Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Gerrard_8_lfc

vinnyph wrote: »

. Just doesn't seem a very professional tactic to take and could be seen as spam. 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.

? You are a sad little man :rotfl:

In no way did I try to push BG to anyone

Infact you will find I said other services are competitive just not gas and electricity.

And in reflect to your awfull post I work in retention so no benefit would come to me even if I did push BG. You only said that because of who I work for.

... and sorry but im not the "meter" guy who deeply upset you I hope you gave him the screed that you just gave me :T

I bet he ruined your day that day ... maybe you called the police ?

vinnyph

If you came on here more regularly you would realise I am a friendly and very forgiving big bloke who tries to write peotry because Maz likes it. I don't get upset you see. I take an open view of things. Nothing meant in harm as I meant no harm to the BG guy not quite following regulations. My suggestion is simply that your post could be seen in the way I suggested. I am intelligent enough to realise that you probably didn't mean it that way. It's just that over the years I have learnt the regulations. Its not me who writes the regulations.

In regards to the BG 'meter reader' he is now selling Npower instead now but don't know why he changed exactly. He came around again and one of the neighbours told me he used the same ploy on them. Now I didn't get upset about that either, but its a bit naughty wouldn't you say.

Gerrard_8_lfc

You no doubt ment any harm to the BG sales person but as the area I work in I hate nothing more than mis selling. I think most of it comes from the agency Ventura as people who come to BG have to "prove" their worth to the company.

In no way would I benefit from promoting the company which im sure you will appreciate as I try to retain customers.

If I was very harsh I could say you tried to attack my views of a company who I did praise in certain areas.

Now that would be harsh

The concept of the company is good all I said was poor prices for gas and electricity. challenge me if you want but dont tell me about BG sales people I know what they can be like and I hate nothing more.

Seeing as its gas and electricity tell me how they are competitive without talking about other services ( Which I think are quite good e.g. Phone Broadband)

vinnyph

I have written things a number of times before in this thread in detail about energy prices which is really the topic of the thread. However some people seem to think it is a thread for flaming the company and spread libel. Forgive my test but you no doubt see you passed because you get a reply.

Every few months prices will change so any comparison at any point in time becomes irrelevant over the long term in terms of long term savings. To quote an annual saving as the price comparison sites do at an instance in time becomes quite ambivalent to the point. The prices will always change anyway. The discounts quoted by companies are used to entice customers or to win back customers but don't mention the discounts other companies also give. The discount in the majority of cases disappears within a few months when the prices change again. The thousands of tariffs provided are confusing to even the the most diligent of people.

In short its the long term value that is important.

I guess you would agree that when the combined package is involved then that's where the real value compared to other companies comes into place. Similar to quoting the dual fuel discount that some other companies give. Its only fair to include these savings because that's what most UW customers have. Add the cashback card and in some cases peoples bills have become negative.

I allow energy sales people into my home in order to see the different techniques they use to try to win business. It's a psychological interest I have. There are many cases where I have seen miss-selling techniques and maybe they should be reported as it gives the industry a bad name but I find it fun in a Sasha Baron Cohan sort of way. Obviously they are under pressure to get as many sales as possible. I feel sorry for them. They don't have to be under pressure.

Gerrard_8_lfc

vinnyph wrote: »

The discount in the majority of cases disappears within a few months when the prices change again. The thousands of tariffs provided are confusing to even the the most diligent of people.

In short its the long term value that is important.

I totally agree with you my best example Npowers £100 discount ( They fail to mention if you miss a payment you dont get.)

vinnyph wrote: »

I allow energy sales people into my home in order to see the different techniques they use to try to win business. It's a psychological interest I have.

I also Enjoy this working in this area hearing SP ( They come to my door the most as I live in glasgow) tell me I could save £200 with them on SP standard tariff rather than BG websaver 3 with my discount is funny. In some cases sad but I love to see them panic I had one saying why dont you sign up with us and sign yourself back !!!.

I have no intrest what UW do as I am not an employee and I am contracted to BG but I do like the idea for Broadcall and their phone service. I just think they could be more competitve in energy if that was the case they would have more customers.

