Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

keggs

SwanJon wrote: »

But you keep telling us that distributors are not salesmen, and are not employed by UW.
So, why are they paying you?
Do you complete the contract with a customer, or do you pass them to UW?
No matter how you see it you are promoting a company and getting financial benefit if a sale is completed.
That fits quite neatly with my definition of salesman.

The only issue I have with the UW method is that it is much more open to abuse by unscrupulous distributors/salesmen. I'd bet that there are more UW distrubutors than all of the big 6 'door knockers' put together.
I accept that some distributors are honest, hardworking souls who only recommend what has worked for them and don't take advantage of friends & aquaintances, but not all of them, and we've all seen them put their heads up on here and rapidly disappear when they realise we are not their target market.
For example, are UW distributors part of the EnergySure scheme?

Dear SwanJohn. Do read the post again. The answer is there.

Cardew

keggs wrote: »

It is the only answer you are going to get. I repeat. I received extra discount off my bill in order for UW to fulfil its pledge to me. I repeat -- me. That's all that matters to me as a happy customer. If I am happy with what the company does for me then I am happy to recommend it to someone else. This the same as if I was recommending a good book. Knowing how the company arrived at its price is of no consequence to me. If I was a book seller and a potential customer buying a book thinks it's too expensive then I accept it. As a distributor for UW, Usborne Books, Kleeneze or any other NM company that's all my job is. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Yet you are expecting me to know how the Utility Warehouse arrived at its prices. Well I don't and I have no need to. Is that clear enough for you now.

If you don't like that answer (as the old saying goes). Tough. I am not not an energy supplier. I have no interest in knowing tariffs. If a potential customer needs to know something I'll find out the answer. I have no need to do any comparisons of any tariffs and most people except rate chasers like yourself don't either. Most people are happy to save money. If they can't then I advise otherwise. But it is the company that does this work - not me. They do the calculatiosn not me. I do not need to. But if a customer asks me to then I will do my best to oblige if I can. But that is not my job. I will do it because I want to help.

I'm sorry to disappoint you Cardew but I am not a salesman. I have no intention of being a salesman. As such I have no interest in tariffs. Very few distributors are. And to ask that we should is ridiculous.

Which just goes to prove how little you understand what network marketing is about and how the UW business from our point of view is organised. It isn't about being a sales person it's about building relationships with people. The product itself is not important. What matters is helping people get the right product for their needs and helping them and looking after them; dealing with their problems if any should arise. If they need to know the minutiae then all they have to do is contact the relevant section at HQ where their questions will be answered, quickly, politely and with authority.

In return for recommending a customer I get paid a small amount of money to cover costs that I might have incurred. I also get paid a small amount of the profits generated by that customer in exactly the same way that traditional workforces do. That's no different from BG, BT or any other business you care to mention.

The argument that by cutting out distributors then customers will save more money is fallacious. As for what other distributors do or not that is u to them. I am not responsible for their behaviour.

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

That is the most pathetic answer on this board.

You are a salesman! You sell gas and electricity. Yet you don't know your tariffs. You were telling us about the large team you head; are they equally as ignorant about the product they sell?

Earlier you were crowing about the TVG, claiming that UW give a discount, now you are totally advoiding any questions, claiming ignorance of the very product you sell.

Most people are happy to save money. If they can't then I advise otherwise.

If you have "no interest in knowing tariffs" how on earth can you advise them??

Tell us about your own discount please. What for? how much? where is it written down?

You know, I know, everyone with any common sense knows that UW have some of the most expensive gas and electricity prices in UK and the TVG is discredited and worthless.

I note that fellow UW distributors have not sprung to your defence.

So let us have an answer

P.S.

I have no need to do any comparisons of any tariffs and most people except rate chasers

like yourself

don't either

So when do I chase tariffs? I have been on the same tariff since 2005(the cheapest on the market) and pay £812 less per year than I would with UW!

Quentin

keggs wrote: »

We don't con or lie to get customers to join.

Apart from the reps who come here and attempt to con us with misleading and false claims, or pose as satisfied customers, there are lots of ways we have seen that uw will do and say anything to get a sale.

EG:

1) Uw reps are encouraged to con your friends into thinking you have a problem at work (when really all you want is to be able to have an objection free presentation, and sign the friends up for multiple utilities).

2) Con people into thinking you are carrying out a survey, when the survey is just a way of leading into a sales pitch.

3) Con people in the street that you are lost, so that you can reward them for helping you by introducing them to uw.

4) (This one is keggs' own suggestion) Con people by leaving a card saying that they have parked carefully next to you (when in fact you have chosen to park next to them, to allow you to stick your card on their car, and written a pto to reveal your business)

5) Con people that uw comes down the list on comparison sites because they are currupt, and uw refuses to pay them to get put up the list.

keggs

1carminestocky wrote: »

SJ, I know that UW claim to have 28,000 distributors but I wonder what %tage of them are active? AFAICT there isn't a requirement to re-register yearly so I'm assuming someone who signs up is classed as a distributor for life, even though i would imagine the vast majority of them probably do nothing.

Just been reading that Wigoder doesn't take a salary from the business and instead relies on share dividends for his remuneration. If only the MDs of the Big 6 were so judged on performance...

There is a rule in business called the 20 / 80 rule. It applies to UW as any other business. 20% of people do 80% of the work; 20% of people get 80% of the benefits.

There is a re registration fee but this is very small.

Most distributors don't do anything or do it in fits and starts. There is no obligation to do anything.

You are also right Charlie Wigoder has never taken a salary.

