Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Ypaymore

They dont appear to offer Line Rental on its own anymore the £13.50 a month includes inclusive evening and weekend calls to 01/02/03 and 0845/0870 numbers.

See: https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/comms/phone

Where as with two or three qualifying services you use to give you some element of inclusive calls, it appears that this is no longer the case because evening and weekend calls are already included,and you now have to have four qualifying services to get inclusive calls 24/7 and other benefits.

This bit "It's hard to argue against our fixed line phone service. It has the UK's lowest line rental " is incorrect.

Post Office Homephone £12.25 a month is cheaper, and their are others.

HappyMJ

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I see UW have launched a new initiative - 'Gold Status' for anyone who signs up for 4 or more of the core services at once. Any views? From the latest trading update it seems like half of all new customers take 4 core services anyway. Looks pretty good, especially on the broadcall front (cheaper than before). They are clearly pushing the multi service deal. and they still seem to be keeping their SIM only deals at the original (amazing) price despite their partners T-Mobile and Orange recently announcing price increases. Looks like 0845 numbers are now included again in the inclusive calls packages as well plus the free unlimited calls to UW mobiles is new IIRC. Phone line on its own goes up by £3/mth to £13.75 even though for Gold status customers the phone/broadband deals are actually cheaper than before.

Save more with Gold Status
The more services you take, the more you save. You get Gold Status when you take four or more services; and that means you can benefit from:


'Double the Difference' price promise
10% Extra Discount on your energy
£200 to help you switch
Free 'Peak Saver' - unlimited free 'anytime' calls to UK landline numbers, save £££s
Free calls to mobiles - unlimited free 'anytime' calls to Utility Warehouse mobiles from your landline
Free international calls - unlimited free 'anytime' calls from your landline to: Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain and USA
Broadband from just £2.99 a month
Huge savings on new phone lines - we can install a new phone line for as little as £24
A free smartphone - for members who take all five eligible services
The services you can take to qualify are: Gas, Electricity, Home Phone (including Internet Phone), Mobile (excluding ValuePay), and Internet (including Mobile Broadband).

Two words stand out...from just...they mean read the T's and C's...It's only for 9 months. OK if we are going to compare that then Tesco Internet is from just £2.50 a month and Tesco's internet is unlimited. UW's has a limit of 40GB or the unlimited version costs from just £7.99 a month. Even after the introductory offers have expired Tesco is £6.50 a month and UW is £10.99 a month. Oh...and Tesco includes a free wireless router..UW charges an extra £1.25 a month plus £4.99 delivery.

The mobile deal isn't that good. Most providers do offer free smart phones and now UW is doing it. It isn't a big deal. For example a Samsung Galaxy S2 will cost £35 a month. It's the same cost as any other network.

Cardew

Ypaymore wrote: »

This bit "It's hard to argue against our fixed line phone service. It has the UK's lowest line rental " is incorrect.

Post Office Homephone £12.25 a month is cheaper, and their are others.

Indeed if you pay a year in advance, BT's line rental is £10.75 a month.

Pay £4.90 a month and calls are free 24/7(including 0870/0845) plus 3 calling features.(caller display and voicemail)

MillicentBystander

Chuckles at the total lack of comparing 'like for like' going on here, lol. Not to mention the depressing lack of attempts at bettering UW's SIM only deals. Oh well, nothing changes, I guess.

HappyMJ

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Chuckles at the total lack of comparing 'like for like' going on here, lol. Not to mention the depressing lack of attempts at bettering UW's SIM only deals. Oh well, nothing changes, I guess.

The best I could find was UW £10 tariff 500 minutes unlimited texts...A very good tariff.

The closest that I could find is TalkMobile £12 tariff 600 minutes unlimited texts (actually 3000 but so is UW FUP) and 750MB of data something that a UW customer would have to pay £5 for. It's a 6 month contract and the 1 month contract is 400 minutes.

Quentin

HappyMJ wrote: »

The best I could find was UW £10 tariff 500 minutes unlimited texts...A very good tariff......

When quoting here a "very good tariff" from the uw, their reps invariably "forget" to mention that you cannot just take the (headline) good tariff, but must also join their "club" and pay an additional monthly fee (separate from the "good tariff").

It's misleading of course, but that's the norm for the uw!

OldGreyFox

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Chuckles at the total lack of comparing 'like for like' going on here, lol.

I chose Post Office Homephone £12.25 a month, as like for like they offer

Inclusive evening and weekend calls - to UK landlines and 0845/0870 numbers (PO Homephone start at 6pm.UW 7pm)

Inclusive calls anytime - to other customers on same service

No long contract and no minimum tie-in

UK Call Centre

Just like UW do on the Just Phone service.

In addition they offer inclusive weekend calls - to UK mobiles as well as 40 Intl Destinations.Plus they dont charge a monthly membership fee

PO Homephone dont offer a 24/7 inclusive call bundle,if you wanted it on the UW Just Phone Service it would cost £18.25 a month including line rental.

Quentin

OldGreyFox wrote: »

I chose Post Office Homephone £12.25 a month, as like for like they offer......

So the post office charge £12.25/month, yet UW on its website claims (for the usual gullibles only) about the uw charges:

It's hard to argue against our fixed line phone service. It has the UK's lowest line rental

So they are telling all their friends/relatives etc that £13.75 is the "lowest" in the UK - another lie, and so easy to argue! (Though you wouldn't expect your friend/relative/IFA who is a uw rep to lie to you!)

And again no mention of the compulsory membership fee you have to pay every month on top of the £13.75!

Meeper

You should report UW to OfCom. I am sure that if everything is as misleading as you report, they will certainly bring about a public censuring.

Please let us know how you get on.

MillicentBystander

HappyMJ wrote: »

The best I could find was UW £10 tariff 500 minutes unlimited texts...A very good tariff.

The closest that I could find is TalkMobile £12 tariff 600 minutes unlimited texts (actually 3000 but so is UW FUP) and 750MB of data something that a UW customer would have to pay £5 for. It's a 6 month contract and the 1 month contract is 400 minutes.

Last time I checked UW's unlimited texts truly is unlimited just as long as you don't text to more than 100 different mobile numbers in any month. I'm assuming from this that you could text 99 different people, say, 500 times each per month and not incur any extra charges? It truly is an amazing deal but the unlimited calls (actually 3000 mins) and u/l texts for £20/mth is probably an even better deal.