Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Choc

Hi guys,, I have just over 100 personnal customers and earn much more than stated.A lot of people do join but do not go all out to build their business but hey thats upto them,they do have a choice.

Im always honest with new distributors and i tell them if they are not prepared to talk to anyone about what they do then thier income will not overtake their wages or pay the mortgage.You get out what you put in!

As for the mini it is now £150 per month for 60 months and the company will pay an extra bonus for each new customer/distributor collected in any one month to the maximum of £100 so as you can see you could actually only have to pay £50 p/m for the car.

Hope this helps guys.

lets-save-money

RichOneday wrote: »

I built a group that has had over 150 distributors in it with 75-80 still live but my income is £10 - £20 pm because of all the compensation plan traps which will get everyone eventually.

Firstly, I am a UW distributor so clearly I am biased.

I dont plan to sing the praises of UW - they have their faults like any organisation but I believe their "mission statement" is better than other providers in the utilities industry. They do try and remain the cheapest even if they dont always achieve it.

With most of my UW customers, I suggest that they make a direct comparison with their existing supplier (Gas & Electricity) - ie: pen paper and calculator. More ofter than not there is a clear saving compared with the existing provider and occasionally there is not. BTW please dont tell me it is against UW rules to do this - if a customer chooses to do this it is up to them. I am simply prohibited from providing quotations myself (which is a different matter).

What I dont do is tell them to go onto Uswitch or other comparison websites because I have proved repeatedly to myself that they are biased, for reasons which have been mentioned elsewhere.

When I switchced from British Gas I was able to save over £400 per year on electricity alone. And then we had a call from them offering a special deal and to fix our prices for the next three years if we cancelled the UW contract - funny how the special offers come out when you want to leave. Clearly their losses arent really as great as they would have us all believe - but thats another issue.

You say that the compensation plan traps will eventually get everybody yet there are many well documented UW distributors who are doing very well despite the "traps" which you mention. As a UW distributor yourself you would know who those distributors are. How come they havent fallen victim of this insidious commission system?

Like any commercial organisation, UW rewards those who continue to work for them and help the company prosper. It is not unreasonable to expect those rewards to diminish when you stop putting in the effort.

I think if you sat down and worked out how much you had earned from each individual customer you would find that your rewards were commensurate with your time and effort.

BTW you suggested earlier that a prospective distributor should save himself the £200 joiining fee. I didnt see you mention that this fee is refunded when you recruit your first 12 customers (within 90 days). Maybe you mentioned it elsewhere and if so I apologise.

1carminestocky

BTW you suggested earlier that a prospective distributor should save himself the £200 joiining fee. I didnt see you mention that this fee is refunded when you recruit your first 12 customers (within 90 days). Maybe you mentioned it elsewhere and if so I apologise.

I've never seen this mentioned anywhere and wasn't aware of it at all and I have looked at the business before. It's certainly a big incentive for new distributors.

I note the new plan of attack on here seems to be the company making their wad through the toils of their 'workers' (In this case distributors). Crikey, how do ALL companies make their money? By paying their workers more money than they individually generate? Don't think so. I've read that the 'door knockers' who work for the Big 6 get an average of £7 each time they get a punter to sign up. Yet BG and others pay up to £62 affliliate income when people sign up online through a cashback/switching website! Getting rich on the toils of their workers? You bet!

1carminestocky

Are you suggesting that people who sign up are of the opinion/told that getting just 5 personal customers will give them a top income? Surely not. It's entirely clear to anyone with half a brain that to succeed in *any* kind of business (be it franchise, referral marketing/telesales etc) there's going to be a rather large element of selling/operating outside your comfort zone, so to speak. Anyone who doesn't realise this/isn't prepared to do it, sort of deserves to fail, tbpf.

lets-save-money

RichOneday wrote: »

In return for introducing their warm market to Telecom Plus those distributors will lose money. You may argue with that but I'd like to see the how.

you have clearly been with the company for much longer than I and it is sad to see that you have lost faith in the business - thats certainly food for thought. I would have expected someone in your position to be reaping the rewards of network marketing.

To succeed in 'the business' you have got to be happy to keep recruiting this 'fodder' and keep selling the dream that anybody can have a wonderful life if only they are prepared to put in the effort. They can't! Once they've exhausted their warm market they need to become fully fledged salespeople operating in a cold market learning skills that it has taken proper salespeople years to master. Are you telling me that anyone can become a skilled salesperson in one of the most cut-throat, competitive market places that exist? Of course not.

I dont question your argument that this is about selling but I dont think the UW is a difficult concept to sell - as long as you believe in the product/ company you are selling. It is saving me money so why cant it save other customers money? The other point you are missing is that to succeed in this business you need to get referrals (ie: satisified customers). If you dont ask for referrals you wont succeed. The point in "reccommending" a product or service as opposed to "selling" is that you believe in it. If you dont then you may as well give up.

