Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

Cardew

Maz wrote: »

I've just signed the Methodist minister from a neighbouring village! Fascinating chap. Nice to have some genually interesting and open minded conversation. He was being royally screwed by one of the Big 6!

care to give us details of his old tariff.

vinnyph

Auwf auwf. If its any consolation for kipper noodle, I've decided to become a Humorist. Auwf, auwf.

vinnyph

Maz wrote: »

I've just signed the Methodist minister from a neighbouring village! Fascinating chap. Nice to have some genually interesting and open minded conversation. He was being royally screwed by one of the Big 6!

Maz, Cardew would probably say you have method in your madness but what really concerns me is that I hadn't realised that RBoS had started supplying energy.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

Now ain't that strange.

Every comparison website, including WHICH, states that on my '4 year old BG fixed rate' states I pay £800 a year less than I would if I were stupid enough to get my Gas and Electricity from UW.

If I had to get a new gas and electricity supplier today I would pay £621 less for the cheapest supplier than I would if I were stupid enough to get my Gas and Electricity from UW. £1,578 from First Utility £2,199 from UW.

You will note that carespress makes a claim, but then when asked questions about those claims, just repeats repeats them. He should learn that repeated assertion ain't proof!

[/B]

You know what I find strange? The fact you can't even accept there are people like myself who pay less for my gas and electric with UW than I would if I was paying your 4 years old fixed BG tariff. This is an indisputable fact.

That suggests you have a problem even the disparate group of professionals on this thread can't sort out for you (can't remember anyone saying they were a psychologist).

Here's my challenge AGAIN.

I paid £82 last month for

Gas 1620
Leccy 390
Phone Line Rental
U/L BB
ALL calls
Monthly club fee.

Would you agree that £27.30/mth for

U/L BB
Phone Line Rental
ALL calls (including some of the most popular international destinations)
Monthly club fee

is more than competitive in the marketplace? Good, lol.

Then that would mean I effectively paid £55 for my gas (1620) and electric (390) last month. I would be surprised if anyone's current tariff (including the one you have been paying for over 4 years, a period of time that has seen increases of 70%+ in energy prices) could beat or even match this figure. Go on, man, have a go. And while you at it, let's have details of the cashback card you currently use and at least one of these super fast internet speeds you say you experience in certain places around the World. You don't seem to mention that anymore...:rolleyes:

Miss_Moppet

Carmine, that’s a very very convincing post. For me personally I’d be very reluctant to give up paying for goods and services with my credit card because of the added protection it gives.

A few years ago, I bought a computer from a well known company and at the same time I purchased an onsite 3 year warranty for £380. Within a few months, the company went bust but I didn’t loose financially because my credit card company refunded my £380. If I’d purchased the computer by any other means, cash, cheque or any cashback card I wouldn’t have been able to recover any of that money at all.

Over the last few years, some big names have gone bust on the high street having taken large deposits or full purchase prices from customers prior to delivery of goods and without using a credit card, people have found it’s virtually impossible to obtain any repairs under guarantee or get the goods they paid for.

I’m not saying that a loss of this sort will crop up at such frequent intervals as to completely wipe out the UW cashcard benefits but surely it’s a risk that should come into the reckoning.

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

You know what I find strange?

A. Once again you have totally avoided the questions.

If your figures are 'rock solid' then let us have them e.g.

1. UW gas and electricity £2199,

2. Broadcall £?????

3. Discounts £???? (how they are achieved)

B. What is wrong with my figures in reaching £1448 by taking cheap electricity from another company(and avoiding the £621 extra UW charge) UW Broadcall and Skype.


Just answer A and B.

It is a racing certainty you won't answer!

1carminestocky

Miss_Moppet wrote: »

Carmine, that’s a very very convincing post. For me personally I’d be very reluctant to give up paying for goods and services with my credit card because of the added protection it gives.

