Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

jellygoodfellow

utilityman wrote: »

Utility Warehouse has been named the best energy supplier and Npower the worst by consumers fed up with high and complicated bills, in a survey by Which?.
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The big six energy suppliers received some of the worst customer satisfaction scores. Npower came bottom for the third year running with a measly 28% overall and British Gas wasn't far behind with 38%.

The Which? Switch satisfaction survey compared the customer service, accuracy of bills, easy of understanding bills and value for money of eight energy suppliers.
Smaller suppliers fared better in the results, with Utility Warehouse getting 75% overall and Ebico getting 66%. Both of these got the highest customer services scores.
In general it found that the majority of bills that energy suppliers were issuing were too full of jargon and left some customers struggling to understand how much they had to pay.
The report suggested that energy bills should include an itemised summary box so customers can see how much they owe and why at a glance.
Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Magazine said: 'Consumers aren't going to be able to reduce their energy use of find the best deal if they don't understand what's going on. Bills need to be much clearer, and better customer services from the energy companies wouldn't go amiss either.'
Despite coming last in the survey Npower said it has improved customer service and recruited more staff in a bid to clean up its act.
'We're disappointed by the results but recent surveys show us improving and one survey from Call Centre Focus magazine places us second amongst energy suppliers and ahead of other major companies.
We're spending over £200m on new systems and now have 300 more staff in our customer service areas - these changes take time to take effect but we are confident that we will continue to improve.'
A report conducted by uSwitch earlier this month also placed Npower last in its energy supplier customer satisfaction survey, but said that it had showed an 8% improvement in its rating. The best provider in the uSwitch report was Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), which won the consumer vote for the sixth time in a row with an satisfaction rating of 73%. it asks your usage its on your bill so it should be pretty accurate uw dis

A great example of cut and pasting !!! without any acknowledgement. Cant you think of something original to say ?

See: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/household-bills/article.html?in_article_id=491050&in_page_id=510

The site rules do say. Do not copy long text from other publications/websites.

Quentin

You must do what you think right! But I am not "bringing you in" to my discussions at all.

I'd be quite happy if you would keep to your word and stay away!

(Even happier if you'd tell us why you are a "very happy" uw customer here but very unhappy with uw when you post elsewhere!)

keggs

Yes you are by simply mentioning my name and quoting me.

Do it again and I will make a formal complaint. You have been warned. I'm watching you from now on.

Quentin

keggs wrote: »

I'm watching you from now on.

You are renowned for your lurking here, so no change there!

If you don't want your posts to be quoted, you should think about that before you post, as they seem designed to provoke!

eg:

keggs wrote:

The site to me is a joke so I will treat it like one. As Quentin is the biggest joke on here, then I feel quite at home from time to time to use him or her as my lance. Call me cruel if you wish but it gives me a break from other things I do........I haven't gone too far away but I won't get involved in an UW discussion again. Period.

tarq72

Erm, sorry for interrupting!!!

Quick question for those well versed in all things UW, if I may.

I have not had any dealings with UW previously, but am moving into a house (between exchange and completion) where they are the current suppliers of both gas and electricty. I have read enough in this thread to put me off, so just wanted to ask if anybody knew of any reason why I would not be able to move suppliers asap after moving in. Small print etc.

I understand it takes 4-6 weeks to switch to another supplier, so I guess I am stuck FTTB.

Thanks.

penrhyn

If you can get some annual usage figures from the current occupiers you could do some comparisons before you move in and will be in a better position to stay or go.
Make sure you read the meters on the day you move in.

utilityman_2

hi there is no reason why the gas and electric cant be changed asap as its on a rolling contract of 28 days when and if you do switch make sure you take both fuels from the same supplier as this is normally cheaper. uw dis

Plushchris

Tarq72

I wouldnt arrange to change suppliers until you have the keys and have given meter readings to UW once you have moved in. Then as soon as possible change suppliers as UW are around 30% more than the cheapest deal you can sign up to.

Dont do it until you have moved in though otherwise you could cause complications that are easily avoided by just waiting until you've moved in.

In the meantime you can do a few comparisons using usage figures, the national average is 20500kwh for gas and 3300kwh for electric, I would imagine thats based on 3 bed house, 2.4 children etc. you could try a few permutations of figures to see what you think.

Some of the comparison sites have usage estimators, you could try those too.

billsavings

Tarq72

I understand you can tell UW you dont want to join their club £1.76 a month basic membership,and their charge you £1 a month extra instead for the priviledge of them supplying you.

If you dont pay them by d/d their already high prices will normally go up by another 10%.

Plushchris

billsavings wrote: »

Tarq72

I understand you can tell UW you dont want to join their club £1.76 a month basic membership,and their charge you £1 a month extra instead for the priviledge of them supplying you.

If you dont pay them by d/d their already high prices will normally go up by another 10%.

:eek: That is truly shocking! I know its only a quid (or two) but the fact that they force that on people who obviously want nothing to do with them is one of the (many) reasons I wouldnt go near UW.

If UW were the great company some of the posters on here says it is they should waive the "membership" fee for new tenants in a property that dont want to be a member of the ridiculous "club"