Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

billsavings

Their new energy prices from today can be found here.
https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/home/Energy/

Click on tariffs and then on the region your interested in.

Just did a comparism on their old and new price,s standard user for the southern region..

Gas .Old unit price 3.669 . New Price 3.512 (monthly standing charge £1.40p on both)

Electricity. 10.9 unit rate remains the same as old charge (monthly standing charge £2.50 remains the same)

1carminestocky

I also think UW tend to 'play down' their size in relation to the Big 6. Of course they are small (ish) in comparison but they still are one of the top 250 biggest publicly listed companies on market capitalisation. Plus UW talk about *customers* whereas the Big 6 talk about *customer accounts*. In that respect we should view UW as having 789,000 *customer accounts*. Not bad for such a realtive newcomer (certainly in the Gas and Electricity market).

I suppose it comes with having a CEO who obviously possesses a real entrepreneural streak coupled with innovative thinking. A true self-made businessman as opposed to most CEOs in the same market - accountants who got lucky.

Quentin

ColinAllCars wrote: »

1. Makes you wonder how Quentin is accessing this material.

Naive or what?

Google is a good friend!

You try googling for triple value guarantee.

Don't know why we didn't do this before now when the reps wouldn't answer the questions.

Thanks to google we now know why!

Quentin

jimexbox wrote: »

I think we've established that UW do not operate a pyramid selling scheme, what they do operate is a 'trading scheme', whereby a UW distributor who recruites another distributor, is entitled to a percentage of their income in perpetuity.

We also learnt that bonuses are paid for recruiting distributors - see the £1000 (for 3 recruits) mentioned in the martini presentation.

1carminestocky

Quentin wrote: »

We also learnt that bonuses are paid for recruiting distributors - see the £1000 (for 3 recruits) mentioned in the martini presentation.

Quoting so you can't edit this.

vinnyph

Cardew wrote: »

Well for the last couple of weeks we have been told that UW will be reducing their prices today.

I have not seen any triumphant announcements anywhere - including this thread - of percentage price reductions for gas and electricity.

Earlier I posted this:



Well I have just done the same exercise and - wait for it - UW are now 50th, 51st and 58th out of 60 tariffs. So their best tariff has jumped up 2 places from 52nd to 50th with a reduction of approx 2%.

So come along UW reps, have you an announcement of percentage reductions by UW to make? Not too embarrassing is it?

Or have you been given instructions from Head office in how to present the 'massive' price cuts?

P.S.
According to the comparison website UW's cheapest tariff is still more than BG Standard tariff.

The reason that happens is that the best UW tariff for your usage would be standard (medium) for electricity and high for gas. The price comparison site puts you onto the UW high tariff for both services. The price comparison site also counts the membership fee twice and that doesn't happen in reality. The actually price the customer pays would be lower. When I calculated the actual price UW came in 32nd place. The price was in line with the guarantee to be competitive compared to cheapest standard tariff from the big 6. Thats just on energy.

The price doesn't take into account the other discounts though like the free calls and also the cashback card that members get with UW because most people take the package. Take those into consideration and the price you pay at the end of the year is a lot better. The prices on the price comparison site for the other companies include their biggest discounts that most of their customers don't actually get unless they request it. So its only fair to include the other discounts UW get as well. Its the actual price you pay over time that counts. Price comparison sites don't take into account the other savings and extra discounts with UW. When you do include those extra discounts the price with UW is difficult to beat. Not only that, what about the award winning customer support and the quality of service.

jimexbox

vinnyph wrote: »

because most people take the package.

Just to clarify, you mean gas, electric and possibly another service?

Because your 'triple guarantee' specifically excludes dual fuel tariffs, which if Im not misinterpreting your comments, most UW customers go for at the very least. Also how can a comparison site take into account a possible discount? Its exactly that, a possibility. If you dont use your UW card you get zero discount. I dont even think maths chaos theory could factor in a possible discount.

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

We also have one poster sneeringly giving out money saving 'advice' in this thread who happily admits to paying circa £15 per month more for his phone line/BB/calls package than I would pay for my very similar (in some ways far superior) UW package included in my facts and figures so care really should be taken taking money saving advice on here, lol. Incidentally, that's £180 MORE per year just on phone/BB. Signing up to the very cheapest online tariff wouldn't save me that amount!! Beggars belief, really.

Having now looked at a few of carmine’s posts, his ‘modus operandi’ has not changed. This post above is quite typical. - including the 'sneeringly' comment!

As a matter of interest I pay £31 a month(including VAT) to BT for:

line rental,

all geographic calls free 24/7,

200 free texts a month, Sent from phone or PC

Wireless Broadband hub with 20gb monthly,

free McAfee comprehensive security package, - firewall, anti-virus etc

call minder,

caller display

Free 0870/0845 telephone Nos

5gb digital vault

a second(internet) phone line with a separate telephone number(calls to many countries abroad 1.25p/min and evening/weekend domestic calls free),

350 minutes a month free internet access on BT Openzone for a laptop(for all my family).

The ability to interrogate BT call minder from abroad.

Freephone help line.

In addition I get the occasional discounts like reduced rental for 3 months etc.

If 20gb is insufficient I can get unlimited downloads plus unlimited wi-fi minutes for laptops in hot spots for an extra £4 monthly.


I had a look at the UW website.

It seems to me that for wireless you pay £24.99 or £31.99

It didn't say anything about getting:
200 free texts,
internet access away from my house in a hot spot,
comprehensive security package,
call minder, interogate from abroad
0870/0845 calls,
caller ID
5gb digital vault
Second telephone line
all calls free
etc


Whilst UW does allow speeds of up to 24mb(BT is 8mb) I can’t get more than the UK average of 3mb. I have not seen any telephone line in UK that gets above 8mb – that is not to say it can’t be done.

I have a place in the USA where I can get blindingly fast(50mb?) cable. Frankly the download speeds for most of the sites I use are no faster than my PCs in UK. So I suggest that for most of us 24mb is of academic interest.

So would anyone like to comment on the price it would cost for a UW subscriber to get everything I get with my BT package? – please don’t suggest I take gas and electricity from UW as this would cost me an extra £824.73pa(at new UW prices!)

Yet he makes statements that he can save £180pa for a superior package? Now it seems to me that my package is much superior to the UW package

Perhaps someone would like to 'Quote' this post so carmine can comment?

1carminestocky

*cough* I think he means phone/BB, jimexbox.

vinnyph

Another discount I get is by being a distributor. I get money back off my own bill because I am my own customer. That reduces the bill down a further 4% on average across all the services. Thats another 'discount' I get that you can't get elsewhere. That money back discount is based on my bill before taking the cashback money is taken off as well.