SwanJohn asked why we get paid. Why shouldn't I be paid to refer people onto to a company. There's nothing wrong with it or is SwanJohn trying to imply that somehow it's immoral. If that's the case give up your job and see how far that gets you in trying to pay your bills. I have bills like everyone else. My UW income helps me to pay them.

If he is saying that UW should employ distributors. The answer to that is quite simple. They chose to do it via network marketing because NM is a proven successful and far more effiicient way of getting products and services in front of people. It doesn't require spending millions of ££ advertising. Instead they pay that money to (a) its distributors and (b) its customers.

Those here who are incessant in trying to challenge the way the Utility Warehouse operates would do far better to get a basic book about network marketing and start educating themselves. That way you have a much better understanding instead of trying to 'make it up' based on information you think you know (but don't) or taken from other people who either know little themselves or have their own agenda.

As for unscrupulous distributors. Every organisation has them. It's what you do with them that matters. Harold Shipman killed hundreds of his patients. Does that mean all GPs are murderers or potential murderers. Daft!

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

1carminestocky

Does every detractor on here work for a company that offers the very cheapest product of its type on the market? If not, then surely on a point of principle they should tender their resignation?

keggs

Cardew wrote: »

That is the most pathetic answer on this board.

You still don't get it do you Cardew. That's what's pathetic. Educate yourself.

I don't advise anyone about anything. I simply present information to them and if they like what they see then fine. If they don't then fine also.

If I see a business then I will get infomation from them which is then pumped into a computer a programme. This information is printed off and presented to the businessman. If they like what they read. Fine. If they don't fine.

That's all the job I do. Nothing more. Nothing less. What part of that don't you understand. Knowing tariffs are not important. That's the job of the company. Not mine.

I don't sell energy anymore than I sell broadband or phones. I show people a way of possibly saving money. It's up to the customer to see if there is anything in it for themselves. My job is to just get a YES or a NO. Either way is completely right for THEM. It's not about me. It's about them. I don't come into the equation. That's the complete opposite to what you call a salesman. A saleman's job is get a sale as quickly and efficiently as possible. He has to know tariffs because that's his job. A network or referral marketer's job is to help people decide for themselves whether what we offer will benefit them or not. We don't advise we present.

Incidentally traditional salesmen often fail in this type of business because traditional 'selling' doesn't work.

Educate yourself Cardew about referral marketing instead of coming up with nonsense about what you think we should be doing. Distributors don't need to know tariffs. They don't need to know what their downline is doing. When you have a downline 10 deep as I do I haven't a clue who these people are. All I know is that they are all working their businesses in their own unique way for their own and their families benefit. If they need my help then I can be found. Most don't because the training UW provides for them is super.

Like all rate chasers and people who can't see any other way of doing things than the so called traditional way you get exasperated because you can't accept that there are ways of running a business that does't fit into your narrow minded point of view. If you are truly interested then do what I suggest and educate yourself. It might just open and broaded your mind. A very healthy pursuit IMHO.

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

keggs

As for the extra discount paid to me by UW that's my business not yours. You have no right whatsoever to ask me to publish this information. It is sufficient for you and others to know that as far as I am concerned the company fulfilled its pledge by honouring its guarantee. I am happy with that. If you aren't then that's your problem not mine.

You may think the guarantee is worthless. There may be distributors of UW who think the same. For my part I don't.

Unfortunately, this small revelation has now thrown you all in a spin. Keep spinning - if you fall over it might knock a little sense into you.

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

Quentin

Why did you choose to publicise your unsubstantiated claim regarding the worthless guarantee in this forum, yet never mentioned it over at the uw reps forum where the worthless guarantee was discussed there in relation to the BG gas customer who found BG cheaper, (despite the guarantee), then got the cop out e mail from your HO?

(In fact your motivational reply to the despondent rep was to tell him to sign up the prospect, then "give" the prospect some other customers so he could get the uw discount (for recommending customers) knocked off his bills. Sounds deceitful to me! Then you made the disdainful remark about the prospect not wanting the cashcard)

Cardew

keggs wrote: »

As for the extra discount paid to me by UW that's my business not yours. You have no right whatsoever to ask me to publish this information. It is sufficient for you and others to know that as far as I am concerned the company fulfilled its pledge by honouring its guarantee. I am happy with that. If you aren't then that's your problem not mine.

You may think the guarantee is worthless. There may be distributors of UW who think the same. For my part I don't.

Unfortunately, this small revelation has now thrown you all in a spin. Keep spinning - if you fall over it might knock a little sense into you.

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

Equally pathetic.

You informed us in this thread about the discount - in defence of the TVG. Now apparently it is none of our business!!

It is obvious that no such discount exists for customers!

You tell people "how to save money" but "have no interest in tariffs"

So tell us about the discount?

Incidentally your attempts to be patronising by using the salutation 'Dear Cardew, Dear Swanjon' etc to your perceived opponents are in line with most of your input to this thread. You simply do not have the intellect to carry it off. You should take some hints from Carmine, for all we clash, he at least demonstrates he is not lacking in mental capacity

You wouldn't get him making the howlers you make - I can see him squirming in embarrassment at your latest faux pas along with other more knowledgeable UW distributors.

jimexbox

So when is a salesman not a salesman? Oh I see, where they are there to help you. There I was thinking UW salesman were actually talking nonsense, ie, triple guarantee to dupe some unsuspecting friend, and now I learn you are there to help. I sincerely apologise for my past ignorance.

Really Keggs, have you switched on a powerful electrical device that has somehow initiated a reality distortion field in your locality?