Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

johnjames1

The growth is not that great and considering the amount of ID's amounts to 4 per ID in a year. As to FOI it applies to companies as well. I note you never answered the question why are not employees of the company ID's as well?

Ypaymore

johnjames1 wrote: »

As to FOI it applies to companies as well.

As per usual John your talking a lot of Tosh.

The Act only affects public bodies including government departments, schools and councils.

johnjames1

Ready to "blow the lid"

Changes to the Compensation Plan
We will shortly be making a number of important changes to the Compensation Plan and to our Policies
and Procedures as summarised in the edition of Hot News dated 30 July 2009 –Changes to College of Excellence booking rules and “90 Day Starter Bonus”
We have had a number of instances of serious miss-selling recently by untrained Distributors, some of
which have led to the Distributor having their position terminated, and one which was so serious (the
Distributor was basically stealing money from potential customers) that the police became involved and
arrests were made. (Kept that quite.)
We have therefore decided that in order to protect everyone involved in this fantastic business opportunity,
all new Distributors must attend the “Getting Started” course at our College of Excellence before they start
gathering customers. This will also help us to comply with the new OFGEM guidelines on selling energy
services, and reduce the risk that customers are inadvertently given inaccurate information about our
services by an enthusiastic but inexperienced new Distributor.

We want as many new Distributors as possible to receive a refund of their joining fee with our 90-Day
Starter Bonus. And we recognise that in some cases it may take several weeks for new Distributors to attend
training. So to ensure this change does not make it more difficult for them to earn their 90-Day Starter
Bonus, the 90 day period during which a new ID needs to gather their first 12 customers in order to earn a refund of their initial joining fee will commence either one calendar month after the Distributor application
is processed by us or on the date training is attended, whichever is the earliest (and the start date of the 120-day period for services to go live will be calculated in the same way). For the avoidance of doubt, the
The sponsor will not be charged for a “no-show” (as this would be unfair), but they will be charged the £20 “no-show” fee if they do not return the properly completed Distributor application form to us within 7 days of the date on which the booking was made. Ie: You should only make a booking on behalf of a new ID after they have completed and signed their Distributor application form! Alternatively, a new Distributor can of course book their own training place as soon as their application has been processed.

Any customer applications received from a new ID before they have attended training (with the exception of an application for the new ID himself as a customer relating to his own services at his normal home
address) will be passed to our telesales team for processing - these customers will not at any stage form part

of either their personal or group customer numbers – so please – ensure that new members of your team do

not sign up any new customers until they have been trained! The reason we need to adopt this approach (rather than simply returning the application form to the Distributor) is to comply with the universal supply

obligations in our OFGEM license.

Finally, please also note that new ID’s can still talk to prospects about the business opportunity and sign

them up as a Distributor prior to attending training – it is only customer gathering which will no longer be

allowed. So for new Distributors who are waiting for the next local “Getting Started” course and are keen to

begin building their business, it is a great opportunity for their sponsor and upline to give them a head-start

It therefore follows that if our customer mix changes, and we

start to attract a much high proportion of a particular type of customer who generate a lower level of profit (or are loss-making), then we need to reduce the rate of commission which we pay on those customers.

The most attractive residential customers, on which we strongly recommend all Distributors to focus their customer gathering activities, are those who meet as many as possible of the following criteria:
Home-owner

Socio-Economic groups A/B/C1/C2/D (ie: not casual or low grade workers, people earning minimum wage, students, prisoners, people reliant solely on a state pension or who depend on the welfare state for their income)

Secure job or trade

Multi-service (Energy and Communications)

CashBack Card

Of these, the single key criteria is home-ownership (a potential market of around 14m households), as on average these customers are likely to have the highest monthly spend, take the most services, remain a member for longer, and most importantly: Pay their bills each month; and Generate higher levels of CVC

In contrast, the least attractive customers are tenants. Indeed, a recent analysis of our customers has shown that on average we are now losing money on this type of customer for the following reasons:

1. We incur additional administration costs every time a tenant changes. On average, this happens twice each year, compared with just once every 11 years for Home Owners; 2. They tend to be “energy only” which has a lower margin; We incur much higher bad debts, as tenants frequently leave without paying for the energy they have used or leaving a forwarding address; and 4. We even incur bad debts when tenants have paid for their energy in full, because no-one is prepared to accept responsibility for the units used during any void periods, and it is often not cost-effective to set up an account in the name of the landlord, then to bill and chase him, for
an amount that could be just a few pounds. In aggregate however, spread across our entire base, these amounts have become extremely significant.

