Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

NigeWick

bendtoy wrote:

If you really are a real true money saver,and not an agent as you appear to be( £5O back next year?. Another one of their quotes) surely you wouldnt have your phone with T-Plus because their call packages are expensive.Also their are cheaper suppliers of Energy then them.Thats what leads me to assume you are trying to promote them.

I am a Distributor and I have my phone line rental with Telecom Plus and use the service to phone family, friends and others I know are on the system for free. I take the other services too, as, for me, I get the best deal overall over the course of time. Yes, there will be a "deal of the minute" that will beat Telecom Plus for a while, but, I prefer to stay with what has proven for me to be overall better value. However, I freely admit that I use other phone companies for calls to some people in the UK and others abroad. Plus of course, I am my own customer and get commission on what I use

I have seen people here complain about the poor service from T+. I have not experienced it. I have also seen people here complain about the poor service of British Gas (and other companies) and I have experienced it. No company will please all the people all of the time. I know that T+ have had service challenges in the past, but, as a Distributor I also know that they keep trying to improve the quality of service.

The way I see it, is that in today's market place, whatever the product or service, there will be a number of companies competing. Many of them will be about the same price. What I look for is the one that will treat me how *I* want to be treated as a customer. I drive a Toyota because I have had exceptional service from the garage I deal with and the car does everything I want it to. I could have bought a cheaper vehicle, but, I am more than satsified with the overall package I got. With utilities, I have found a company that *I* am happy with for most of my wants.

As a Distributor, when somebody signs up with me and takes services from this company, if they have a problem I ask them to contact customer services. If they do not get the result they want, I ask them to contact me so that I can try and make things right to their satisfaction. Why? Because each and every customer of mine trusted me and I do not want to let them down, and, because as long as they stay a customer, I get paid. Some people want the cheapest they can find for every product or service. Fine. Some people want the benefit of having excellent service at a reasonable price. I believe that's where I come in.

People are free to make up their own minds as to where they spend their money. Any goods or service providers who do not recognise this do not get my custom.

Sorry I went on a bit longer than I intended!

Nigel.

elegy

I was interested to see your comments about 'good service' as a fact in the T+ price debate, I queried whether I could claim a reduction under their 'triple price guarantee' on the 12th of November as their new prices were more than offers by the 'big 6'- their marketing speak.
Even British Gas had a tariff that could save me money! and some companies were £100+ cheaper.

I still have no reply, and after a week of waiting I am now signed up elsewhere.
They clearly have more customers than they can service or dont care enough to write back.

mobilegossip

Before i left them i tried to speak to them a number of times,but their time to answer was appalling they once quoted 18 minutes.I gave up and E-Mailed them in the end,they did reply after 5 days.I get the impression they are happy to lose customers.

NigeWick

elegy wrote:

I queried whether I could claim a reduction under their 'triple price guarantee' on the 12th of November

I would have claimed and then waited for the reply. Not replying to you is just not on. Did you contact your Distributor about the price and lack of response?

Nigel.

NigeWick

mobilegossip wrote:

Before i left them i tried to speak to them a number of times,but their time to answer was appalling they once quoted 18 minutes.

When was this? I phoned them last week for a customer and the time to reach a live person was just over two minutes.

Nigel.

square-eyes

I am stil, (just), a UW customer. I have been a customer for a couple of years. I had been taking their phone, gas, electric and broadband services. I had been very satisfied with the single bill and cheap prices.
However, this started to fall apart about 6 months ago when they mucked up my email account. Repeated calls could not get them to fix it. Finally exasperated I moved to an alternative (Plusnet) that was not only more prefessional BUT cheaper.
Then after seeing Martin's recommendation and checking prices and switching I decided to make the change. I shall be getting the phone from Carphone wharehouse, my gas from Atlantic and my electricity from BG.
I think I shall end up paying the same but if I stay with UW my bills will go up by £200 p.a. That's a hell of a premium to pay for a single bill.
I'll let you know if there are any problems but the changes should all have gone through by the end of December.

NigeWick

square-eyes wrote:

Repeated calls could not get them to fix it

You don't say that you contacted your Distributor. It is noticeable here that customers with a "challenge" do not contact the person who signed them up. As I have said before, the Distributor gets a small percentage of a customer's payment, why not make them work for it?

Nigel.

mobilegossip

Nigel.
I tried to contact the Distibutor but he was never available.So i did what it says on the bill " For help and advice contact the Customer Service Centre" .As i said before i ended up e-mailing them because their time to answer was appalling at that time.It may of course improved since then. It would help of course if they didnt charge you to call to them fron a TP regd number,like Talk Talk do from a TT regd number .But they do charge.

NigeWick

mobilegossip wrote:

It would help of course if they didnt charge you to call to them

I can't argue with that. However, at least it isn't an 0870 number....

Nigel.

dic

Very interesting reading all the previous stuff! I am a satisfied (up to now) customer, and I'm not a distributor! However, I got a call from a utility salesperson recently and when I said who I was with she (oops) said, "Oh yes, British Gas". "they are taking over UW!"
Does anyone know if this is true, and what the implications are?