Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

NigeWick

SwanJon wrote: »

The pages fill up, but very little new gets said.

That's because the detractors have no new points for discussion. They just repeat what they have said before. You will notice that a pro member notified everybody that they can get 10% of their spend off their utility bill when shopping at House of Fraser in September.

That is new and it is of money saving benefit to members who are with Utility Warehouse and use the pre payment card. It is not for everybody, as, I am sure that I am not alone with not needing anything from them at this moment in time, indeed there is no House of Fraser near me. But, it will be of use to some.

I am an independent distributor with Utility Warehouse and the views I express may not be shred by the company.

Quentin

vinnyph wrote: »

He gained access to my house on false pretences by impersonating an official meter reader in order to sell me BG. Not a professional way for someone to try to sell energy services. I checked with UW the next month to see if an official meter reading had been made and it hadn't.

How do you feel about uw reps who are trained to get access into their friends' houses on false pretences. As seen in the training video, where you are taught to use your friends natural desire to help out over a problem you have at work when you ask them to. When really you intend to sign them up to at least 4 services:

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/videos/practice-appointment-shannon-griffin.html

Or what about Keggs car park trick, or his cold calling "official survey" trick? (What does uw do with all the data he has collected?).

Or the rep pretending to be lost so that he can approach strangers in the street with the intention of pushing uw?

etc etc.

Quentin

NigeWick wrote: »

That's because the detractors have no new points for discussion. They just repeat what they have said before. You will notice that a pro member notified everybody that they can get 10% of their spend off their utility bill when shopping at House of Fraser in September.

You manage to repeat this advert in the same breath! Looks like spam.

1carminestocky

Glad you've returned, Quentin, I'm having difficulty locating your UW-beating cash back card, any chance of a link, please? :rolleyes:

vinnyph

Quentin wrote: »

How do you feel about uw reps who are trained to get access into their friends' houses on false pretences. As seen in the training video, where you are taught to use your friends natural desire to help out over a problem you have at work when you ask them to. When really you intend to sign them up to at least 4 services:

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/videos/practice-appointment-shannon-griffin.html

Or what about Keggs car park trick, or his cold calling "official survey" trick? (What does uw do with all the data he has collected?).

Or the rep pretending to be lost so that he can approach strangers in the street with the intention of pushing uw?

etc etc.

I think northern people have a tendency to be more approachable. They are bothered about others and not just themselves.

There are some people who think that if you approach them just to say hello you must be after something. It is irrational fear of the unknown. They get angry if you just say hello. They make presumptions about people and as a result end up with no friends because the only person they cannot get rid of is themselves.

janninew

Quentin wrote: »

How do you feel about uw reps who are trained to get access into their friends' houses on false pretences. As seen in the training video, where you are taught to use your friends natural desire to help out over a problem you have at work when you ask them to. When really you intend to sign them up to at least 4 services:

http://www.networkerplus.co.uk/videos/practice-appointment-shannon-griffin.html

Or what about Keggs car park trick, or his cold calling "official survey" trick? (What does uw do with all the data he has collected?).

Or the rep pretending to be lost so that he can approach strangers in the street with the intention of pushing uw?

etc etc.

I think Vinnyph's example of a BG salesperson lying to gain entry into his house is totally different to a UW person approaching somebody in the street! When i get approached in the street (mainly by npower) i just say i'm not interested and walk away. If somebody turned up on my doorstep and told me there were here to read the meters i would probably let them in to do so. I believe your energy company has every right to read your meters at regualar intervals (not 100% sure how often though) and would feel like i had to let them to in. I think companies that are lying to gain entry to peoples propertys is quite shocking, this isn't the first time i have heard this about BG either. Surely this is illegal?

If an energy salesperson approached me in the street and prentended to be lost then started talking about changing suppliers i would quickly walk away and tell them i wasn't interested. Are UW doing anything illegal in how they sell their energy?

At the end of the day UW do not hold a gun to people's head to make them change suppliers, people have a choice to change suppliers or not. I know that other companies do not make people change either, but gaining access to somebody's house by lying is terrible and should not be tolerated.

keggs

janninew wrote: »

I think Vinnyph's example of a BG salesperson lying to gain entry into his house is totally different to a UW person approaching somebody in the street! When i get approached in the street (mainly by npower) i just say i'm not interested and walk away. If somebody turned up on my doorstep and told me there were here to read the meters i would probably let them in to do so. I believe your energy company has every right to read your meters at regualar intervals (not 100% sure how often though) and would feel like i had to let them to in. I think companies that are lying to gain entry to peoples propertys is quite shocking, this isn't the first time i have heard this about BG either. Surely this is illegal?

If an energy salesperson approached me in the street and prentended to be lost then started talking about changing suppliers i would quickly walk away and tell them i wasn't interested. Are UW doing anything illegal in how they sell their energy?

At the end of the day UW do not hold a gun to people's head to make them change suppliers, people have a choice to change suppliers or not. I know that other companies do not make people change either, but gaining access to somebody's house by lying is terrible and should not be tolerated.

As usual Quentin misuses information and uses half truths to try to insinuate that UW distributors are either at best lacking in integrity or at worst are liars and scheisters. Neither are true and he / she knows it.

Incidentally I know of no ID who stops people in the street to begin telling them about the UW. Rather, it is likely they simply give them a card with information as a thankyou, something the recipient might just welcome. If they don't all they have to do is throw it away. They are the loser not the ID.

