UW ID's should use there knowledge to shine light on the subject, to give people another option rather than just going for the hard sale.
After all UW is supposed too be built on recommendations which is supposed to be defining point about the company.

On the flip side though, taking advantage of the 10% discount,in the first year, then coupled with the cashback card, and the share and save, for the long term, do you not think that although you may have the cheapest deal somewhere else, you will never be able too get it any cheaper.

Whilst I accept you had no intent to deceive anyone, in a way you illustrate why so many of us dislike the sales techniques of UW salesmen.

As said earlier, I have little doubt you are new to the company and understandably you were just saying what you have been told, and no doubt believed! Just to remind you this is what you said first.

If there are better deals for Pence Per KW, that beat UW, I would love to hear.

After being told that UW were 64th in the list of tariffs and 17+% more expensive than the cheapest tariff(for average consumption) you stated this:

The tariff quoted for the different uses from UW are wrong, do you know where this Information is sourced, it can't be UW.
The prices are literately miles out. Everything from standing charges to P PK/W. Low Standard and High.

Now if I understand you, you are admitting you were wrong, and that UW are very expensive for gas and electricity.

Also, with respect you were not trying to 'show the bigger picture'. Your initial posts - as shown in the quotes above - were claiming that UW gas and electricity were very cheap - and they aint!

The bottom line is you had to come on a forum dealing with UW and be corrected - not by UW salesmen but someone who understands tariffs.

I don't know if you have yet signed up customers, but if you have, it seems that you would have told them(in all innocence) what you naively believed.

Lots of the longer served UW salesmen do understand that their gas and electricity is simply non-competitive, so use other sales techniques to gloss over unpalatable facts.

One thing you are absolutely correct about is that a lot of people don't know much about utilities. It is that fact that allows UW to thrive.

HappyMJ

haysof wrote: »

Gees you have too much time on your hands....

Your only working out that the cash back card is worth 3%, on average over a year it is worth min 6%, that would mean, based you you example above
eliminate bills of £10(mobile)+£20(phone+BB)+£45(Elec)+£45(gas)=£120 would require me to spend £48,000 on the card each year.

You would need £24000 to spend, which is far more realistic.
When you add in share and save even only getting 10%, you would only need to spend, a little over £20000, to completely eliminate, but to simple half your bills say, based on you example again. You would only need to send around £12k in a year to half you bills and that with out share and save. Add in share and save and its just under £10K a year.
At least keep you examples realistic, and in line with the economic status, average household income and spend.

6% minimum...nope I was told 3% at Asda and Sainsbury's.

The 6% is only if they bought their clothes at New Look and River Island only and ate only Dominoes Pizza every day staying at Marriot hotels and bought the kids toys from ToysRus and bought all their sports equipment at JJBSports. I used 3% as not all the spend will even be at a qualifying retailer. Most families weekly spend is at the supermarket.

Share and Save..... You need to get people to sign up to 100 different services to get a 100% discount. It took me a lot of effort to get a friend of mine to switch his home phone and broadband to Tesco Broadband to save money. He was not convinced at all. Tesco is cheaper than UW at £19.75 per month (£19.10 when you take cash back into account) for unlimited calls, unlimited broadband and home phone and a 18 month contract. UW's comparable is £24.99 for what is really a 15 month deal and you have to source your own wireless router and take all 4 services to get the free anytime calls and pay an extra £1.50 for Call Minder and an extra £1.50 for Caller Number Display. Why would I want to buy that?

All you get is 1% discount for convincing 1 person to take 1 service. Worth £1.20 per month. That isn't much for the time and effort involved. I split the £35.35 topcashback with my friend so I got £17.70 for him switching it would take you 15 months to get that.

What I can't find cheaper anywhere else are the basic mobile plans. I'll give UW credit for them. They are cheap.

Airmike23

Meeper and millicentbystander - all my statements are from UW website, I just re-iterated them, you yourself admit to not knowing the t+c's and I think many of the points I make are important - meter reads need to be given within a 10 day time fram of the initial request failure to do so just once, means 10% dicount forfeited - Your own co website states the 10% deal available to signups 4-4-11 to 31-3-12 so again a year time frame, but any body signed up prior to that deal, and not adhering to the T+C's is screwed. The bit aboput the earning of cash back forfeited if no active dd or arrears on the utility bill are from your company's website so how you dare rubbish this whilst representing them is beyond me!!!! You also mention I'm on half price now an ex employee of t-mobile - well thats the deal when I was an employee it was free!!!

MillicentBystander

HappyMJ wrote: »

6% minimum...nope I was told 3% at Asda and Sainsbury's.

The 6% is only if they bought their clothes at New Look and River Island only and ate only Dominoes Pizza every day staying at Marriot hotels and bought the kids toys from ToysRus and bought all their sports equipment at JJBSports. I used 3% as not all the spend will even be at a qualifying retailer. Most families weekly spend is at the supermarket.

Share and Save..... You need to get people to sign up to 100 different services to get a 100% discount. It took me a lot of effort to get a friend of mine to switch his home phone and broadband to Tesco Broadband to save money. He was not convinced at all. Tesco is cheaper than UW at £19.75 per month (£19.10 when you take cash back into account) for unlimited calls, unlimited broadband and home phone and a 18 month contract. UW's comparable is £24.99 for what is really a 15 month deal and you have to source your own wireless router and take all 4 services to get the free anytime calls and pay an extra £1.50 for Call Minder and an extra £1.50 for Caller Number Display. Why would I want to buy that?

All you get is 1% discount for convincing 1 person to take 1 service. Worth £1.20 per month. That isn't much for the time and effort involved. I split the £35.35 topcashback with my friend so I got £17.70 for him switching it would take you 15 months to get that.

What I can't find cheaper anywhere else are the basic mobile plans. I'll give UW credit for them. They are cheap.

They certainly are - they are so cheap that Cardew has so far managed to not mention them once since their launch. Funny that. We've had War and Peace-esque posts on energy but not one word on the mobile deals.