Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

hurrah

peterlittleton wrote:

UW have just introduced their new range of products, which includes something called Broadcall which is a combined offering of Line Rental and 8mb Internet for £19.99 if you have LLU in your exchange, otherwise £27.99.

This is clearly designed to rival talktalk. However unlike talktalk you have to pay for your phone calls on weekdays and in addition to the cost per minute you also have a new 2p connection charge.

UW make a big thing about having unlimited free phone calls however to get these you have to sign up to 2 of their other services such as their ever so expensive gas and electricity, not likely. My friend just saved over £330 a year by moving his energy to NPower on line.

UW have also done away with the cashback for having additional services with them and have retained their £1.76 membership charge.

To cap it all - Wait for it, they have introduced a new 0871 number for their customer services, Deep Joy - Not. :mad:

Peter.

When does the cashback offer end.

Does the 2p connection apply to all call products or just the Broadcall product.

Is the new customer service no going to replace the London Geographical Number they now use.

4_Pete's_Sake

hurrah wrote:

Peter.

When does the cashback offer end.

Does the 2p connection apply to all call products or just the Broadcall product.

Is the new customer service no going to replace the London Geographical Number they now use.

Existing members can leave the cashbck scheme immediately if they wish in order to use the multi service to get free calls from 1st October 2006 or they can remain in the cashback scheme until the next anniversary. Customers cannot remain on the cashback scheme after the next anniversary.

From what I have read the 2p connection charge is only mentioned in respect of calls using Broadcall.

The new customer service number of 0871 222 7777 will be for ALL customer service enquiries and will replace the existing geographic numbers. Call to this number will cost 10p a minute (or for UW phone customers 5p a minute).

I also forgot to mention that from 1st October UW dial up internet customer are going to have a 100% increase in their bills as the cost of dial-up access is going up from 1p to 2p a minute.

sikejsudjek

deepseadiver wrote:

Just had to get this off my chest. I am with Utility warehouse. Just had my latest bill. They have put my combined payment up for G and E to just over £100 per month. 2 years ago when I joined it was £42 per month and since then I have even had cavity wall insulation. Can anyone beat that price rise? Im off to another supplier thanks.

They are one of the worst suppliers. Just had notification of a 19% increase in gas... and this is at a time when wholesale prices are dropping.

As soon as I can pay the arrears off, I'm off. The only people recommending UW on here are paid distributors on commission. Says it all really. Poor prices, poor service, misleading advertising... don't go to Utility warehouse ! What a rip off.

NigeWick

sikejsudjek wrote:

this is at a time when wholesale prices are dropping

You are paying for a price that had been agreed previously. The lower wholesale agreements will not be effective for a while yet, if any company actually does drop the prices.

Nigel.

bendtoy_2

sikejsudjek wrote:

Poor prices, poor service, misleading advertising.

Together with their rip off 0871 premium rate 10p/5p a minute customer service number of course.

NigeWick

bendtoy wrote:

Together with their rip off 0871 premium rate 10p/5p a minute customer service number of course.

Can't argue with that. I am disappointed.

Nigel.

4_Pete's_Sake

Please note that the Triple Value guarantee only guarantees that UW will be cheaper than the Standard Tariffs of the Big 6 energy providers and even then it is only fractionally cheaper.

In fact in September UW made a mistake and some of their customers were charged on average 50p more for their gas than the (Really Expensive) British Gas tariffs. As a result UW have new amended their energy tariffs with some reductions in the price of gas but increases in the price of electricity. The new tariffs commence on 1/10/06. They will also be applying a special one off credit to the bills of the affected customers.

The triple value guarantee does NOT make it clear to UW customers that the comparison is against other companies' standard tariffs and as such I feel that many UW customers are being mislead into thinking that they have a good deal. I was one of them until I rang them and found out the truth.

Most UW customers should be able to save £150 - £250 a month by switching to an on-line tariff such as the current one from Npower, however there may even be cheaper ones than that depending on you particular usage.

sikejsudjek

NigeWick wrote:

You are paying for a price that had been agreed previously. The lower wholesale agreements will not be effective for a while yet, if any company actually does drop the prices.

Nigel.

True but Utility Warehouse are about the second most expensive supplier for gas when I do comparisons for myself. They could easily keep the rise to be much less than 19%. I didn't realise they were going to up the calls to 0871 numbers. Just when you thought they couldn't get any worse they do...

As for their cost comparisons, they are simply misleading.

Waterways_2

I am with the Utility Warehouse and have my land line and gas and electric with them. Tiscali in January will have up 8MB speed on broadband and free UK calls 24/7 nationally and local, and the line rental for £19.99. A great deal.

However The UW now have introduced this Broadcall which is similar for the same price, but you need to be the club which is £1.75 a month.

As prices of gas and electricity are varying with the suppliers, is it worth my while staying with the UW? Is it worth going Broadcall and hstill have the gas and elec with the UW? Is it worth seeing what happens in the next few months? I like the idea of all being on one bill and it is easier that way rather than deal with 3 or 4 companies for gas. elc, broadband, telephone, etc. I don't like the idea of paying hyped up call charges when ringing the UW service either - that stinks of rip-off.

Any thoughts by anyone? Best Gas and elec deals, etc?

Waterways_2

4_Pete's_Sake wrote:

UW have just introduced their new range of products, which includes something called Broadcall which is a combined offering of Line Rental and 8mb Internet for £19.99 if you have LLU in your exchange, otherwise £27.99.

This is clearly designed to rival talktalk. However unlike talktalk you have to pay for your phone calls on weekdays and in addition to the cost per minute you also have a new 2p connection charge.

UW make a big thing about having unlimited free phone calls however to get these you have to sign up to 2 of their other services such as their ever so expensive gas and electricity, not likely. My friend just saved over £330 a year by moving his energy to NPower on line.

I just checked out Npower and they were more expensive than UW which is: elec - 8.41p per kW and monthly standing charge of £3.93. Gas: 2.69p KW, £2.65 standing charge.