Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

espresso

Cardew

keggs wrote: »

When people join UW they have to sign document stating that they will not do anything that misrepresents or miss sells or does anything that brings the company into disrepute. Anyone who does so will have their distributorship terminated. Thats a fact

So signing such a document( a disclaimer) ensures the integrity of UW employees? Mmmmm

So what action has been taken in the case of the upheld ASA complaints?

What about action against the many distributers who spam on the internet - including MSE - surely they bring the company into disrepute?

SwanJon

keggs wrote: »

As far as I am aware it wasn't very long ago when this story occurred. I have reported the story from a comment made this month on one of our distributor forums.How old or young it is I have no idea but that doesn't really matter. It is also irrelevant even if BG do give a staff discount. The individual concerned obviously felt UW was better.

The point is if it was on a forum (!) this month and one tenet of it has been proven to be false, how can we trust the rest of it?

keggs wrote: »

I know from personal experience that when ever I speak to a BG seller either on the phone or at the door they always tell me that BG can't beat UW so they don't event try.

What, they never mention their cheapest on the market Click 5?

keggs wrote: »

I'm not sure who you are referring to by the doorknocker comment. When people join UW they have to sign document stating that they will not do anything that misrepresents or miss sells or does anything that brings the company into disrepute. Anyone who does so will have their distributorship terminated. Thats a fact.

Door knockers are the closest thing other suppliers have to UW distributors. They are all trained (although there are issues in places) and EnergySure accredited. Legally all call centre staff who complete contrcats need to go through specific training.
What do UW distributors get? "Sign here."

1carminestocky

espresso wrote: »

Be careful which way you spray that, espresso, if you were to disappear from this message board I don't know what I would do for my laughs.

On-topic: From the posts on here you'd genuinely think UW was the spawn of the devil Now we are even getting the big 6's 'door knockers'/call centre staff praised for their training/integrity. Hilarious.

I wonder what training sesions the BG call centre lassie who told me there was no cooling off period for Price Protection 2009 and, err, no, I couldn't revert back to Click 5 went to? Then told me it would cost me £75 to switch back (I was switching back to another BG product). Amazing knowledge of her company and its products. Not.

SwanJon

1carminestocky wrote: »

On-topic: From the posts on here you'd genuinely think UW was the spawn of the devil Now we are even getting the big 6's 'door knockers'/call centre staff praised for their training/integrity. Hilarious.

I didn't praise doorknockers or call centre staff. I did say that they all go through Energywatch accredited training, and then I did point out that there were still issues.
If one of my friends was offering UW, how would I know that what they were saying was true (even if they fully beleived it was)? What sales training do they get before they sign contracts with people? I'm perfectly happy for any of the UW distributors to come on and tell me the training and testing they all recieve before they can make legally binding contracts on UW's behalf.

Quentin

All you need to get started as a uw distributor is £200. No need to attend any training.

Maybe its that £200 they fork out that causes the problem - they are (understandably) too proud to admit they put £200 of their own into it, and then discovered the truth!

Another questionable claim from uw's website:

No one else offers combined telephony and domestic electricity and gas at a lower price

Which company are they competing against here?

Certainly this would be true: "No one else offers domestic energy, telephony and horoscopes". Well worth joining if you are fed up not getting your electricity and horoscopes on the same bill!

keggs

From now on all my comments are based on my experiences as a customer and not as a UW distributor. I will not be drawn any longer into discussing this aspect. I am proud to be a distributor and so feel I do not need to defend the company from people who obviously have some personal agenda. Further, I find some of the posters on this forum to be quite offensive and condescending.

As a customer of UW for 10 years for me the company has lived up to all expectations. I am very happy and find no reason to move away.

I am not interested in tariffs, rates and any of the other minutiae that seem to fascinate some here. I am a trained scientist but have no interest in working out whether I could shave a few more pence off the price of a call or my energy bill if I move to another company. Company XYZ may have a better deal on their mobile tariff, they may have half a dozen tariffs to choose from. Another company may be cheaper on their energy or landline call charges. So what if they do. I doubt none of them offer what I get from the Utility Warehouse.

