Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Decado23

Quentin wrote: »

This is a risk - if uw goes bust, your money is not protected, and would be lost. All cardholders are told about the risks:



As you know.

Yeah, that UW... cash rich, debt free, independent analysts predicting further growth... I sometimes lay awake at night with worry.

Mike_by_the_Sea

1carminestocky wrote: »

MBTS, many thanks for the info! :beer: So, the purchase of a 5 grand kitchen could result in a nice deposit into Bank of Carmine...

Hi Carmine, and the good lady if she finds out what you have been up to on line :eek:

Would I be right in assuming that if you paid for your kitchen with both a credit card nominal payment and the balance with a UW cashcard this would provide you with some protection if, for some reason, homebase were to default?

Am I right in thinking that the credit card's liability is not limited to the amount you pay on your credit card?

Mike

Mike_by_the_Sea

Cardew wrote: »

Accepting that UW as a company might not directly pay commission to Energylinx, surely the most plausible explanation is that a distributor has been set up to recruit via Energylinx and is effectively a proxy for UW.

However surely the honourable thing for any distributor to do for his friends and family(as opposed to cold call recruits) had he persuaded them of the advantages of UW would be to get them to join UW via Energylinx and get the cashback.

Indeed one could go further and they should suggest that they leave UW(as there is no penalty) and rejoin via Energylinx.

As this is a money saving website, Martin really should suggest that latter course of action - the leave and rejoin option - in a Newsletter

Hi Cardew

I suspect that your explanation may well be correct and that, as in the case of UK Power, there may well be a distributor somewhere in the background. I did think of going through the process to see if you eventually get redirected to a distributor website, but I was scared :eek: :eek: to try it in case I ended up in one of those tranfer thingies that are hard to get out of.

As regards the cashback opportunity, I take your point about it being an opportunity to make some extra money if the customer is an energy user. I'm not sure how it would be handled with UW if a customer was switching from UW to UW - it feels like it would be a challenge. I guess they would probably end up switching to another provider and then switching again (two lots of £17?).

If the customer has other services, then this could be a less valuable opportunity as they may loose other benefits and discounts on calls etc.

Having said all that, as you often correctly point out, if a customer is signed up to UW just for energy and looked at switching, would they come back at all.

Mike

Quentin

Decado23 wrote: »

Yeah, that UW... cash rich, debt free, independent analysts predicting further growth... I sometimes lay awake at night with worry.

You post a long answer in an attempt to overcome the objection that the uw card has risks attached to it.

But instead of addressing those (never mentioned by uw reps) risks, you "misunderstand" the risks being discussed and tell us how you are fairly safe, and could "afford" to have your card and PIN stolen 6 times a year and still make a profit!

When the correct risks are reiterated, instead of addressing them, you tell us how safe and debt free you think uw is.

What about virtually all the banks: man utd:etc etc.

And no comment at all about the other major risk in using the card - none of the usual protection afforded to card users against problems with the retailer??

Decado23

Quentin wrote: »

What about virtually all the banks: man utd:etc etc.

I don't know a lot about man u (read: nothing) so i won't comment there. As for banks, I'm fairly sure UW hasn't been lending anybody 100%+ mortgages and then raising interest rates to the point where people started defaulting. Not really a valid comparison.

Quentin wrote: »

And no comment at all about the other major risk in using the card - none of the usual protection afforded to card users against problems with the retailer??

what's to say? I don't deny either of these are risks, i simply believe them to be small risks if people are aware of what they are doing and take appropriate steps to minimise the risk. Pretty much everything we do carries a risk, people are free to make their own judgements on whether the risk is worth it.

For me it clearly is.

Quentin

The man utd example was used because they used to be a debt free cash rich plc. However, they were bought out and now are laden with debt caused by the new owners borrowing the money to buy them, and using the assets as the collateral.

The banks were used as another example of companies no-one would have imagined could get into trouble. Which is your approach to the future of uw. Some might say it could be blinkered!

Decado23

Quentin wrote: »

The man utd example was used because they used to be a debt free cash rich plc. However, they were bought out and now are laden with debt caused by the new owners borrowing the money to buy them, and using the assets as the collateral.

lol, who came up with that plan?

Quentin wrote: »

The banks were used as another example of companies no-one would have imagined could get into trouble. Which is your approach to the future of uw. Some might say it could be blinkered!

Well, in hindsight it shouldn't have been a surprise to anybody with the relevent information... high mortgages + increasing interest rates + falling property value = banks need to be more careful.

While I do not dispute the possibility of UW experiencing problems, I consider it a low risk.

Quentin

vinnyph wrote: »

UW do not pay a commission to price comparison sites for swapping and they do pay for advertisement.

You change with the weather! What brought this change on - you been having another phone conversation with a uw director?

If you read the discussion since you first told us about the uw using energylinx, you will see there is evidence that the uw pays commission to the energylinx site, and also via a "mysterious" proxy uw rep to ukpower.

The possibility in all this is no-one has ever actually used a comparison site to switch to the uw. The general idea is to use them to switch to the cheapest company listed, not to switch to uw which invariably comes way down the list!

1carminestocky

To all those concerned for my financial welfare, firstly, thanks for your concern it is very much appreciated Please be aware the mention of the 5 grand kitchen was just that - mention. Being the proud owners of an almost-new kitchen buying a new one would be financial folly no matter which card I used. It was for illustrative purposes only and not a prediction of my future (short term) plans.

No, we will just stick to the Sainsburys online ordering (and their competitively priced fuel) with a smattering of Boots impulse buying (for which I take no credit/blame so you can guess who that might be, lol) and if last Xmas was anything to go by, our almost £1,000 spend at Argos. It should ensure we have the best deal on the market we can possibly get and no more stressing over the switching sites/T&C's, who claims waht *might* happen blah blah blah. Oh, and no more Big 6 (OK, slightly incorrect given npower's involvement but at least no sculpting, then). Don't worry, be happy, people....

Decado23

Quentin wrote: »

You change with the weather! What brought this change on - you been having another phone conversation with a uw director?

hehe, if the lin eyou quoted is the only part of that massive post you take exception to, he's doing well really

Quentin wrote: »

If you read the discussion since you first told us about the uw using energylinx, you will see there is evidence that the uw pays commission to the energylinx site, and also via a "mysterious" proxy uw rep to ukpower.

inconclusive evidence at best with regards to energylinx. And the 'mysterious' proxy you mention - you seem to imply UW knowingly support an arrangement whereby they (indirectly) pay commission to ukpower. I submit the possibility of ukpower (or richard eden) knowingly registering a distributorship with UW without UW being aware that the commission would be going to ukpower (if the money even goes to ukpower, rather than directly into Mr eden's pocket).

Quentin wrote: »

The possibility in all this is no-one has ever actually used a comparison site to switch to the uw. The general idea is to use them to switch to the cheapest company listed, not to switch to uw which invariably comes way down the list!

another possibility in all this is that we are all wasting our time even caring who pays the comparison sites, how much they pay and how people choose to manage their utility switching process. More important would be the fact that if you wish to switch to the 'best' deal, you'd better keep your eye on the ball - best deals don't necessarily remain the best for very long.

My opinion remain that for a large number of people who do not wish to switch suppliers regularly, UW represents an excellent all-round deal.

If you know of a company (or companies) that could offer a better overall, long term, package for the many people that have never switched and have no intention of becoming regular switchers, then please give us the details.