Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

MillicentBystander

It took you all that time to come back with that? Were you waiting for me to go offline before posting?? Gracious in defeat, lol. Isn't this a little late for you and your thought processes? So I'm assuming you are attempting to pretend that you are comparing like for like here? Are you? Yes or no?

I don't have to stump up £120 to get a great deal. I pay monthly. Like I say, my deal is almost £12/mth cheaper than your deal (and mine includes the 500 mobile mins and u/l texts and international calls, no minimum contract, no 'secret numbers' and threatening to cancel) that you've not only had to stump up a £120 lump sum for in these recessionary times, you've originally had to sign up for an initial 18 months then another 12 months MINIMUM (it has to be that because you've paid them for 12 months in advance!!). But as long as you are happy in your delusion who am I to try and snap you out of it??

Night night

NigeWick

Meeper wrote: »

We can't add people to our ignore lists, because they will then have free reign to post whatever they like without anyone being able to pull them up on their nonsense.

Course you can. I did and it is great not seeing all the repeats of repeats of repeats from Q and C.

Has Quentin offered any evidence to show that the UW pre payment card has failed to pay out for anybody? Anybody at all, ever?

Meeper

Of course not.

Quentin

NigeWick wrote: »

....it is great not seeing all the repeats of repeats of repeats from Q and C.

Has Quentin offered any evidence to show that the UW pre payment card has failed to pay out for anybody? Anybody at all, ever?

Don't know what this is about! (Though it seems childish to crow about putting me on ignore then posting to ask what I have or have not posted!)

I have never made any suggestion that the risky card "has failed to pay out". (Whatever that means)

And as I have posted previously, it is not me but the UW itself (though not its reps!), that stresses the risks that are associated with their card by asking anyone buying the card to accept the risks in the Ts + Cs:

By activating your Card you accept these Terms and Conditions and confirm you understand and accept the risks highlighted in clauses 2(b) and 18(d) of this Agreement.

Meeper

Do you even understand what the risks are?

Regardless, this is simple comprehension. You always put the word "risky" in front of the card. You must, therefore, consider that the card IS risky. By continually drawing attention to the "risky" nature of the card you can only be seeking to dissuade people from taking it in the hope that the over-use of the word "risky" will make people worried about using it. Your only goal here is to scare people.

So, what are the risks and can you pinpoint whether anyone has ever lost out due to any of the risks highlighted? Anyone?

Or are you just sensationalising the issue in an attempt to make it appear sinister? Grow up.

HappyMJ

2b - In the unlikely event that we become insolvent, the e-money on your Card may lose its value and become unusable, and accordingly you may lose your e-money.

I'd say the above is highly unlikely considering that Telecom Plus plc is a highly profitable company and is doing quite well....

18d - The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is not applicable to the Card. No other compensation schemes exist to cover losses claimed in connection with the Card. This means for example that your only protection for Internet, mail order or telephone transactions is your statutory protection under the Sale Of Goods Act and other applicable legislation. Where the Card is used in such situations and we are unable to resolve the dispute, you will be liable for the transaction.

Now that one is much more likely and I have claimed under this protection before when spending more than £100 and a supplier goes bust. It's not likely to happen but there is a small risk. It's quite difficult if not impossible to find anyone who could have claimed if they purchased goods or services in excess of the value of £100 that were not delivered giving rise to a claim had they used a credit card. As long as the person who uses the card only ever uses it in the major retailers listed then there is virtually zero risk. They should then use a normal credit card in other retailers for amounts of over £100 to minimize the risk of losses.

Cardew

Meeper wrote: »

Do you even understand what the risks are?

Meeper,

I think most of us accept that the risk with the UW card is minimal. I suspect why NigelWick keeps raising it(not Quentin) is that it is a good way of diverting the attention away from the discussion on UW prices.

So getting back to prices - I posted above a comparison between UW and BT broadband and phone prices. See:

Thank you.

So we have the same 40GB internet connection.

On the UW phone as I understand it you have to take several other UW services to get free anytime phone calls or pay £7.75 a month. - if not LLU you have to pay more.

I have the anytime calls, which is all numbers including 0870 and 0845 numbers 24/7. UW don't include 0845 numbers. That costs £4.70 a month(but increases to £4.90 next month)

I pay the line rental of £120 a year in advance - £10 a month.

Additionally I have in my package:

Caller ID.

Voice mail.

I can have two further features from outbound call barring, call forwarding and anonymous call rejection.

200 free texts

Full McAfee security suite(firewall/anti virus etc) This for my Desktop PC and the 3 laptops in the house. (I can't see what type of security package is with UW and for how many computers)

The latest wireless router

free second landline number - this gives VOIP calls

Unlimited Wi Fi access for myself and family at 3 million ‘hot spots’ in UK and 400,000 abroad.