So the company needs salespeople. That's fair enough and what I wish they would be up front about. Once that is accepted, and we all must accept that the vast majority of people will never make proper salespeople, then there should surely we an element of selectivity in the recruitment process. But no, anyone can pay £200 and become a salesperson. Why, ask yourself, does the company want to keep recruiting people who are ONLY going to deliver 5-10 customers with all the administrative burden that goes with it. Why not have selection criteria and politely refuse entry to those who are obviously not going to succeed?

I dont believe it when you say the company only wants distributors who will only recruit 5-10 customers. That simply isnt in their long term interests. They dont make a secret of the need to recruit 12 customers in 90 days to get your money back. So why would someone join if they didnt have the expectation of fulfilling that quota. If you set yourself a target and fail to meet it, whose fault is it?

Your next point is simple to answer. No, I have not been rewarded in a manner commensurate with the time and effort put in.

As for the £200 joining fee being refunded after 12 customers. Need I say anymore than repeat that the 'fodder' for the company is distributors who introduce their warm market of 5-10 people.

I am genuinely sorry that you feel short changed. Before I joined I spoke to many distributors to get a feel for what the company was like. Some I spoke to clearly hadnt put in the effort that was required and werent earning any money. Others were and were more than happy with the money they had made. Of course they could have been brainwashed into believing they were earning good money but I cant see it somehow. The business isnt a get rich quick scheme and anyone that claims otherwise is lying. You have to work at it to succeed.

Before I joined, I looked at a number of other network marketing opportunities. The others were all selling overpriced products which you could buy better for half the price in the supermarket (cleaning stuff, beauty products, vitamin pills). Now to succeed in those businesses you do need to sell. So I said to myself - Whats so hard about reccommending a company that can (and usually does) save people money. For what it's worth, I became a customer before becoming a distributor.

What puzzles me is that you have clearly put a lot of effort into getting to where you have before deciding it wasnt worth it. Surely if your model was repeated with other successful distributors then everybody would pack it in - after all what would be the point of staying?

Bearing in mind the company has been in existence for over 12 years there must be a lot of gullible distributors out there.

Choc

Richoneday,, its a shame people join just to wither the £200 away,i know because ive had many.It is rewarding when a new distributor takes the business for what it is. I always explain crystal clear that no effort equals no or very litlle income.So if they cant put in huge effort then dont bother joining, a bit harsh but its much needed in my opinion.

So ROD, have you given up building the business altogether?

Mark

g3nby

Bit bewildered at the motive behind your visit to theatre, for which you had to pay and at the amount of effort you've put into attacking the activities of something in which you haven't the slightest interest! (and even less knowledge)
Have you nothing else to do in your life? What will you achieve by your utterly pointless tirade about something you know much less than a LITTLE, clearly don't understand, will gain nothing from shouting off your mouth, beyond the smug self-satisfaction of a torrent of meaningless words.
I notice that you didn't drag yourself away from the 8 hours in the theatre but stayed for the entire event and if nothing else in 8 hours, didn't tumble to the fact that they aren't COMPANY cars.
This being so, how can anybody attach a fragment of importance to anything else of the over-verbose gibberrish you uttered?
Are you on some sort of self-motivated, self-erotic Crusade?
Did your colleague pay you for recommending that he avoid a fate worse than death by looking at the UWDC offer? Betcha he didn't!
If he takes another look, without presence of such jaundiced, narrow-minded, inwardly looking, navel gazer he might say "Streuth! I nearly missed this due to that know-all who lives next door!" THAT my friend, is precisely what you are.

The problem with the expression "Know-All" is that, just like "Clever !!!!!!!" it is a huge misnomer. Know-alls know Nowt and Clever Dicks ain't Clever, although in the latter expression, part of it IS valid!

If you don't approve of it, just clear off. Find something else worthy of your esteemed erudition. Things must be a bit bleak if you have nothing else to fill your drab and meaningless existence.
Don't think this'll get you on the Honours List, Old Fruit, but I guess that YOU think it's your only chance! (Knowing what you do about yourself!)
Bloody world's full of pratts like you!
How DO you look in a mirror?
Streuth!

g3nby

1carminestocky wrote: »

My God, I hope so too. :eek: According to this thread they already appear to be responsible for most things that's wrong with this sceptred isle. :rolleyes:

SILLY SOD!

g3nby

conmenot wrote: »

Hi - apols for the long post.

The above quote regarding a policeman getting drunk people to switch to his product really doesn't surprise me at all, given what I've just witnessed!

I am certainly NOT a UW distributor or customer, but however I did go along to their sell-out networking recruitment conference show in Northampton yesterday, with an elderly neighbour who was interested in becoming a distributor.

So I have some inside information about this company and it's odd methods of selling a pretty poor product.