A few years ago, I bought a computer from a well known company and at the same time I purchased an onsite 3 year warranty for £380. Within a few months, the company went bust but I didn’t loose financially because my credit card company refunded my £380. If I’d purchased the computer by any other means, cash, cheque or any cashback card I wouldn’t have been able to recover any of that money at all.

Over the last few years, some big names have gone bust on the high street having taken large deposits or full purchase prices from customers prior to delivery of goods and without using a credit card, people have found it’s virtually impossible to obtain any repairs under guarantee or get the goods they paid for.

I’m not saying that a loss of this sort will crop up at such frequent intervals as to completely wipe out the UW cashcard benefits but surely it’s a risk that should come into the reckoning.

£380 for a 3 year on-site warranty? LOL. I'm assuming the PC company was Tiny? If so, I would never have bought anything from them in the first place as i do my research before purchasing. And i would never ever purchase an extended warranty (fair enough if it's included in the cost like John Lewis do with their TVs, although their prices are usually by no means the cheapest so you actually don't get this warranty for free). I'll give you an example with one of my recent purchases. I bought a Panasonic 42" 1080P Full HD Plasma TV from Comet. The asking price was £700 which was actually what JL were asking including the 'free' 5 year warranty) but i still got it from Comet. Reason being they had very kindly sent me a 15% off any purchase code, there is 3.5% topcashback available even if you reserve and collect (you don't pay for the item until it's actually in front of you in-store), there is also of course 5% discount off my UW bill (this came to a nice £29.75), plus the added inducement was that Comet were bundling a fantastic Panny blu-ray player with the tv for free (this also comes with 7 free superb blu-ray titles for free).

Result is I got a superb Panny plasma, brilliant Panny blu-ray player and 7 top blu-ray titles for a net £544! The TV was picked up by me and i paid in-store. No worries about Comet going bust after I'd paid for the item. I could of course got the Pannypackage from John Lewis for £867 (no cashback available here), the 5 year warranty on the TV and 2 year warranty on the blu-ray would effectively be costing me £323. No thanks.;)

PS I'm suspecting that most punters who use the cashback card will be deriving the majority of the cashbcak/discount from shopping at Sainsburys. I'm sure even that strange chararcter Cardew/Rupert couldn't suggest buying stuff from Sainsburys is 'risky', lol. But who knows with that one (especially late at night).

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

A. Once again you have totally avoided the questions.

If your figures are 'rock solid' then let us have them e.g.

1. UW gas and electricity £2199,

2. Broadcall £?????

3. Discounts £???? (how they are achieved)

B. What is wrong with my figures in reaching £1448 by taking cheap electricity from another company(and avoiding the £621 extra UW charge) UW Broadcall and Skype.


Just answer A and B.

It is a racing certainty you won't answer!

Unlike you, i always quote the WHOLE of your posts. Just so we can get this right, could YOU answer my questions, please? You are so cowardly it's almost laughable.

1. What cashback card do YOU use??

2. What happened to the incredible speedtest results from those countries around the World you claim to visit?

3. Do YOU use Skype exclusively? If so, how come you are paying an alleged £31.63/mth for your phone line/BB/calls??

Not only do I not expect you to answer questions 1 ,2 and 3, you will, I predict, cowardly just quote the part of my post that you feel comfortable responding to. Grow some balls, Rupert...

Cardew

1carminestocky wrote: »

Unlike you, i always quote the WHOLE of your posts. Just so we can get this right,

So to get this right I will quote the WHOLE of your post:

Even this extreme example demonstrates that UW can be the cheapest deal for just about anyone who is prepared to embrace the various discounts etc made available with the company.

I'll explain:

If I lived in the Midlands with Rupert's really excessively high consumption, signed up to the 4 services and followed exactly the same retail spending pattern as I currently do on the cashback card, the net cost for the next 12 months taking into account the nearest comparable BB deal from UW, would be £1859.

If I signed up to the cheapest gas/electric deal and adopted Rupert's BT phone/BB deal (not even including international option which costs £58/yr extra) my net cost for all 4 services for the next 12 months would be £2017.

