Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

TWills_3

NPower are not going to be considered unless they are free, so it's BG for me but what about my neighbour ?
She has to leave to make lunch for her family but I will check back later for her since she has no internet.

cjb02

Some more interesting posts that appear to be anti Utility Warehouse here too.

One alledging UW taking money from a debit card with out authorisation, click here

Another one here from an alledged Ex distributor and the poor customer services s/he received and how Utility Warehouse kept taking money from his/her a/c even when they had left and also infering how they were very awkward when trying to swap utility companies . Not good at all if true. click here

Another post here by an individual claiming that s/he missed a months payment on their broadband So Utility Warehouse cut them off with in 24hours stating that of the bill was not paid then they would cut off all there utilites within 7 days. They also charge this person £40 to reconnect their broadband!!! Read more here

It is very eye opening reading all the negative posts about Utility Warehouse, their charges and their customer services, but I suppose evey one has a different view of good customer services and value for money. Horses for courses and all that.

Cardew

TWills wrote: »

Hello again, I have been told I must add my questions to this discussion
so now I am hoping some of you nice people can help confirm if my figures are correct
my electricity is with Southern *2650kwh 30pm and gas with BG *17300 60pm.
The offer from Utility club was a bit confusing but they wanted me to keep paying the same amount each month but I would guarantee savings to get back at the end of the year.
Now after googling and reading the links to comparison sites I think I can save over 200pa going onto BG Websaver 5 and keep my Virgin service just the way it is.

My neighbour who is the one that introduced the Utility man to us used in the past year used more gas than us at 26500kwh and a little less electricity at 2600kwh and has their telephone service 2440 evening minutes and 135 day minutes received 191.17p discount with the card scheme.
So, if she moves gas and electric to Scottish Power saving 290, keeps the telephone with Utility Club and still gets the discount I think this means she gets her phone and calls for free.
Can anyone confirm if my figures are right ?? Please forgive me if I ramble a little but this has taken a lot of time to try and work out. why do companies make it so hard to see what is the best value. Grrrrrr.

Hi,
We saw the other thread you started, and it is a pity you have to post on this very long thread, but the reasons were explained.


Gas and Electricity
To accurately check your figures we would need to know where you lived as prices do vary a little around the country. I have used the Midlands area for the figures below and all areas will follow this pattern.

For your consumption of 2650kWh electricity and 17,300kWh gas I get the following prices:

cheapest - Npower at £750pa

BG web Saver 5 is £800

UW is £1010.

So UW is £260pa(34.7%) more than the cheapest tariff.


For your neighbour the figures are Npower £974, BG web Saver5 £1059 and UW £1,327.

So UW is £353(36.2%) more than the cheapest tariff.

It is important to point out that there are conditions attached to most internet accounts - e.g. you need to stay with Npower 12 months to get the full discounts applied, BG websaver 5 you pay a penalty of £30 per fuel if you leave before June 2010.

However there are masses of tariffs that are much cheaper than UW; some have prices fixed for 12 months.


Broadband & Phone

Regarding your Broadband and Phone. The UW package is quite competitive - but not the cheapest. How it compares with your Virgin package only you can work out. If you look at the UW package then be very careful to read all the 'small print' as there are lots of hidden conditions and charges.

If the idea of the UW card appeals, and fits your shopping pattern, then it may well be worth considering their package; or you could simply use another cashback card like the babee card.

Your neighbour(who you said in the other thread doesn't have internet) could carry on using her UW phone service and UW card and get the phone service for about zero cost. She would need to see what the effect of dropping UW gas and electricity would have on call costs.

UW CARD
The important thing to remember is that just to recover the extra money you spend on UW gas and Electricity and 'break even', you would need to spend approx £6,000pa in shops that accept the UW cashcard.

Your neigbour would need to spend around £9,000pa

TWills_3

Penrhyn, yes that seems to match, my calculations suggested that ignoring the Utility offer and going direct to BG was the cheapest option for us.

Plushcris, thanks for the explanation though it does seem like a scam by the energy companies.

cjb02, not interested in those type of comments, I can say the same of NPower.

Cardew, seems like you didn't read both of my questions fully but thanks for the reply anyway.

My partner and I have talked it over and we are going to go with BG Websaver. Our neighbour is going to leave Utility but the decision which company to join will have to wait till next year. I have spent too much time on this already.
I saved money already today with the M&S sale I found in a different section. so I am quite happy overall.

cjb02

TWills wrote: »

cjb02, not interested in those type of comments, I can say the same of NPower.
.

Thats fair enough, but it wasnt aimed at answering your question, it is inline with the nature of this thread in general. I am happy you have found a good deal though. so nice one.

janninew

Cardew wrote: »

Sorry janninew, but it is your memory that is playing tricks.

These are extracts from 3 of your posts in a short period.