1200 people packing a theatre, it was an impressive turnout, there were video crews there and big screens plus one of their ugly branded yellow Minis on the stage, which you get to drive as a company car if you sell enough. Whoopee!

It's all very strange indeed, and more than a little crass.

Needless to say my neighbour has no interest in joining the ranks of the distributors any more.

A quick summary of this conference:

Two fairly high level execs tried to compere the 8 hour (!) show with an attempt at comedy which was pitiful at best and downright embarrassing at worse, especially when the audience had better punchlines to their "jokes" than they had written.

Lots of "motivational speakers" who turned out to be execs at the top of the pyramid imploring the audience to find more customers/distributors.

They then dragged a hearing impaired man on the stage and a visually impaired woman, both of whom got a standing ovation for some unknown reason, as if the ability to sell utilities is somehow an incredible achievement for the disabled, which was patronising to say the least.

There were three signers eagerly translating all the sales pitches in BSL to what appeared to be only one deaf man, so they were definitely going down the "we love the disabled" route, and indeed much of their pitch was to do with helping communities.

I was rather hoping the blind lady would win the Mini Cooper just to see how the comperes would get out of that one without a script.

A senior level exec from Liverpool dragged his young family onstage and actually started crying (with his back to the crowd) when telling the audience about his nice new house. Then recovered his composure immediately.
His kids didn't look remotely concerned their dad was crying, because he was clearly putting it on... the son was looking at the crowd dead pleased with his dad's acting abilities.
At that point it really did resemble an American evangelist church meeting, with all the appalling emotional play-acting that goes with it.

There was a reasonably funny guy with a dry sense of humour with a guide to failure, how not to succeed, that kind of thing, but even he was being pretty patronising and even insulting - implying that people who work for a boss and have a small house are losers, that sort of nonsense.

Then they wheeled out their "celeb", who was - wait for it - an Olympic Gold Medallist!!
Turned out he rowed in Sydney 8 years ago as part of an 8 man team and won a gold medal - he's now their commercial director.
Seemed like a nice guy, though very posh (like all their top brass) unlike the mainly Northern middle class aspirational audience, then spent a painful amount of time describing the minutae of winning, before showing his successful rowing team win the gold. Then showing a replay. It was pretty sad by then.
You would think with all the money made from a sell out theatre show they could have afforded a decent celebrity endorsement.

The whole day was peppered with personal testimonials from people (an unusual amount of them were former police officers) who had achieved "SE Gold" which means they have roped in a minimum of 10 personal
customers and a minimum total of 50 customers within two months and get a mere £500 for bringing in what would potentially amount to tens of thousands for the company.

The comperes summed it up at the end most aptly by describing the whole day (and it was a very long day!) as being "an emotional rollercoaster".

Which is of course true - emotions were being manipulated all day, to make those who were not selling enough feel guilty, and to massage the egos of those who were doing OK.

It's very much an American style set-up, and seemingly has found popularity in the north of England, where social networking is somehow easier and more practical with smaller communities and the pub and sport culture that isn't so prevalent in London.

To be fair, the people we spoke to during the break (only one 45 minute break in 8 hours!) were really nice people, but had been hyped up to the point of obsession and were purely motivated to try and sell to us once they realised we hadn't become customers yet.

Which is the fundamental problem I have with this company and others like it: the onus is on you to sell these utilities to your friends and family as if you're doing them a huge favour.

Trouble is - as this site has shown, you're not!

UW/T+ prices are not really very competitive, they're only buying from the same place as everyone else after all, and are subject to the same rises in costs.
A three minute comparison with other providers will result in a far better deal.

Raising the prices without warning is a mean trick - not one I'd like them to pull on my friends and family.

And as for having to get up on stage and recieve a public pat on the back for using your treasured social circles as a commodity for making the poshos at the top of the chain richer - no, definitely not for me.

By the way - none of this could be construed as disclosing private business information - as I have a feeling a lot of the UW distributors will read this post in horror and try to get it deleted for breaching company privacy - which is nonsense.

It was a public show in a public theatre, and this post is genuinely warning people to avoid the cult-like behaviour and virtual brainwashing that is going on at these things - it's deep level marketing dressed up as charity work.

It left a very nasty taste in my mouth.

Utilities Warehouse/Telecom Plus?

Avoid!!

Sorry. My recent response to the loudmouthed theatre goer should have contained this quote. I'm new on this site and missed the procedure.

NBY

billsavings

g3nby wrote: »

I'm new on this site and missed the procedure.

You probaly missed the original post in this thread by MSE,which said amonst other things"All Telecom Plus Distributers must declare it when they post." I guess from your tirade you most have something to do with them.

You have ignored Forum Etiquette. Pls be nice to all MoneySavers. There's no such thing as a stupid question, and even if you disagree courtesy helps.

And you have called one of Telecom Plus,s allies on this site a silly sod.;)