Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

vinnyph wrote: »

Someone such as yourself with very high energy usage would not currently benefit but I am not asking you to consider UW for yourself but simply to recognize that many people would and do benefit. It doesn't mean that UW will never be the right situation for you however.

I would not recommend it to someone if it did not benefit them.
Long Term Customer and Distributor

Kippen and I have high consumption. The only relevance of that situation is that UW would charge us even more than the average customer. - in my case £818 pa more; and when my current fixed price tariff finishes the cheapest tariff is £621 less than UW.

However whilst our consumption is atypical it is a fact that anyone with average consumption will pay UW hundreds of pounds more than the cheapest tariff.

You know that is an indisputable fact, yet you won't discuss UW prices.

If you 'would not recommend UW to someone if it did not benefit them', and they took that advice!!! you would have no gas and electricity customers - and neither would any other UW salesman.

SwanJon

vinnyph wrote: »

UW has never tried to attract customers on prepayment since it does not make any profit on them since the prepayment meter means that UW cannot bill them directly. All profit made goes to the provider in that situation.

Vinny, can you explain that again?
I can see no reason why UW can't 'bill' PP customers if it can bill credit meter customers. Who is this 'provider' - surely UW have their own supply licence?

vinnyph wrote: »

Prepayment meters are expensive with all companies. In the majority of situations prepayment customers would be better off on standard meters anyway. People often move into to a house with prepayment meters and so can get them changed at no cost in that situation. Other companies may try to attract prepayment customers because the margins of profit are more than for standard meters but UW does not do that.

You seem to have very little understanding of the (prepayment) energy market.
Most suppliers charge the same (or less) than standard prices on prepayment meters.
Most suppliers do make checks before changing meters to credit, even if the customer has just moved in. some suppliers charge, some don't; some ask for a security deposit some don't. What is UW's policy here?
You believe the profit margins are higher on prepayment than credit? honestly?

Quentin

vinnyph wrote: »

....... the current extra special offer of £100 off when taking gas, electricity and a telephone service with the criteria attached (I don't really mention that one much to a customer anyway because it is a one off but only if they have already decided to become a customer I explain how to get it).....

Last time you spammed us with this offer (last Thursday, 11.16 pm, post # 10271), you mislead us by saying this "special" £100 (credited to your account if you stay over a year) is for new energy customers.

Your misleading statement was pointed out to you, and here you go again (this time pushing up the criteria by mentioning 3 products).

Now you repeat the spam, yet still don't tell the full story, and carry on misleading.

In fact you must take at least 4 products - the 3 products (including the expensive gas and electricity) you mention PLUS become a member of your club which itself costs over £21 a year (what's that for??).

And to tell us you don't explain this "free" £100 till after a new customer signs up with you beggars belief!

If you really want to "treat" new members to a £100 saving, you should get them to read this thread before they sign up! If they were to buy their energy elsewhere, then their regular annual saving over uw prices would be far more than this one off £100 you tell us you "surprise" them with!

Linguistic_Chimp

I don't have time to read through all the toing and froing between vinnyph, cardew, quentin and kippen noedel, so could someone just fill me in on the basic overall view of this company?

As a sports club treasurer, I have recently been offered a part in the Utility Warehouse Community Fundraiser Scheme but I'm not sure whether this is something I want to promote to membership.

Are they a reliable company? Is anyone else on the scheme? What has been your experience of switching?

NigeWick

Linguistic_Chimp wrote: »

As a sports club treasurer, I have recently been offered a part in the Utility Warehouse Community Fundraiser Scheme but I'm not sure whether this is something I want to promote to membership.

Are they a reliable company? Is anyone else on the scheme? What has been your experience of switching?

I am an independent distributor with Utility Warehouse and find them to be reliable. Money can certainly be earned from them but it does need consistent effort to make it worthwhile as it is not a get rich quick scheme. My customers have had no problem switching over to Utility Warehouse, or, when they wanted to, switching away. They are certainly not the cheapest for electricity and gas, but, can work out best overall value for some people. I use the pre payment card to good effect and pay less for my utilities than I would to any other company or combination of companies.

penrhyn

Their gas and electricity (from Npower) is cheaper for a customer who has never switched since the market was liberalised. However it does not compete with the cheapest on-line tarrifs where its typically 20-30 more expensive.
The consensus seems to be that the telephone and broadband service supplied by Carphone Warehouse is quite competitive.
Its USP is the single bill for all services and a prepaid Mastercard which gives 5% off customers bills for a range of shops, principally Sainsburys.

jellygoodfellow

Linguistic_Chimp wrote: »

I don't have time to read through all the toing and froing between vinnyph, cardew, quentin and kippen noedel, so could someone just fill me in on the basic overall view of this company?

As a sports club treasurer, I have recently been offered a part in the Utility Warehouse xxxxxxxxx but I'm not sure whether this is something I want to promote to membership.

Are they a reliable company? Is anyone else on the scheme? What has been your experience of switching?

The link you post leads you to who also has signed up.Suggest you contact couple of them to see how effective it is in fundraising.Do you want to promote dearer energy to raise funds,i doubt it.

By the way the posting of affiliate/distributors links is not allowed. You might like to remove it.

Nigel is fully aware of this so he should know better then leaving it in his response.

missterryshopper

I know of a Large College that signed up to be a Community Fund Raiser, despite promoting it no one was interested in it.

Whilst the prepaid mastercard might seem like a good idea surely you would have to do a lot of shopping to get a discount to offset the higher energy and phone/broadband costs.Or am i missing something ?

Retford_Red

lemma1968 wrote: »

I am not a vigilante - I am UW customer who is currently getting screwed by UW. I have had my boiler checked out etc to try and figure why my bills are so high, i thought i must be a high user but the boiler checker man has checked my usage and says that it is not the boiler but the rate i am being charged by UW. My accountant father in law has also done the maths and he agrees.

I understand you are defensive about your business, you do not want to lose it but UW is not for all so do not pretend that all customers will benefit. Customers should check first before signing on the dotted line.

I live in a 3 bed flat, am out during the day etc and our dual fuel charge from the UW Dec 2008-Dec 2009 was £2500. Now that is not good value! we were paying £137 pcm - what they asked to us to pay, we sent them our readings etc and then this month were received a catch up bill of over £1000 and a letter stating that as we were in a arrears we were no longer in the discount club. We had never missed a payment over the 2 years.

I resent your attitude to people like me who you think are putting off others with no real reason for it.

Just a stab in the dark, but have you checked that there's not a mix up with the type of gas meter you have? For instance if your supplier thinks you have an imperial meter, wheras you have a metric one, you will be significantly overcharged. Please see here for full details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/consumer_advice/latest_meters_pic.shtml

Retford_Red

missterryshopper wrote: »

I know of a Large College that signed up to be a Community Fund Raiser, despite promoting it no one was interested in it.

Whilst the prepaid mastercard might seem like a good idea surely you would have to do a lot of shopping to get a discount to offset the higher energy and phone/broadband costs.Or am i missing something ?

I've taken a back seat interest in this thread for a while now, ever since a "friend" of my wife approached her about Utility Warehouse, apparently she wanted to practice her technique on her.

You're not missing something missterryshopper, you've hit the nail on the head as far as I can see, if you already spend several hundered pounds per month on groceries and fuel at Sainsburies (or don't mind changing to Sainsburies even though they are generally not as cheap for the average trolley of groceries than Tesco or Asda), then the 5% cashback may offset the higher energy prices. Obviously the lower your energy usage the less the less of a bridge there is to gap.

However for the majority of punters who are savvy, its not an attractive proposition