Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

droberts1988

penrhyn wrote: »

I'm always suspicious of first time posters who come on to praise or criticise companies, must be getting cynical in my old age.

#hiddenagenda

What could be my hidden agenda? The service was rubbish, I came on here to vent. Surely the whole point of posting in this thread is to praise/criticise UW. What am I meant to post then? My age and phone number? The weather forecast?

Ypaymore

Looks like they have made changes to their tariffs and guarantee.
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/energy/index

Notice they have introduced a freephone number for all customers.
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/company/contactho

Had heard rumour they were going to stop charging a membership fee.

MillicentBystander

No sign of a membership fee now on the site so looks like their offer in July was testing the waters. Line rental still £14.90 (was expecting that to rise given all the rises announced by competitors) and still giving free eves and weekend calls (UK landlines and 0845/0870). Without the club fee having to be added in this would appear to be cheaper than the equivalent offers from Sky, talktalk and BT and still no min contract applied.

PS Pleased about the freephone CS number even though I got free calls anyway with my membership fee. So if it's true about the membership fee being scrapped added to the freephone CS (UK based) support that's 2 bones of contention on here erased overnight

Cardew

Ypaymore wrote: »

Looks like they have made changes to their tariffs and guarantee.
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/energy/index

Notice they have introduced a freephone number for all customers.
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/company/contactho

Had heard rumour they were going to stop charging a membership fee.

Can any UW salesperson explain the latest tariffs from UW?

Following the link above gives the following statement:

Guaranteed savings: When you switch your gas and electricity to us, we guarantee you will save money compared to the average of the cheapest variable tariffs available from the 'Big 6' suppliers.

The ‘double Gold’ tariff states that it will be 'at least 5%cheaper.' To get this tariff you must have UW Broadband and Home phone.

For my area – Midlands – for 3,300kWh electricity and16,500kWh gas it gives the following prices:

Electricity: 22.449pdaily standing charge(dsc) & 13.619p/kWh. Total for 3300 = £518.31

Gas: 21.575dsc & 4.38p/kWh. Total for 16,500kWh =£788.38

Total for gas and electricity £1306.69 – Presumably the UW club fee will be on top of that total??

Going to Energyhelpline.com for the same consumption and paying by the same method, the cheapest quote is £1,166 and there are 20 tariffs cheaper than the UW quote. Even the Fixed to 2017 tariffs from EDF andScottish Power are only marginally more expensive than UW.

EDF standard tariff is £1245 and Eon Standard is £1261

So presumably there is some wording on the UW website that lets them off the hook about their ‘at least 5% cheaper’ claim??

Could that wording be ‘average of the cheapest variable tariffs’? i.e. they only compare with the average of standard tariffs?

Likestowrite

Re-UW membership fee. On the letter I got today announcing price rises it said: "From next month we are replacing your standard membership fee (which is currently £2 per month) with our new Bill Protector option--that means a big improvement to the benefits you are reieving as a member at no extra monthly cost.
Bill protector provides £10,000 of accidental death cover for the named account holder...and it will also pay your Utility Warehouse bill for up to 6 months if you lose your main income through no fault of your own... Your cover will start from January and if you don't need it, simply let us know at any time and we'll cancel right away."

NigeWick

Likestowrite wrote: »

On the letter I got today announcing price rises it said: "From next month we are replacing your standard membership fee (which is currently £2 per month) with our new Bill Protector option

Doesn't say how much "our new Bill Protector option" will cost though.

MillicentBystander

It does on my letter, here's the wording:

From next month, we are replacing your Silver membership fee (which is currently £2.50/mth) with our new Bill Protector option at £2 per month - that means an automatic saving of £6 a year and a big improvement in the benefits you are currently receiving.

£10,000 accidental death cover and up to 6 months of UW bills paid (max £150/mth) if you lose your main income through no fault of your own (eg redundancy, accident or long-term illness). Totally optional and can be cancelled at any time.

Improvements to the Home Phone service also, including freezing line rental at £14.90 but keeping the inclusive eves and weekend calls to 01, 02, 03,0845 and 0870.

