Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Quentin

Originally Posted by Choc
thats means minus the £1 monthly charge and the 35p top up charge i would recieve £24.65p back off my bills.

Despite your previous rule breaking posts getting deleted, you come back again and again break the rules by posting here to promote uw and not declaring your interest.

You are ignoring the membership fee to uw, the high cost of uw products in the first place, the cost of the card (£10), the lost interest on your £500, and the fact that you have to spend the £500 at certain retailers (who may not be the cheapest) to get the discount.

You also mislead us when you say you will get £24.65 credited - even using your own (misleading!) charges of only £1.35 it would only be £23.65 credited to your bill.

And there are other worries.

1) You wouldn't get the usual FSA protection from using a standard mastercard when spending the £500

2) You get no protection whatsovever on your £500 whilst its on your card and unspent. (If uw goes bust, you lose your money!)

1carminestocky

Quentin wrote: »

You pick up on the point that you lose interest by having to charge the card in advance of using it and you show how to "spend £100 and save £5".

1) You ignore that the £5 is credited against a uw account, for which you have to pay a monthly membership fee, and for products like gas and electricity you can get probably get cheaper elsewhere.

2) You ignore the 35p to top up (making the £5 now £4.65)

3) You ignore the initial fee and ongoing charges for having the card

4) When claiming the misleading £5 saving figure you ignore that you cannot use the card everywhere - only at nominated retailers who may not be the cheapest.

Let's look at the possibilities, then. I have friends who do all their shopping at Sainsburys and buy their petrol from there. They have 3 kids, so 5 in the household. I obviously haven't asked them, but I would imagine they wouldn't be seeing any change out of £120 per week (it may be quite a bit more but we'll stick to £120). OK, £120 per week annualised is £6240. 5% of that is £312.00. Now let's assume they actually load this £120 each week just before they do their shop (so you can't include any interest missed as there simply won't be any!).

That's a 35p per week charge which annualised is £18.20, plus the £12 annual charge for the card. OK, even though the £21 membership fee covers ALL the services from UW, let's pander to your dislike of the company and add the whole amount on to this one 'service'. Total charges for the year for the card are therefore £51.20. Subtract that from the annual savings realised and we get a net annual credit applied to the UW bill of £260.80. Quite a saving off your utilities, eh? Can't you at least acknowledge that, FOR SOME PEOPLE, this card is a very good idea?

ships-cat

Choc wrote: »

So guys after your deliberations will the card be of any use to anyone?
Lets say for example i spend £500 per month on this card,thats means minus the £1 monthly charge and the 35p top up charge i would recieve £24.65p back off my bills.That cant be bad can it?

As they say "hit the nail on the head", you can save money and you won't go into more debt on the card unlike your cashback credit cards

I AM A DISTRIBUTOR

Cardew

Maz wrote: »

I saw October Which?. Utility Warehouse was voted the best energy supplier in the UK for value for money, customer service etc. The notion that the result was rigged by reps is rubbish and a bit of a pathetic atempt to discredit it! Which? is a respected impartial consumer guide.

As it appears the other thread on UW has been removed, the ‘Which’ report about utility companies that the UW reps are ecstatic about should be put into perspective.

‘Which’ have not recommended UW or any utility company, they have not ‘tested’ the company(indeed how could they?)

A panel of which contributors voted on various aspects of Utility Companies and UW came out top.

Now it is important to realise that Which ask for volunteers for their customer surveys (e.g. cars built in 2005/2006, Televisions, Washing Machines etc)

It is widely acknowledged that any survey/poll of this kind is absolutely meaningless if people with vested interests can choose to vote.

The BBC used to run ‘Man of the Year’ competitions. In the 1980’s, at the height of his unpopularity in UK, the miner’s leader Arthur Scargill was voted BBC ‘Man of the Year’.(there was a voting coupon in the Radio Times) This was achieved by the Union activists lobbying support throughout the mining communities.

Similar lobbying tactics have been used in other countries(‘National Front’ leaders winning) and such polls are now simply not held. Although a different type of competition, you don’t have to look any further than the voting in the Eurovision song contest – I predict that Cyprus will vote for the Greek singer!!

Now nobody could possibly argue that with the sales structure of UW there are a great many distributors, and their families, who have a huge vested interest in voting for UW. Indeed a good result can materially affect their income – a powerful incentive!

It is perhaps indicative that the percentage of UW ‘customers’ voting was over 300% more than would be expected from their share of the market!

So I suggest that as an indicator of customer satisfaction the Which survey is meaningless and totally discredited!

Whilst I would totally agree that Which are a respected organisation, so are the BBC and they admit they got it wrong! I suspect Which won’t make the same mistake again.

P.S.
Rather than howls of protest(and abuse) from UW reps, it would be interesting for views on the validity of such surveys, rather than the merits of the company.
In the unlikely event 'The Board Troll' makes any valid points, could somebody quote him - I resist the temptation to read his posts.

Quentin

1carminestocky wrote: »

Quite a saving off your utilities, eh?

But if you have to buy your utilities off uw to be able to use the credit, there is unlikely to be the saving you suggest.

As well as charging membership fees on top of their tariffs, they don't attempt to compete with the cheaper on line tariffs or dual fuel tariffs.

ships-cat

Cardew, that's the funniest thread I've ever read, conspiracy theorists of the world unite, or maybe we already have at our secret HQ trying to undermine the Big 6 customer serving utility providers - tell me you're making it up, you nearly had me then.

I AM A DISTRIBUTOR

missterryshopper

Quentin wrote: »

As well as charging membership fees on top of their tariffs

Whats wrong with a membership fee then ? after all it is a club ,most clubs i belong to charge membership fees.



I AM NOT A DISTRIBUTOR OR A CUSTOMER. I DONT WORK FOR OR HAVE ANY ASSOCIATION WITH ANY OTHER UTILITY COMPANY.

Choc

Quentin, why do you persist in having a go at me? I asked a valid question as to is this card any good? Will it have a benefit? Is it a waste of time? Ive only read about this today and cannot make my mind up if it is for me?


Mark

UW distributor and customer.

oldharryrocks

missterryshopper wrote: »

Whats wrong with a membership fee then ? after all it is a club ,most clubs i belong to charge membership fees

Yes the concept of a membership fee must be acceptable to some people its just bought a new HQ building to deal with the explosive growth in its business.

http://www.hemscott.com/news/static/tfn/item.do?newsId=67476083937523


Customer/Distributor soon to be a shareholder.

Cardew

ships-cat wrote: »

Cardew, that's the funniest thread I've ever read, conspiracy theorists of the world unite, or maybe we already have at our secret HQ trying to undermine the Big 6 customer serving utility providers - tell me you're making it up, you nearly had me then.

I AM A DISTRIBUTOR

Instead of trying to ridicule my post, why not explain where the logic about this type of survey is faulty. Your post has contributed what????

Do not UW distributors have a huge vested interest in their company doing well in such a survey?

Can vested interests rig such surveys?

Is it simply chance that 300% more UW 'customers' chose to participate?