You see, even when comparing apples with oranges (in the case of the cheapest online only deal and UWs monthly paper bills deal), if the punter is interested in adopting the discounts available UW can still be a great option. Plus you have all the other advantages that many of the massive companies can't offer.

Discuss/rant away...:D

This was my reply:

You really should become a UW saleman - you have exactly the right degree of deception in your statements.

I assume that your "retail spending pattern" involves spending £9,000 pa in the shops that accept the UW card. so getting £450 off your spend.

To reach a UW figure of £1859 I assume that you have included the 'one off' £100 discount for new customers only(you are a UW customer so wouldn't get that discount) So presumably £2199 less £450 = £1749 less £100 = £1,649 that leaves £210 for Broadcall? making £1859.

So is that how you reached that figure? If not please explain how £1859 is reached?

OK. Give or take the odd pound or two, would this be roughly the ballpark figures for a more sensible solution?

£1578 for cheap gas and electricity(instead of the £2199 that UW charge)

£240 for UW Broadcall. (incl monthly membership)

£80 for Skype calls anywhere in the world(40 countries)*

Total £1898 less £450 for your spending = £1448 instead if the £1859(or £1959)that your great UW package would cost.

*
As I understand it your basic Broadcall allows you to receive calls for free!

Skype has 3 packages, £3 monthly for unlimited UK calls, £4 monthly for Europe and UK, £7.80 monthly World/UK/Europe.

You can get cheaper packages for phonecalls I am sure, but whenever sensible schemes are put forward, you always bring into the equation the inflated added value of inclusive phone calls obtained by 4 UW services.. In reality phone calls are not expensive.

So what sleight of hand have I missed?

You have refused to answer any of my points.

You made the claims, and refused to back them up.

I have made no claims about my cashcard so have nothing to prove. What possible relevance has it to the discussion on UW's very high prices? Especially as it has been conceded that UW's cashcard is very good.

I have explained fully that I use BT for Broadband/phone and given reason why I use that service.

I have also explained use Skype almost exclusively for international calls, both to and from abroad. Also for free video calls to by friends/family.

I use BG for my gas and electricity and explained, with proof, why it is £800 cheaper than UW.

I have explained that when using 'lightening fast Broadband' abroad I see very little difference in download speeds for the majority of applications I use. The limiting factor is often the outgoing server. You really are scraping the barrel here in attempting to challenge.

It pointing out how you could get a much cheaper deal(which is the issue the really bugs you and the reason for aviding any answer) I merely gave Skype as an example of a cheap call service. You could use any other service for the calls you wouldn't get with free with Broadcall, or even pay for additional calls with UW and cost those in your calculations.

So why don't you back up the figures in the post you made.

A. Once again you have totally avoided the questions.

If your figures are 'rock solid' then let us have them e.g.

1. UW gas and electricity £2199,

2. Broadcall £?????

3. Discounts £???? (how they are achieved)

B. What is wrong with my figures in reaching £1448 by taking cheap electricity from another company(and avoiding the £621 extra UW charge) UW Broadcall and Skype.

You are a fraud carespress.

NigeWick

Cardew wrote: »

I have made no claims about my cashcard so have nothing to prove.

Do you actually use one?

My only claim for the Utility Warehouse pre payment card is that it gets me 5% of my spend on it taken from my utility bill. The amount I spend at the "partner stores" means that I pay Utility Warehouse less than I would with any other company or combination of companies. I could use my card more, but, by doing so I would be raising my overall spend in a way that I do not wish to do. There are some things I buy at Lidl, Aldi and others that I do not want from Sainsbury's etc because they do not fit my wants. Yet I still buy enough to get the benefits *I* am interested in.

I readily admit that my system will not suit everybody. However, the very fact that it works for a few members of these boards means that it will work for many more people.

I am a Utility Warehouse independent distributor and the views I express may not be shared by the company.