Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Mike_by_the_Sea

Hi ThrobsBlackHat

ThrobsBlackHat wrote:

He told me they would always be cheaper than the market. What he meant was they are always cheaper than British Gas for Gas.
At the time he signed me up they were cheaper - fair enough. It seems UW went from being the company of the people early on to yet another corporate *****.

Sorry to hear you feel like that. At the time your mate signed you up, they probably were the cheapest and would liked to have remained in that position. However, the dramatic increases in the energy prices left them very exposed as a small fish and they had to do something quickly to stem the losses they were exposed to. They have now partnered with NPower to protect themselves from their exposure in the energy market.

It is easy to dismiss them as you have, but they do offer value to customers and if they can save you money on your utility bills, then surely that represents good value to the customer.

When I meet a potential customer, I go through what Utility Warehouse has to offer and whether this will save them money. It is then up to them if they wish to change provider.

There will always be cheaper providers in the market for specific services, but at the end of the day it is down to choice and a lot of people do not want to check the prices on a regular basis and keep changing providers. Utility Warehouse offer fair value all the time and don't have special promotional prices to attract new customers, only to tie them in to long contracts and higher prices.

Their customer base has risen over the last two years, a phenomenon in the utility industry which the big providers would love to match.

hurrah

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote:

but they do offer value to customers

Mike.

I appreciate some time ago they were the cheapest in most cases, but how do they offer value to customers? and how do they save people money now?

Talking of long contracts what about their 3 year ones for some mobiles.

NigeWick

chukkat wrote:

despite the efforts of an ever growing army of distributors?

The "average" Distributor has four customers. This is because most of them (me) can't be bothered to keep talking to people. If somebody asks, I'll let them have the information and they can make up their own mind if they'll be better off. The company has, IMHO, some faults, but, they've also got good points too. I think that there are very few, if any, perfect companies. You pays yer money and makes yer choice.

Lisyloo,
>>>I never realised you were quite so OLD<<<

I've got a mental age of four!

Nigel.

Mike_by_the_Sea

hurrah wrote:

Mike.

I appreciate some time ago they were the cheapest in most cases, but how do they offer value to customers? and how do they save people money now?

Talking of long contracts what about their 3 year ones for some mobiles.

Hi Hurrah

Sorry for the delay in responding, but just got back from a trip.

I guess the answer I would give is that, although they are not always the cheapest for everything, there are a lot of people out there that can still save a lot of money just by reviewing what they are spending.

If I can show somebody how to save money on their gas, electricity, phone, broadband, mobile etc. and have personal service and one bill etc. then I can make them happy.

As this particular thread is under the Gas and Elec section, it is obviously less easy than it used to be to show savings in these two area alone. Having said that, there are still far too many people out there who are spending far more than they need to on their gas and electricity and if I can save them money on this and any other services, then I feel I am providing them with a good service. On top of that, I also help existing customers to transfer away from UW if they have chosen to do so.

As for the mobile contracts, these are based on the cost of the phone that people choose. The positive aspect of the contracts, in my opinion, is that you can come out of them and you only pay for the balance of the value of the phone, that seems reasonable to me.

Anyway, enough about UW.

I hope that you all have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

:xmassign: :santa2: :xmassmile :rudolf: :xmastree: :snow_grin :snow_laug

lisyloo

Just thought I'd mention that one of the problems with UW is that they do not send out bills on time (or comply with the direct debit regulations).

They send bills by 2nd class and at this time of year that means it's pretty much guatranteed not to arrive on time.
There are laws about how much notice they need to give for Direct debit which they seomtimes break.

Fortunately I get amy bill by email so I don't have to wait for the smail mail ubt this doesn't mean it's Ok for them to break the law.
Also no good for people without internet access.

Happy new year everyone :-)

billozz

can anyone tell me anything about the above, i have been advised to join it, but i have never heard of it you can (apparently) save money by having your gas, leccy and phones through them also mobile phone too
thanks
Bill

Wig

You only get the discounts (for gas & elec) if you are with them for 15 months

They can be cheap than most but I would avoid them because I don't like being tied in for 15 months to get the discounts. I have been searching tariffs a lot recently on the switching sites and they usually only beat Ebico by a few pounds. Ebico has no lock in clause.

