Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

AvengerSeawolf wrote: »

I don't labour on about the TVG as I find that showing potential customers the 3rd party credibility UW has received for their energy services is usually enough (Which? magazine etc).

I am a UW ID.

It should be pointed out(and has been many times) that the 3rd party credibility is meaningless where UW vested interests can vote.

The Which 'report' is a survey where people can vote - not a Which report.

Given there are some 25,000+ UW salesmen - plus familly - all with a financial incentive to see UW perform well - it is not surprising that they perform well.
Rather like in the Eurovision song contest that Cyprus always give the song from Greece top marks.

mech_2

vinnyph wrote: »

Most households make calls during day time anyway. This is what the research performed by UW showed.

Not to a significant extent. Ofcom puts average call costs per UK landline to calls other than mobiles at around £5 a month. That's not just daytime geographic calls, that's all chargeable calls to anything other than a UK mobile. Most people can do better than that though, by dialling a prefix you can use a third party to get daytime UK calls as cheaply as 0.5p a minute (see the MSE callchecker). The free calls UW gas and electricity gets you are worth virtually nothing to the vast majority of people.

As for your problems getting a reliable Skype connection: maybe you need to switch to a better ISP?

vinnyph

Cardew wrote: »

Isn't the most important point to note that for all your valid criticism of BG's marketing strategy, the price for getting that gas and electricity from UW is £1003.

I did notice that but actually using high user for gas and standard user for electricity with UW it comes to £976.38. Energyhelpline takes both to be on the same standard tariff with UW. By taking a telephone service as well it would come to £876 in first year because of the £100 rebate. Taking broadcall would mean an average saving of nearly £100 a year because of free calls to 0845/0870/01/02/03 including membership fee. That brings it down to £776 in first year which is very good. I don't mind the £100 rebate because at least it is accurate in what it says it does. People don't realise that the on-line only deals discount reduces over time until months after they sign up and then there is an exit fee with websaver 4 as well.

That's without any any other savings like the cashback card or member discounts with other companies included. A £6000 annual spend on CBC would give an extra £283 saving. Bringing effective first year total down to £493. That would be the amount the person would actually paying to UW through their bill for their gas and electricity by doing it the UW way.

It all depends on if you include the UW cashback card method as being valid or not but in any case £776 for first year is very good.

UW distributor, customer. part time poet

janninew

Cardew wrote: »

It should be pointed out(and has been many times) that the 3rd party credibility is meaningless where UW vested interests can vote.

The Which report is a survey where people can vote - not a Which report.

Given there are some 25,000+ UW salesmen - plus familly - all with a financial incentive to see UW perform well - it is not surprising that they perform well.
Rather like in the Eurovision song contest that Cyprus always give the song from Greece top marks.

This view of the Which report always interests me. I haven't seen this issue of the magazine or this survey (or whatever it is!) It is suggested that people with an interest with UW are the people who vote, surely though there are more people with a vested interest in BG for example? How many employees do they have? How many shareholders? Surely there are more people with a vested interest in promoting BG than UW? These people surely have a financial interest to vote for BG? It seems a very strange way to look at this Which survey, surely all Which surveys could be seen like this, not just the one where UW perform well.

Decado23

Cardew wrote: »

It should be pointed out(and has been many times) that the 3rd party credibility is meaningless where UW vested interests can vote.

The Which report is a survey where people can vote - not a Which report.

Given there are some 25,000+ UW salesmen - plus familly - all with a financial incentive to see UW perform well - it is not surprising that they perform well.
Rather like in the Eurovision song contest that Cyprus always give the song from Greece top marks.

Laughable. Uk.gov list the uk population mid 2008 as 61383000. That's an awful lot of people, most of whom who have no vested interest in UW. Many of whom presumably have a vested interest in other suppliers. Even if you feel the good votes of UW customers are biased, how about the pretty poor votes of the Big 6? Or are you suggesting UW distributors coordinated their efforts to falsify their results?

Regardless of your opinions, the people at which obviously thought the surveys were sound enough to publish. I think I'll trust them before you, no offense.

UW Distributor (but not a subscriber to Which?, or voter in their surveys)

1carminestocky

mech wrote: »

Not to a significant extent. Ofcom puts average call costs per UK landline to calls other than mobiles at around £5 a month. That's not just daytime geographic calls, that's all chargeable calls to anything other than a UK mobile. Most people can do better than that though, by dialling a prefix you can use a third party to get daytime UK calls as cheaply as 0.5p a minute (see the MSE callchecker). The free calls UW gas and electricity gets you are worth virtually nothing to the vast majority of people.

As for your problems getting a reliable Skype connection: maybe you need to switch to a better ISP?