Reducing cost of peak local/national calls to 4p/min (although call set up fee goes up to 14.8p. By way of comparison BT charge 9p/min with 15p set up fee. Probably to pay for the 'free' BT Sport lol)

Reducing calls to mobiles from the landline by 50%, to just 5p/min peak and 2.5p/min off peak. (BT charge 12p and 6p respectively)

Free anytime calls to other UW landline and UW mobiles.

Superb deal now imo taking into account the freephone CS number (and guaranteed UK based call centre). And STILL no min contract.

Cardew

Superb deal?

Their gas and electricity prices not worth a mention?

BT line rental is £11.75 a month if you pay in advance.

BT anytime calls( i.e. inclusive calls to 01, 02, 0845, 0870 numbers) 24/7 for £7 a month.

BT TV sport free if you have BT Broadband. BT hot spots all over UK.

BT SmartTalk offer gives you 60 minutes of free calls from your mobile each month throughout 2014.

It doesn't matter who your UK mobile provider is, and you can register up to five mobiles for every BT line.

However to repeat - In this gas & electricity forum it seems that it doesn't matter how much UW charge for gas and electricity; or yet again their weasel wording - at least 5% cheaper etc.

Still UW salesmen and those who refer friends get a Kickback

MillicentBystander

Cardew wrote: »

Superb deal?

1. Their gas and electricity prices not worth a mention?

2. BT line rental is £11.75 a month if you pay in advance.

3. BT anytime calls( i.e. inclusive calls to 01, 02, 0845, 0870 numbers) 24/7 for £7 a month.

4. BT TV sport free if you have BT Broadband. BT hot spots all over UK.



5. However to repeat - In this gas & electricity forum it seems that it doesn't matter how much UW charge for gas and electricity; or yet again their weasel wording - at least 5% cheaper etc.

Still UW salesmen and those who refer friends get a Kickback

Gosh, what a rambling post

1. I was referring to my particular deal with UW (and to which the letter referred), which I'm sure you remember is phone, broadband and mobile and I will definitely be quids in as a result of these changes (this comes just a few months after my phone/broadband deal was reduced by almost £3/mth due to changes by UW which they also applied to all existing customers)

2. BT line rental is £11.75 a month if you pay in advance. So you aren't comparing like with like yet again. Want to pay monthly like the vast majority do? OK, that will be £15.45/mth rising to £15.99/mth in Jan 2014 please. How long is the min term commitment on BT Home Phone by the way? And what is this T&C I see under the pay in advance section?

Advance payment is non-refundable

Plus the UW price includes EVENING AND WEEKEND CALLS to 01, 02, 03, 0845 and 0870. BT's?


3.UW charge £5.50 for exactly the same deal (actually, it's a better deal because the free calls can last up to 75 mins as opposed to BTs 60 mins). Tip: do your research before making yourself look silly.

4. UW broadband costs £6.99/mth (NO MIN. TERM commitment). BT's equivalent costs £16/mth (EIGHTEEN MONTH minimum commitment :eek:). Do the maths. If it was UW Sport that was being offered for 'free' in the same circumstances you would be the first to point out that it actually isn't at all 'free' no matter how it is advertised. You are paying for frankly ridiculously high BB(and being shackled to BT for 1 and a half years) to have the option of watching BT Sport. Why make every BT customer effectively pay for BT Sport when last time I saw the figures only 10% are actually signed up for it? Doesn't seem fair to me. And even BT's designated MSE rep seems to struggle with his info so good luck ringing their 'regular' overseas call centres. Which reminds me, UW's call centre is guaranteed UK based. It all adds up, doesn't it?

5. Perhaps you could direct me to where I can talk about UW's telephony products elsewhere on these forums? TIA.

Cardew

MillicentBystander wrote: »

5. Perhaps you could direct me to where I can talk about UW's telephony products elsewhere on these forums? TIA.

Still no mention of UW's gas and electricity prices I note.

Don't suppose you would like to tell us what income you get from UW?