Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus) Discussion

penrhyn

You are Lobby Lud and I claim my £5.00:rotfl:

SamboC

I just had a "Utility Warehouse Discount Club" letter through my letterbox from a neighbour a few streets over. I hadn't heard of the company before and alarm bells began to ring as it looked reminiscent of the sort of pyramid scheme that was popular in the 90s. I get my broadband, telephone and tv in a bundle from Virgin (cashbacked) and used comparison sites for gas and electricity so I'm not interested in this myself. There are a couple of Which "Best Buy"s on the letter (I have a Which Magazine subscription and I don't remember it being featured although I do just tend to flick through unless they're reviewing an item that I intend to purchase). So I checked here on MSE and Martin's initial post at the beginning of the thread says his opinions are summarised in the article he links to, but there is no mention of telecomplus or utility warehouse (presumably they have been deleted in one of the quarterly updates). I've read through a few pages of the most recent posts here (511 pages!) which all seem to be concerned with problems of people moving away from Utility Warehouse. I was hoping someone who is more familiar with the company (and has a good memory) could please tell me what Martin's opinion was. I have several elderly neighbours (which is not to say that they are easily duped - one of them used to work for the CAB) but most of them are not on the net, and a few of them have switched to NPower following a visit from the nice young man who offers to 'get them their discount' despite their previous tariff having been better value. I expect my opinion will be asked so I'm just trying to inform myself. Thank you in advance.

EssexMum_3

penrhyn wrote: »

You are Lobby Lud and I claim my £5.00:rotfl:

LOL I wondered why the thread got a lot shorter!

I just spoke to UW head office who confirm that there is an Anytime Inclusive calls add-on for £7.75 per month. My Rep must have missed that training session!

Apparently I can't have it with BroadCall. It's only available if you are a homephone-only customer, using a non LLU line. I would need to have a new one installed and take my broadband separately. Never mind.

Cardew

SamboC wrote: »

I just had a "Utility Warehouse Discount Club" letter through my letterbox from a neighbour a few streets over. I hadn't heard of the company before and alarm bells began to ring as it looked reminiscent of the sort of pyramid scheme that was popular in the 90s. I get my broadband, telephone and tv in a bundle from Virgin (cashbacked) and used comparison sites for gas and electricity so I'm not interested in this myself. There are a couple of Which "Best Buy"s on the letter (I have a Which Magazine subscription and I don't remember it being featured although I do just tend to flick through unless they're reviewing an item that I intend to purchase). So I checked here on MSE and Martin's initial post at the beginning of the thread says his opinions are summarised in the article he links to, but there is no mention of telecomplus or utility warehouse (presumably they have been deleted in one of the quarterly updates). I've read through a few pages of the most recent posts here (511 pages!) which all seem to be concerned with problems of people moving away from Utility Warehouse. I was hoping someone who is more familiar with the company (and has a good memory) could please tell me what Martin's opinion was. I have several elderly neighbours (which is not to say that they are easily duped - one of them used to work for the CAB) but most of them are not on the net, and a few of them have switched to NPower following a visit from the nice young man who offers to 'get them their discount' despite their previous tariff having been better value. I expect my opinion will be asked so I'm just trying to inform myself. Thank you in advance.

You can get a flavour from the last couple of pages.

There are over 30,000 UW salesmen selling services and leaflets are but one method they use for recruiting.

This thread was started by Martin because these salesmen were spamming all over MSE with the "have you heard of this wonderful company etc" posts - so all UW posts should be confined to this thread.

I would add that this 'marketing tactic' is tried all over the web!

There are two factions on this thread. One is largely(but not solely) comprised of those with a vested interest in UW and the other opposed to the tactics they use to promote the company; as you might guess I am very firmly in the latter camp!

Firstly let there be no doubt that UW's gas and electricity is just about the most expensive in UK. The average customer will pay £hundreds more a year, about 30% more than the cheapest tariffs. You can get some actual examples if you look back at some of my posts or check on any comparison website.

Whilst I haven't seen the leaflet to which you refer, I suspect it will refer to the ludicrous Triple Value Guarantee about having the cheapest prices for gas and electricity. Essentially this means if you have gas from British Gas on their standard tariff and electricity from the most expensive electricity supplier UW might beat that figure BUT they ignore all discounts and the UW monthly membership fee. In practice every company is cheaper than UW by a huge margin.

Their Broadband and Phone package is more competitive, but far from being the cheapest. The Mobile package is poor value.

They do have an attractive cashback card which gives you 5% discount off your bills at certain shops - Sainsburys being the best known. However you pay for the card and to top it up, and for the average gas and electricty customer to recoup the extra you pay for that gas and electricity you would need to spend about £6,500 per year on the card.

A company IMO to be avoided like the plague!

Quentin

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

you'll get no sensible, balanced discussion on here about Utility Warehouse.

Uptomyeyeballs has already confessed to coming into this thread and posting just to wind us up.

He also told us neither he nor any of his relatives had anything to do with UW - though subsequently dropped himself in, and posted that both he and a family member do!

SamboC

Thank you to all three of you for taking the time to reply and I apologise if I've reignited your disagreement.

Quentin

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

Quentin would argue the toss over anything to avoid admitting he is wrong (which he often is).

Not only is uptomyeyeballs a WUM, he speaks with forked tongue too!

You will see he is unnecessarily rude about my posts, and went further in his unnecessary unpleasant comments over my suggestion above on how to avoid a 12 month BT contract (even though I pointed out this was for situations where no new installation was necessary), but just last week he took delight in rudely telling us he had used the board's "ignore" button to no longer read my posts.

uptomyeyeballs wrote:

More noise from Quentin no doubt? Can't hear you Quentin, you're being ignored, son.

This turns out to be just another uw wind up!

EssexMum_3

Cardew wrote: »

UW's gas and electricity is just about the most expensive in UK. The average customer will pay £hundreds more a year, about 30% more than the cheapest tariffs.

Their Broadband and Phone package is more competitive, but far from being the cheapest.

They do have an attractive cashback card which gives you 5% discount off your bills at certain shops - Sainsburys being the best known. However you pay for the card and to top it up.

Hi SamboC

The sensible balanced points quoted by Cardew above, I can echo. I've been a UW customer for 5 years. Certainly their energy prices are now among the highest in my area, so I would not recommend them to my neighbours. I can't speak for the rest of the UK; you'd have to run a price comparison.

I'm still using the broadband and phone which is reasonably priced and a reliable service in my area, again this may not match every customer's experience.

Although I personally do not use the cashback card I can see the benefits of having one - if I would only change my spending habits! - and I know that many people do use it to very good effect. A number of high street names accept the card.

EssexMum_3

Doh! I've just realised what WUM stands for... after all this time.:o

Slow on the uptake? Moi?

Quentin

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

You didn't actually know you can't xfer from LLU to LLU did you? But now you try to pretend you did....PS. Can we have the Spanish Teachers again please? You haven't mentioned them for such a long time.

More unnecessary unpleasantness. I actually said this regarding the BT 12 month minimum contract:

If there is no need for a new installation you can get round this 12 month minimum contract...

And your rudeness regarding this ignores the fact I was only trying to help someone!

*************************************************8

The "Spanish Teachers" are a couple of gullibles we are told by uw were filmed being signed up exactly as it happened. Wonder why do you want to see more of this? (Previously you have accused me of stealing bandwidth by putting the link up - but we know you just want to wind us up)

This particular customer sign-up was recorded live, warts 'n' all and took less than 15 minutes. Take note of Gary's polite, yet assertive approach and the fact that there is very little detail in his presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdZcBC0Kf9k