utilities warehouse

NigeWick

Sarahsaver wrote:

is it any good or should I steer well clear?

I am an independent dirstributor with them and have been a customer for over four years. Some here have criticised the company for the way they promote prices (see the thread above). I take all of their services and for me, they represent the best overall deal. However, each of us should check prices for ourselves to see if they give best value for us as individuals. There have been some challenges with staffing customer services, but I am told that more staff have been taken on. If you were to become a club member, the person who signs you up will get a small percentage of your spend for as long as you remain a customer. This means that if customer services can't satisfy any requirements you have, your distributor will be only too keen to make things right.

The advantages for me, are that there is only one comprehensive bill every month that includes electricity, gas, phone line rental, some phone calls (itemised) to family and friends who are on the T+ system (therefore free), mobile phone, internet access and freephone number. The bill arrives before the direct debit is actioned and I can get any queries sorted before money is taken from my account.

As to actual prices, they are among the best value for most people for gas and electricity as long as one uses direct debit. The phone line rental is cheaper than BT, as are the calls. When I had dial up internet access, I never in some two years had to try and log on more than once. Broadband was fault free until they changed servers, and that has settled down again now.

I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Nigel.

lisyloo

A couple of questions?

Does the box thing for the phone line, interfere with broadband at all?
How long are you tied in on with the line rental?
If I sign up, do TPLus cancel my line rental with BT, plus my call provider as well?

I know I can look this up, but might be of interest to other folks as well.

Edinburghlass_2

I would like to know what the cheaper than BT line rental actually is?

pricefighter

I have just read a TP line rental leaflet and, it said.

(Line rental costs £10 a month for each standard residential line.This offers a saving of UP TO £18 a year when compared to BT,s standard line rental charges,depending on the customers current payment method.)

Also TP do not offer bundles of select services.You get 5% off of the BT price for each service.

It doesnt say whether the £10 includes vat,or not

Edinburghlass_2

I don't think it does include VAT, nor does it include the "membership" fee of £1.75 monthly payment.

pricefighter

So correct me if i am wrong BT,s monthly line rental is £10.50 including vat if you pay by D/D.Or £11.50 including vat if you dont. Perhaps there £10 does include vat,and they are comparing there D/D price of £10 against BT,s Cash price of £11.50.Making the saving of £1.50 x 12=£18. They of course dont give you a choice of payment methods it must be D/D.

Perhaps Nigewick could tell us if the £10 rental includes vat.

lisyloo

Tplus DO give you a choice of payment method
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/store/tacs/tacs.pdf

See 4c on page 4.

However you will not get "cashback" and they will charge you 10% of each bill.

Now if you compare BT Direct debit with TPLUS Direct debit then the savings are £6.

Comparing BT (other) with TPLUS (other) i.e. £11 instead of £10, then the savings are again £6.

I think most of us would agree that comparing BT (other) with TPLUS (direct debit) is dishonest and misleading.

Make sure you check out their other terms and conditions before applying e.g. minimum charge £1.
And before anyone says "who on earth spends less than £1 a month on their phone bill"...................I DO.

pricefighter

I agree that comparing BT(Other) with TP (D/D) is misleading and that you should only compare like for like.The T&C quoted dont mention anything about line rental so hopefully there get some new ones out.


So if you used TP for cheap? line rental and the free weekend call package,and nothing else,and used another carrier eg 18866 for your other traffic the chances are you wouldnt spend a £1 anyway. So you would pay line rental (lets assume it includes vat and you are paying by D/D) of £10+Membership£1.76(incl vat)=£11.76+ Min Charge Fee£1.17(inc vat)=£12.99 -83p (twelth of yearly £10 cashback) =£12.16 a month. Nearly £20 a year more then BT.

lisyloo

So you would pay line rental (lets assume it includes vat and you are paying by D/D) of £10+Membership£1.76(incl vat)=£11.76+ Min Charge Fee£1.17(inc vat)=£12.99 -83p (twelth of yearly £10 cashback) =£12.16 a month. Nearly £20 a year more then BT.

Not in my case.
I am already a utilities warehouse member so I would not need to pay the membership again (I have already paid it with my gas and electric).

So for people in my situation the calculation is:

£10+£1.17-0.83=£10.34

I spend about £11.50 per month at the moment, so this is slightly cheaper.
The big advantage being that I will have dumped 2 bills.

Don't forget that utilities warehouse is meant to be beneficial if you take lots of utilities, rather than just one on it's own.
If you take just one and have to pay the membership and not get any cashback then it doesn't work out well.

lisyloo

line rental and the free weekend call package

Can you give some details about the free weekend call package.
I can't find this in their website.
Can you provide a link or tell us where you saw it.

Thanks