There are only 2 things I am interested in:

1. Do I pay a fair price for my services (do I save money)?
2. Do I get good customer service?

The answer to these questions for me is an emphatic Yes! So as a customer I see no need to go any where else. If others here have had a bad experience in the past, then all I can say is that is unfortunate. No company is perfect and perhaps it didn't really give you what you were looking for.

Whether the UW runs a club and has a small fee to belong to the club is no interest to me. If they can do what they say they can do for me then I am quite happy to pay this piffling sum of money. As they do fulfill what I expect of them then that's all that matters to me.

I do not have any interest in or the inclination or the time to be constantly researching the energy, phone, mobile phone markets. Some here obviously do. Some obviously have also no concept of loyalty.

I on the other hand do have a concept of loyalty. In return the UW has returned that loyalty.

As far as the unique billing system is concerned, this is the most important part of being a member of the UW club. I know exactly how much money I have to pay every month and I know when I have to pay it. I don't have to wait with baited breath for a myriad of bills coming through at different times of the year. My life is much more stable and financially simple.

Someone said that if they can devise a piece of software then anyone can do it. If that's the case why aren't BT, BG, Virgin and the rest of them doing it? The fact is I don't believe they can. BG can't even put two bills into one envelope never mind send out one bill for everything.

Can I suggest to this individual if you are so smart as to be able to devise software then why don't you do it and offer it to some company.

As for UW's software why should they make money by offering a licence. I wouldn't. The multi billing platform is UW's major unique selling point.

To Qunetin...

If you are so hung up about UW having been found guilty by the ASA why don't you put your money where you mouth is and make a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. Better still sue the Utility Warehouse.

As a customer of the Utility Warehouse I don't give 2 hoots what the ASA has said UW has done or not done. As a customer, they have fulfilled their promises to me and that's all that matters to me. Only people with an agenda feel as you do.

No doubt someone here will say I have been duped. I haven't. I made the choice to join the UW. No one put an arm up my back. No one pressured me. It was my decision. And I for one am glad that I did.

Regards
Steve

Plushchris

I really dont know why you are here then keggs, I mean, this is moneysavingexpert.com not moneywastingexpert.com if you are happy paying "piffling" amounts of money for nothing then thats great, more power to you. I suppose you light cigars with twenty pound notes from all the money you are making from UW too.

The truth is, most, if not all people want and expect good customer service and most people get it, you only hear about the bad stuff.

But thing most people want is value for money. When buying gas and electric you are buying exactly the same product from every supplier so the only supplier that really offers value for money is the one that is cheapest.

UW's gas and electric is no better or worse than the gas and electric supplied from anyone else. Just the same as the Heinz beans you buy in Tescos is exactly the same as the heinz beans in Sainsburys Tescos sell them for 40p a can and Sainsburys sell them for 45p a can, which is best value for money?

So let me get this right, distributors pay £200 for the outfit then still have to pay the monthly club fee too?

LMAO sounds like a bargain!

keggs

Why should people believe you and people like you any more than they me.

I'm here to defend me as a customer and all the other customers who are customers because they feel the Utility Warehouse benefits them.

I would suggest your and your ilk are here to do one thing and one thing only - cause mischief and heartache. You have an agenda that's pretty clear.

People make their own choices - or should do. At least the company is confident enough not to have any contracts with most of their services. This contrasts sharply with the major corporations who even go to the lengths of completely confusing people into signing a contract without even realising they have done so. I know that for a fact because I spoke to someone the others day who hadn't realised they were in a contract with their present energy supplier for the next 3 years! And it will cost them dearly to get out of it. I even checked what savings they could have made by moving to UW. The answer - around 35%.. So much for it being the same gas and electricity.

Whether people benefit from joining the Utility Warehouse can only be found out after they have joined. And they can leave quite easily if they don't. And since not many do in the grand scheme of things (churn rate is the lowest in the utilities industry) that's pretty impressive in my book.

As a customers for 10 years I see no reason to leave. I along with over 200,000 other customers feel the same way.

Regards
Steve

1carminestocky

Any idea when UW's price increase will be announced, Keggs? It will be interesting to see where it places UW's deal in the marketplace.