Free Technical support (UW have an 0844 telephone number)

Digital Vault – 5GB

For that total package I pay £27.70 per month(£10 line rental + £4.70 All calls 24/7 + £13 Broadband) That is for a 12 month contract wef today and the only increase will be 20p a month next month.

That is much in line with HappyMJ who posted above that he pays £23.30 for the same package, except he has evening and weekend calls and I have 24/7 calls.

Readers can make up their mind as to which is the better value package.

1. UW without many extras at £21.50,(£29.25 for 'more calls anytime' or take other UW services)

2. The £23.30 or £27.70 BT package detailed above.

May I ask if you dispute any of those prices?

I would like to ask which you feel is the better value? however I suspect, understandably, you might not want to reply.

Also the UW website clearly states that 'VAT at the prevailing rate' is added to all charges, and I am aware that the gas, electricity and standing charges on the website do not include VAT

However it is totally unclear from the UW website if VAT is included in the three elements of the quoted Phone/Broadband charge i.e.

1. The £19.99 for Broadband

2. The £1.50 UW on-line fee.

3. The £7.75 for inclusive phone calls.

Do you or any other UW ID know the answer on VAT please?

I am aware that if you have several services that you don't have to pay the £7.75 for phonecalls. However it would seem pretty pointless to pay possibly £hundreds more to get the expensive UW gas and electricity to save that £7.75(+VAT??)

Thanks.

Meeper

My response on the risky business was in response to Q, not Nigewick.

But anyhow, on to your prices:

I don't dispute any of those prices, neither do I agree with them. Honestly, I haven't looked at the BT website or done any of the laborious "busy fool" research that you are talking about in your post. I have no basis to agree or disagree with the quality of the BT service or their prices for the exact items you have mentioned.

With regard to VAT - my answer is thus:

My broadcall package is £24.99 per month + £1 for the wireless router, making £25.99 in total. On my bill, it is broken down as my package costing £21.66 with VAT of £4.33 making a total of £25.99. So, for the telephony and broadband packages, these figures are inclusive of VAT.

Here you go about the gas & electricity again. Why is it so hard for you to believe that the UW energy is cheaper than MANY PEOPLE are paying currently?

Are there cheaper "special" deal options? Yes.
Is the UW energy the absolute cheapest option available in the UK? No.
Does the UW energy STILL represent a significant saving in monthly cost for a MASSIVE amount of people. A resounding yes.
Does the UW package AS A WHOLE represent significant savings for a MASSIVE amount of people. An even more resounding yes.

There is nothing to dispute the fact that millions and millions of people in the UK are paying standard tariffs with British Gas, Scottish Power, and the rest of the Big 6 energy companies. Millions of them. UW energy and particular UW's overall proposition would save these people HUNDREDS of pounds per year.

Let's strip away all of the nonsense and get down to the bottom line here: There is a company out there who can reduce people's outgoings by hundreds of pounds per year based on what they are currently paying - why do you hate them so?

HappyMJ

It's the sales wording again...significant savings...hundreds of pounds...As I demonstrated earlier the savings are £60 on a duel fuel spend of £1240 of spend with British Gas and E-On (the east midlands incumbent supplier). That's neither significant nor is it hundreds.

MillicentBystander

Cardew wrote: »

Meeper,

I think most of us accept that the risk with the UW card is minimal. I suspect why NigelWick keeps raising it(not Quentin) is that it is a good way of diverting the attention away from the discussion on UW prices.

So getting back to prices - I posted above a comparison between UW and BT broadband and phone prices. See:



May I ask if you dispute any of those prices?

I would like to ask which you feel is the better value? however I suspect, understandably, you might not want to reply.

Also the UW website clearly states that 'VAT at the prevailing rate' is added to all charges, and I am aware that the gas, electricity and standing charges on the website do not include VAT

However it is totally unclear from the UW website if VAT is included in the three elements of the quoted Phone/Broadband charge i.e.

1. The £19.99 for Broadband

2. The £1.50 UW on-line fee.

3. The £7.75 for inclusive phone calls.

Do you or any other UW ID know the answer on VAT please?

I am aware that if you have several services that you don't have to pay the £7.75 for phonecalls. However it would seem pretty pointless to pay possibly £hundreds more to get the expensive UW gas and electricity to save that £7.75(+VAT??)

Thanks.

Here we go again. Perhaps you could link me to this BT deal you have at the price you get it for? I can't find it. I can link you to the UW deal if you wish. It's there for everybody to take up if they wish to;) In other words, they haven't first had to pay way over the odds for 18 months then threaten to cancel, agree to a further 12 months contract and then pay £120 upfront to get the price shown on the website.

Do these look the same to you?