To ensure we do not continue to lose money on this type of customer in future, and to ensure the long-term sustainability of our business model, we therefore need to reduce the rate at which both personal and group

CVC is paid on all tenanted properties by 50% compared with the current pay-plan. Whilst this change will initially only apply to new customers gathered after 1 August 2009, it is our intention to phase in this

reduction retrospectively across all existing tenanted properties within the next 12 months.

Some serious bias questions here....as for the land registery....whats wrong with the electoral roll?

keggs

What's your point johnjames1

Ypaymore is right. You are obviously a failed ID with a grudge.

This thread is now dead. Get over it.

SwanJon

That's great to hear. It was really the only thing about UW that seriously worried me - untrained ID's signing people up with Chinese Whispers versions of the truth.
I'm hoping that this is an old bit of information, although none of theIDs on the thread mentioned it when I asked previously.
If it's not been runnig that long, it does beg the question why not?

Also a bit suprised to see this

johnjames1 wrote: »

The most attractive residential customers, ie: not prisoners,

Didn't think prisoners had to pay fuel bills - a bit tricky to get to the shops, no? (Yes their houshlds may need to but that spoils my point)

1carminestocky

johnjames1 wrote: »

The growth is not that great and considering the amount of ID's amounts to 4 per ID in a year. As to FOI it applies to companies as well. I note you never answered the question why are not employees of the company ID's as well?

You sure?

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000036_en_1

PS How's the winding up order going? I'm hoping it doesn't succeed until after my rather large cash back amount comes off my first bill...

jimexbox

johnjames1 wrote: »

2. They tend to be “energy only” which has a lower margin;

So there is a reason after all why the multi package is pushed so hard.

1carminestocky

Their bigger margins on telecoms products are no secret - they make reference to it in the latest accounts. I think it's to do with the fact that there's massive over-supply in the telecoms wholesale market and they don't appear to be tied to one supplier. Unlike with their gas and electric. The multi package makes perfect sense for the punter, anyway.

Having said that, I'm sure their entry into domestic fuel supply has done wonders for their turnover.

Gerrard_8_lfc

There phone package and broadband is quite a good deal depinding on your usage.

the gas and electricity is uncompetitive but to get the best deal you need all services which can save people money.

With a member of my family having just gas and electricty for her usage worked out £8 more expensive.

The idea is good but if the gas and elec prices were lower the company would have a very good chance of more customers.

vinnyph

Last time I spoke to a BG salesperson who came to the house, he first claimed to be there to read the meter as a ploy to get into the house. He then proceeded to read the meter and wrote something down on a small piece of paper.

He then asked the question. You used to be with BG, why aren't you now.

I said that was many years ago but had moved to a better company. He then became insistent that I should come back to BG because they had a special rate at the moment. I said, I thought you were here to read the meters. He gave me an indifferent look and continued to try to sell me BG.

Is it not true that the OFGEM guidelines forbid someone to gain entry by false means to someone's house in order to try to sell energy services. It is miss-selling. The person reading the meter is never someone who also sells the services door to door. I spoke to the proper meter reader a few weeks later to clarify that. Now, maybe I should have reported it at the time in order to protect innocent people from miss-selling, but I am not a vindictive person and thought he would just get found out anyway.

Just a thought though your post could be seen to be a similar ploy to sell BG products, only its on this thread in black and white and you also imply that UW are uncompetitive. Just doesn't seem a very professional tactic to take and could be seen as spam and miss-selling by the regulators. I would possibly reconsider your reproach because I think you don't realise that its potentially very damaging to your reputation and that of BG. Just a mild suggestion. Because of your involvement with BG there are regulations you have to follow.