The concept is good G&E prices need to be more competitve even if they had a online tariff would be good.

I dont have a sainburys near me so asda is the cheapest option so BG and asda is were my personal savings are from .

vinnyph

Each to their own. But to say UW is uncompetitive on energy isn't true. It depends where you get your prices for UW. I have seen all sorts of prices quoted from different places other than UW itself. The price comparison sites don't give the correct prices for a number of reasons. The other energy companies don't either. When I compare the true prices that UW actually charge they are always less than what other companies quote as what UW provide. Maybe that's where the confusion comes from. I have seen the prices out by as much as £100 before.

However I have found that the websaver/click online discounts reduce over time until people end up paying very near to BG standard prices. People don't realise that until a while later. Now I find that people realise that it happens and bring up the point themselves, because they feel its just a ploy to give good rates for new customers only but the loyal customers end up paying for it.

The discounts that UW customers get by taking the package don't reduce over time.

In regards to customer numbers. That isn't really a good measure of a company. The other big 6 companies are ex monopoly, originally having all the customers, and have been in fact loosing customers since the time of deregulation. Not sure how old you are or how long you have been doing your job but I have been following things for a long time. UW have grown nearly 50% in size in a little over a year, not exactly a bad rate of growth you must agree. Its rate of growth has been accelerating as well. Have the big 6 been expanding over the past few years. UW have continued to expand. It's methods are different and will take many years but its expansion of services has been continuous.

Gerrard_8_lfc

I agree in the growth context with your post about UW

BG lost a lot of customers to rivals most due to cost. ( Some times in false pretences) which is true not all switches are as green as made out by "sales" staff.

BG have had a good recovery and it has not gone un noticed 60.000 choose BG electricity weekly.

I cannot fault UW in their growth as the concept is good as your are sayin regional prices a not the same but still on the high side.

Click/ Websaver do expire and you can switch accordingly to suit your consumption. When they do expire thats when they become close to the same price as standard tariff.

I respect what you say but I still think the best deal is to be had with BG , EON or EDF online rather than part of a service offered by UW ( as said before it can work out cheaper if you take all services) but there are circumstances which people are better of with onlince tariffs ans shopping at asda. dont you agree ?

Quentin

vinnyph wrote: »

But to say UW is uncompetitive on energy isn't true. It depends where you get your prices for UW. I have seen all sorts of prices quoted from different places other than UW itself. The price comparison sites don't give the correct prices for a number of reasons.............

It seems part of uw training to get their reps to try and persuade gullible prospects that the switching sites are corrupt and artificially make uw more expensive than it really is.

The ex policeman rep tries this on with the gullible spanish teachers:

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/videos/signing-customers.html

Yet the figures given on the switching sites can be checked independently - the switching sites are aware of that, and would soon lose their credibility via sites like MSE were they corrupt!

And we have learnt that one of them is actually run by a uw rep!

To balance the suggestion that uw are "competitve on energy", check their advertising (not what you hear the reps telling gullibles in the misleading videos, or posts here like this one quoted from)

Even their worthless guarantee (really a "sales aid") is quick to point out they are only attempting to be competitve with the others expensive standard tariffs!

1carminestocky

The switching sites, if not corrupt (I would never accuse them of that although they ARE reliant on getting people to switch. If they don't they've actually cost the switching site money by taking up their bandwidth, lol), are clearly not giving anything like enough info at the very least. For instance, I pay much less for my utlities with UW than I would with any other company/tariff (and we've already been told over 100 customers actually received negative bills AND a refund this month!) and yet the switching sites don't reflect this. Why not?

jimexbox

1carminestocky wrote: »

I pay much less for my utlities with UW than I would with any other company/tariff (and we've already been told over 100 customers actually received negative bills AND a refund this month!) and yet the switching sites don't reflect this. Why not?

Any discount that you may in future accrue with you discount card is totally dependent on usage, how can a switching site factor in a future possible discount? MSE recommend energyhelpline, as far as I can tell give a very reputable site, which is as fair as any other. Like it or not UW who simply resell another companies product, therefore adding another layer that skims off a profit, who offer some the most expensive tariffs, up there with 'green' woolly jumper feel better tariffs.