So, just so we can establish the true facts here, if I make a 1 second call during the day with that company, that would cost 0.5p total, would it?


Ps Any 'average' figures are completely and utterly meaningless to a household like ours. There are more and more people living alone these days and this average figure obviously takes into account people like these (and you). For instance, I believe your weekly total spend on food/groceries/petrol is approx £15 whereas mine is well over £100. Similarly your phone costs will be but a fraction of mine. What suits you would not suit me and vice versa...

1carminestocky

Decado23 wrote: »

Laughable. Uk.gov list the uk population mid 2008 as 61383000. That's an awful lot of people, most of whom who have no vested interest in UW. Many of whom presumably have a vested interest in other suppliers. Even if you feel the good votes of UW customers are biased, how about the pretty poor votes of the Big 6? Or are you suggesting UW distributors coordinated their efforts to falsify their results?

Regardless of your opinions, the people at which obviously thought the surveys were sound enough to publish. I think I'll trust them before you, no offense.

UW Distributor (but not a subscriber to Which?, or voter in their surveys)

Agreed, I can't ever recall reading Which stating as fact that French & Saunders were advertising UW on TV 'most nights of the week'.

janninew

Just wanted to say that I use my phone during the day. I work in a school, so have lots of holidays, so I'm at home quite alot. People on here (one in particular) need to realise that not everybody is average, lots of people use the phone during the day and we all have different needs. UW caters well from some people's needs (not all people by any means!). Why can't the anti UW accept that fact and stop being so ignorant as to suggest where we get our utilities from when we have stated that we are perfectly happy with our choice! Sorry for the rant!

vinnyph

mech wrote: »

Not to a significant extent. Ofcom puts average call costs per UK landline to calls other than mobiles at around £5 a month. That's not just daytime geographic calls, that's all chargeable calls to anything other than a UK mobile. Most people can do better than that though, by dialling a prefix you can use a third party to get daytime UK calls as cheaply as 0.5p a minute (see the MSE callchecker). The free calls UW gas and electricity gets you are worth virtually nothing to the vast majority of people.

As for your problems getting a reliable Skype connection: maybe you need to switch to a better ISP?

There is the question of whether you would remember to put the prefix in front every time you call. Imagine reminding the kids every time they call to put a prefix in. I have seen people suggest this before because they do but in reality when you look at their bill they forget to do it themselves.

£10 a month call cost is just £0.50 a day if you take it to be 20 week days in a month. Not unreasonable. UW research on its actual customers suggests the call saving by taking 4 services to be £10 a month for average household. This is based on UW prices of 2.5p a minute daytime geographic calls and varying prices for 0845 and 0870 calls. It would be more with BT because they are more expensive for daytime calls.

Seems to me that all the other ways of getting free calls or reduced calls seem a lot of hassle in reality and so won't get used. Skype should be used by everyone by now if it is free, why do people still make telephone calls then. Its because skype doesn't work reliably.

The broadband connection is very reliable, it's skype that causes the problems. The UW internet phone line I have as a spare line works perfectly.

UW distributor, customer.

Cardew

vinnyph wrote: »

I did notice that but actually using high user for gas and standard user for electricity with UW it comes to £976.38. Energyhelpline takes both to be on the same standard tariff with UW.

Well I can't get your figure of £976.38. Am I or you doing something wrong?

Energyhelpline give this for UW high user:

Name Utility Warehouse - High User Region Midlands Payment method Monthly Direct Debit Features • Savings club with annual membership fee
• Typically sold via network marketing

Pricing Details Gas Electricity Standing charge 12.08p per day (£44.10 per year) 17.26p per day (£63.00 per year) Unit charge (pence per kWh) 3.427p 11.157p Discounts n/a All prices shown are inclusive of VAT at 5%.

Additional Information Tariff Information Utility Warehouse's annual membership fee of £21.12 has been included in the savings calculation.

Standard User for electricity they give as:

6.90p per day (£25.20 per year) - 11.909p

So
Gas £44.10 + 15000 x 3.427p = £514.05 Total £558.17

Electricity £25.20 + 3,300 x 11.909p = £393 Total 418.20

UW membership £21.12

Total £999.47

However to save £4 pa doesn't this make UW's claim of straightforward tariffs something of a nonsense.

There are 3 UW tariffs - (high, standard and low user) and to get the best deal you have presumably to know in advance what your consumption will be in the year ahead to take advantage of the 6 combinations available.

If you use more, or less, gas or electricity than you forecast you could find yourself paying more than the optimum(the UW optimum of course!)

Whichever combination you use UW are much higher than any of the BG tariffs you gave.