Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

This is what I can't get my head around. . All it takes is for you to look at your online bill and tell me how the £31.73 figure you claim you pay is broken down. How much for line rental, how much for BB option 2 and how much for the anytime calls package? Surely you would be chomping at the bit to do this if the result would be my embarrassment? Very out of character behaviour indeed.

Oh dear, I thought espresso had given the game away in post #2387, but you were too busy researching his previous posts I suppose to even notice.

Seems perelandra got the message though.

How about answering my request for the additional costs you will pay for gas, electricity, phone and broadband.

If you simply post the additional price for all the extras we will add them up for you.

e.g.
Wireless = £5
call minder = £2
caller display = £2
Additional phone = £2
200 texts = ???
350 wi-fi minutes = ???
Comprehensive McAfee security package = ???
5gb digital vault = ???

Would you agree £45 would be about correct?

From memory I think we established that UW will charge you approx £150 extra for your gas and electricity - but as you so rightly point out it might cost you a £30 penalty to leave some of the cheap tariffs.

Perelandra

... my own UW warehouse gas bill is super-duper cheap at only £10/month. :j (including actuals over that cold winter!)

But that's more to do with the very low volume of gas I actually use- the heat from the computers alone means I don't need to use the GCH.

1carminestocky

You work for British Gas but use UW? :eek: Don't you get staff discount?

Perelandra

I rent my property, so my choices are somewhat restricted,

Having said that, I don't think I'd want to move the gas to BG- they'd certainly make a loss out of me if I did. :rotfl:

Decado23

Cardew wrote: »

I really am happy for you to use an abacus or a calculator.

If you simply post the additional price for all the extras we will add them up for you.

e.g.
Wireless = £5
call minder = £2
caller display = £2
Additional phone = £2
200 texts = ???
350 wi-fi minutes = ???
Comprehensive McAfee security package = ???
5gb digital vault = ???

Would you agree £45 would be about correct?

Um, no. The £5 for wireless you keep talking about is a bit silly really, the £5 is to upgrade from 40gb monthly allowance to 'unlimited' (subject to the usual 'fair usage' Ts&Cs). The wireless is just a bonus. Anyone wanting the wireless but not needing to upgrade the monthly allowance is better off just buying their own wireless router.

Call minder & Caller display - £1.25 each last time I looked.

texts, wifi minutes and digital vault are not available with broadcall as far as i know. I think most people would agree these are very much 'bonuses' rather than requirements. I get plenty of texts with my mobile, wifi at home/work. If you really need wifi hotspot access, try mcdonalds

Comprehensive 'MySecurePC' security package (rebranded F-Secure package) = £3 (for 1 user, £4 for up to 3 users)

I assume when you mention additional phone £2, you are referring to the internet phone line, in which case £2 is correct (plus £50 one off setup fee). Great for anyone that needs a second home line or travels a lot (or both). Unlike the BT offering this can be taken anywhere in the world and plugged into a broadband connected router. Calls are billed as per the UW home phone package (eg for me 24/7 free calls to uk and 10 international destinations. Many other destinations 4.9p/min).

So, if you absolutely must have the wifi minutes, texts and digital vault, stick with BT and pay more. If you mainly choose your internet package based on ability to use the internet, surely the 40gb monthly allowance plus up to 24mb* download speed in the broadcall package is superior to your BT deal.



*speed varies based on line quality, distance from exchange etc. If your exchange has not been upgraded to adsl2 then speed will be up to 8mb until the upgrade takes place.



UW distributor

Cardew

Thank you.

If that is "a bit silly" is there a way to get wireless from UW without paying the additional £5?

It is very difficult to see what the charges are for your additional services, but it does apear that you do have a 'digital vault' at the cost of £3 a month.

So to get wireless you are putting the package at an additional £16.50 a month without the texts, 350 mins wi fi(i don't use Mcdonalds)?

Incidentally are those charges subject to VAT? Your website states charges subject to VAT where applicable and the example bill on your website shows VAT being charged at 17.5% on everything - now 15% of course.

So if they are subject to VAT that puts the package up to about £43

Looking also at the T&Cs it would appear that there is a minimum spend even on 'all inclusive' phones?

So doesn't that make UW more expensive than my BT package? Even more than if you pay the full amount to BT?

Not to mention the £xhundreds more for gas and electricity?

Quentin, anything I have missed?

1carminestocky

Plus I believe our friend is conveniently forgetting the TWELVE/EIGHTEEN MONTH CONTRACT with BT, which you would have needed to be paying regularly to get his 'special offer' price.

Oh, and the £4.89 per month for inclusive international calls.

Oh, and the £1 per gb charge for going over the still paltry 20gb allowance, even though his BB compnent of the package is by no means the basic one in BTs line-up. Even the basic UW package has a far more generous 40gb allowance.

Oh, and the not inconsequential matter of the potential speed of the BT 'middle range' internet package being a third of UWs.

Of course, if the 350 mins/mth of wifi is important to you and the frankly ridiculous 200 texts from phone or PC. (my wife has an umlimited text package with her mobile that costs her a net £3/mth so not too sure of the benefit of paying massively over the odds for an inferior internet package because you get 200 'free' texts per month, lol) then be my guest and get royally shafted.

What 99.999% recurring of punters would actually pay for Cardew's package is almost 85% more than the phone/bb/calls package of my proposed deal. Value for money? Justified higher cost due to better service? In the user satisfaction rating graph I posted earlier (thanks to Cardew's mate espresso for the link, btw. ) they are rated BELOW Tiscali!! :eek::eek: So, the answer would have to be no, I'm afraid.

If you are going to try and show up UW on grounds of cost, pimping a BT deal is not exactly the most intelligent route to take . Most competing companies specifically use BTs figures in their cost comparison tables to illustrate how much better value they are than BT. Probably because the words 'value' and 'BT' should never be seen in the same sentence..ever. I would be very interested in reading what your mate espresso thinks of your choice of BT in this regard. In fact, unusually, you don't appear to be getting ANY back-up from the usual suspects on this one, Cardew. Maybe they know, unlike you and that monstrous ego of yours, when to give up and recognise that, on this one, the argument is as redundant as [STRIKE]Sir[/STRIKE] Fred Goodwin?

1carminestocky

Whisper it, but there is a way for Cardew to get a £75 discount off his yearly BT bill. Just spend MEGA BUCKS on the BT cashback credit card. A bargain.

*BT Credit Card Rewards are awarded as a discount on your applicable BT telephone bill at the rate of 1p for each £2 (but not part of) spent on the relevant BT Credit Card up to £250 spent on retail purchases per month or part of a month, and at the rate of 1p for each £1 (but not part of) spent on retail purchases over £250 in any one month. In any twelve month period, the maximum BT Credit Card Reward that can be earned using a BT Credit Card account is £75.

PS £43, LOL!

Edit: A 50gb 'digital vault' (I'm assuming that's a posh name for online data storage?) here for free! I genuinely wonder just what %tage of the GBP would even know what a digital vault was, let alone want/need to use one? And to think posters have had a go at me for allegedly putting too much reliance on the 0845/0870 inclusive calls in the UW package, lol.

jimexbox

1carminestocky wrote: »

A bargain.

More of a bargain the UW customers giving their energy supplier an interest free loan, for which their is no accountability. I bet every company would love their customers to dole out money to them, nice.

keggs

"Incidentally are those charges subject to VAT"

If you are talking about residential members the answer is NO. All residential prices are inclusive of VAT.

Steve
UW distributor & happy customer