After those were challenged it transpired that you haven’t even entered consumption figures to get those results - which explained why they were quite clearly wrong.



After being told that you have to enter actual consumption figures to get any meaningful results you came up with this.



If that isn't an admission you were wrong before, I don't know how you would describe it!!

Now bearing in mind that you have below average consumption for electricity(2513kWh) and only use about 25% of the average UK gas consumption(5221kWh), a saving of £126 is a very high percentage.

In fact if you enter those consumption figures(for Lancashire) into a website you will find UW appear in 60th position and their gas and electricity is 31.1% more expensive than the cheapest.

That is exactly the point we have been making! and indeed why you dropped UW for gas and electricity.

UW for most people are 30%+ more expensive than gas and electricity. For the average user that is approx £300.

If for understandable reasons you want to keep the UW card, then surely the correct advice is to do exactly what you did - stop getting UW's very high gas and electricity prices.

Cardew,

Do you think you know my mind better than me? I have stated several times in the past that I was happy paying 9.00 per month more for my utilities with UW, I was happy with the customer service I received and my accurate monthly bill. I changed supplier as my circumstances have changed quite dramatically, not becuase I realised my error!! It is not like you to make up stories!! Also I still don't see where I wrote that UW were at the top like you stated, I onle ever stated top 10, which thery were in the summer with the information I inputted in the comparision web-site! I admitted that I never orginally put my usage figures into the comparision web-site, I wasn't sure how to and there is an option not to put these figures in and just put info about your house, number of rooms etc, I pretty sure I won't be the only person to use this method!

janninew

Plushchris wrote: »

Best not talk to any UW salesmen then.

Are you saying all UW sales people are the same? Are they all untrustworthy?? What disgusting genralisation. Surely you must accept that there are good and bad sales people working for all utility companies?

janninew

cjb02 wrote: »

Some more interesting posts that appear to be anti Utility Warehouse here too.

One alledging UW taking money from a debit card with out authorisation, click here

Another one here from an alledged Ex distributor and the poor customer services s/he received and how Utility Warehouse kept taking money from his/her a/c even when they had left and also infering how they were very awkward when trying to swap utility companies . Not good at all if true. click here

Another post here by an individual claiming that s/he missed a months payment on their broadband So Utility Warehouse cut them off with in 24hours stating that of the bill was not paid then they would cut off all there utilites within 7 days. They also charge this person £40 to reconnect their broadband!!! Read more here

It is very eye opening reading all the negative posts about Utility Warehouse, their charges and their customer services, but I suppose evey one has a different view of good customer services and value for money. Horses for courses and all that.

Are you joking with that comment?? Have you read the large number of threads started daily on this board regarding bad experiences with all utility companies? There is always going to people who have had bad experiences with utility companies, I don't think you can judge a company solely on that though.

I have had my utilities with npower (worst company I have ever dealt with) UW (never a problem in over 5 years) and EDF (Only been with them a couple of months, but no complaints!)

If you want your eyes opeing more just trawl back through a few pages on the gas/electric board, there are a hell of a lot of people unhappy with ALL the utility companies, lets keep a litte prospective here.

Plushchris

janninew wrote: »

Are you saying all UW sales people are the same? Are they all untrustworthy?? What disgusting genralisation. Surely you must accept that there are good and bad sales people working for all utility companies?

Disgusting generalisation??

The guy said he wanted an unbiased opinion didnt he?

I wouldnt expect an unbiased opinion from ANY utility salesman be it UW or any of the big six!

Cardew

janninew wrote: »

Cardew,

Also I still don't see where I wrote that UW were at the top like you stated, I onle ever stated top 10, which thery were in the summer with the information I inputted in the comparision web-site! I admitted that I never orginally put my usage figures into the comparision web-site, !

We are at cross-purposes and down to semantics.

You stated UW were 5th in one post and "in the top 10" in another post.

That to me is 'at the top' of a list of 70+ tariffs. I would have said 'cheapest' or 'at the very top' if you had claimed first position.

As you say you admitted that you had not entered the correct data to get the correct position - which was at the bottom of the list of tariffs(please note in line with my practice, I mean near the bottom not the very bottom;))

I am aware your situation changed re phones, and also that you would be using more gas and electricity with having to stay at home more. So the extra you were paying UW would increase considerably in line with your increased consumption.

I was under the very clear impression that was why you ditched UW and went to EDF for gas and electricity; namely that UW would cost you a lot more money than EDF.

On the question of customer support, I try not to get involved. As you rightly say, every utility company is slammed on this Board.

Much as you have had no problems with UW customer service, There are doubtless millions of customers of BG/Eon/EDF/Npower etc that have also had faultless service.

Bearing in mind that UW have a tiny customer base(in comparison to the Big 6) there is sufficient evidence on MSE and other forums to suggest that they have their share of problems with customer service - despite the impression that UW IDs love to give.