Also your telephone, you can save money by switching to 1899. You can ask on the phones board for which provider is good at the moment.

You're going to have to do some checking to see if your bills will be cheaper with them significantly cheaper to make the lock in for 15 months worth it.

Use http://www.energyhelpline.com to check your gas only use
then your elec only use then your dual fuel use. Make notes of the top three or four for each search. Pay attention to "equigas equipower". Also note the "npower online" is also a lock in contract to get the discounts. You will see "Utility warehouse" in the search results aswell, note their price aswell. Also there is a £22 membership fee for utility warehouse.


this from energyline

Utility Warehouse are a small relatively new supplier. They provide a basic service and are marketed via a network marketing model of sales agents who get a cut of your bill and encourage you to sell on Utility Warehouse to your friends for commission. Their tariffs are fairly complex....

There are a number of non-standard pricing arrangements with Utility Warehouse tariffs which you should be aware of:
1. For the application process you will be charged £10 which will be netted off your first bill
2. The dual fuel discount is only paid at the end of each year and is subject to a clawback if you leave within the next 3 months.
3. You will be charged an annual membership fee of about £22 per year to use their services (included in the projected spend on the results table) .
4. All standing charges are charged monthly upfront and then unit rates are charged monthly in arrears - most suppliers charge for all things monthly or quarterly in arrears.

For many customers they offer competitive prices although their standard of service is something of an unknown quantity (energywatch reports do not contain figures on their complaint levels, etc as they are a small supplier).

People typically sign up to Utility Warehouse through an agent who will call you and ask you to fill in a number of paper forms and post them back to head office. During this phone or house call the rep will generally attempt to cross-sell a number of other utility services that they provide eg. phones, mobile, etc. If you take other services you can qualify for bundled discounts

For a catch free supplier, we would recommend ScottishPower or Powergen as their discounts are paid on an ongoing basis and there are no hidden costs in their tariffs.

hurrah

billozz wrote:

can anyone tell me anything about the above, i have been advised to join it, but i have never heard of it you can (apparently) save money by having your gas, leccy and phones through them also mobile phone too
thanks
Bill

They have their own thread see here : http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=330175&highlight=telecom+plus

Note.
Your post has now been added to the end of above mentioned thread. Suggest you read it carefully and draw your own conclusions.

NigeWick

billozz wrote:

can anyone tell me anything about the above, i have been advised to join it, but i have never heard of it you can (apparently) save money by having your gas, leccy and phones through them also mobile phone too

I declare an interest as I am a T+ Distributor.

Basically, the utilities can often be beaten on price. They can be good value in the right circumstances and it is for you to decide what you want. The idea of the club is to offer all your utilities on one bill and pay by direct debit. If you take four offerings, say broadband & phone line package, plus electricity , gas and/or mobile phone, you will qualify to get all phone calls to "locational" numbers free for up to 75 minutes, other than T+ customers which will be free anyway. As I said,you need four services to qualify. The 0845, 0870 etc numbers are charged at the usual rates.

Some people in these forums have had bad experiences with the company and quite rightly complained. I have been with them as a Distributor and customer for five years and have not had any problems. The switching sites are not paid by T+ so they tend not to show the company in as good a light as possible. I suggest that you get the figures for the top two or three from comparison sites and work out your own numbers to see who will be best for you. Do not forget to take into account the £1.76 per month (for one service or several) club membership fee, and, any relevant standing charges.

If you have any questions, I am here most days.

Nigel.

aiminghigh

Some of the information on the switching site is wrong.
The £10 deposit coming off the 1st bill does not apply to energy only applications.

They also quote us as having a price of 2.99p per kwh for gas instead of 2.77p and their electricity prices and standing charges are not correct but higher than in our latest brochure - I wrote to uswitch a month ago asking them to put the correct costings in but never received a reply from them.

chris