Meeting new people is what IDs do. It's called referral marketing.

Steve
UW Distributor & Very Happy Customer

mech_2

janninew wrote: »

The way I look at it is I would rather my money be sat in my bank account in summer than UW's bank! I know I will pay more in winter, but i budget for this and put some cash aside in spring/summer to cover the winter bills.

I would rather have Scottish Power's money in my bank account during the winter and pay back the interest-free loan during the summer. This time of year would be a good time for people to switch to achieve that. Switching now would mean a new account would start at zero in September, be negative over most of the heating season and approach zero again by the following September. The key is having an accurate direct debit amount which is achievable by submitting a reading once a month to generate frequent bills from real usage.

I use to work for Centrica :eek: (many years ago!) and all the staff had their gas/electric with BG (except me of course!!). I remember the women I sat with was in credit of around 250.00 and they made it so difficult for her to get it back and she was employed by them. I just don't understand why you would want to give companies your money in advance, when you could keep in sat in your bank.

This happens when people with below average usage don't pay attention to their bills for a number of successive quarters and ignore estimated bills. Then when a meter reader finally gets a real reading and it's lower than expected, the account ends up hugely in credit. The customer service guys are only phone monkeys - they are no more able to estimate your annual usage than any other person, though I suspect they are trained to avoid paying back credit and risking getting the customer into debt. Worst case scenario: just switch supplier and then you get your money back. If readings are submitted every month (with UW or another supplier, doesn't matter) all this wouldn't happen - the direct debit would be set to a correct level in the first place.

Worst case scenario: you end up £250 in credit for a year. Best you can hope for in your bank account is 5% interest. So you lose £12.50 a year. Yet you said saving £9 a month wasn't worth switching for?

1carminestocky

mech, no matter how you dress it up, you are overpaying now and will continue to do so until we hit the really harsh weather - if we actually hit the harsh weather, of course. No matter how many times you personally submit your meter readings (you could do it every week for the amount of good it will do you), the amount you pay SP every month can only ever be an estimate of the amount you will be paying over the course of the year. Crucially, it will always be their estimate, not yours. They are in control, in other words. Are we going to have a cold Winter like last year or will it be mild like recent years? Unless you and, more importantly, SP can tell excatly how it's going to be, your DD is inaccurate. Simple as. Have you ever received written info from SP explaining how they calculate DDs for punters?

Both myself and janninew have chosen to pay excatly for what we have used in the month. With the best will in the World you could never do this with SP as they simply can't do it. Do you pay your local Tesco a set amount each month based on what you expect to spend in there over the course of a year? No. Do you pay your phone/BB provider in this way? No. So why try and justify doing this with gas and electric. It makes no real sense when faced with an energy suplier who IS set up to allow this to happen. Just because you and millions of others have effectively been forced to do it for years doesn't make it right or sensible...

mech_2

1carminestocky wrote: »

mech, no matter how you dress it up, you are overpaying now and will continue to do so until we hit the really harsh weather.

And I'll be underpaying in the winter. No net loss. No problem. Worst case scenario, as we've seen, is a few quid of lost interest, even if you let your account go to the dogs.

No matter how many times you personally submit your meter readings (you could do it every week for the amount of good it will do you), the amount you pay SP every month can only ever be an estimate of the amount you will be paying over the course of the year. Crucially, it will always be their estimate, not yours.

Which might be a problem if their estimate was wrong. But I've given them enough information through regular meter readings that their estimate is pretty much bang-on (bar major changes to the heat loss of the house which are unlikely as I've run out of things to do to it).

Are we going to have a cold Winter like last year or will it be mild like recent years?

Doesn't really matter. In fuel terms the difference is minimal. Every cold snap tends to be balanced by a warm period when you average it over several months. It's called "regression toward the mean".

Unless you and, more importantly, SP can tell excatly how it's going to be, your DD is inaccurate. Simple as. Have you ever received written info from SP explaining how they calculate DDs for punters?

Dead simple. Expected usage divided by 12. They know what I've used each month for ages now, so they have a pretty good idea of the shape of the curve. If they want to be really clever they can compare last year's weather to next year's long term forecast, but I doubt it's worth the bother.

Both myself and janninew have chosen to pay excatly for what we have used in the month. With the best will in the World you could never do this with SP as they simply can't do it. Do you pay your local Tesco a set amount each month based on what you expect to spend in there over the course of a year? No. Do you pay your phone/BB provider in this way? No. So why try and justify doing this with gas and electric.

Simple. Because energy consumption varies throughout the year due to winter heating demand. This really doesn't apply to anything else. The concept of a fixed direct debit was implemented because it worked. Fewer people then got behind with their bills. Like any system it has its flaws and it is also open to exploitation. But if the best alternative is to read your meter every month anyway then it's not a major problem for me to do that with a fixed direct debit account, thus avoiding all these perceived problems.

It makes no real sense when faced with an energy suplier who IS set up to allow this to happen. Just because you and millions of others have effectively been forced to do it for years doesn't make it right or sensible...

No one is forced into it. I just prefer a fixed direct debit. It comes down to personal preference. Variable direct debit is available from all the energy suppliers as far as I know. You don't seem to be able to get the best deals that way, but they are still cheaper than UW. I have no idea whether they will let you have a new bill every month, but who cares? Presumably they bill you in arrears, so if it's once a quarter that's not such a bad thing because you get to keep your money for longer.