Is your energy company’s service any good?

psmith64

Ignition wrote: »

The results are pleasing to the City and kinda expected. Budget everything everywhere are doing well and their share prices / sentiment reflect that. B&M and Poundland are going well, does that reflect quality or their being in the right place at the right time?

Your final paragraph is absurd. British Gas don't have any shares they're part of Centrica, Centrica has a market cap nearly 38 times larger than that of Telecom Plus so to move their shares by 10% requires 38 times the amount of cash.

Clever move, having been shown to be wrong about both the effect of bundling and churn rates as a whole, to try and close down debate.

None of what you've said in any event explains why UW are so hard done by having a small disclaimer put against them in this poll. The number of votes for them are vastly disproportionate to their customer base, the distribution of those votes a huge outlier compared to their peers.

If you're going to claim that the founder of this site has a vendetta against a company you almost certainly have a vested interest in it'd be a good idea if you can give something a bit more concrete than that they've been gaining customers and their share price has gone up based on an interim announcement.

So if you have that something it'd be good to see, please. Otherwise you just come across as someone trying to promote something you make money out of.

Ignition - I said right at the start that I was a shareholder in Telecom Plus so I have nothing to hide there and I have a right to defend my investment in that company if I see something that I feel could detract potential customers from seeing what they have to offer so continuing to improve my investment as has been the case over the past 11 months I have been invested.

I find it strange that you are defending Martin Lewis and can only think you have a vested interest to do so there.

I stand by my original reasoning for opting to take my services from Utility Warehouse - no one else has what they have to offer in that all my utilities can be provided from one source and that some of those utilities I am able to get free of charge due to the cash back card they offer.

As a shareholder with a major holding I also get a further 10% off of my spend with them each year and this is in addition to a growing dividend payment each year.

I am not 100% sure why Martin Lewis does not want to believe the results of the survey in what is clearly a growing company which is a good indicator that they are doing something right but I do have my own personal opinion of that and for that reason I do not feel able to believe any of his recommendations based on my personal experience of Utility Warehouse for which I was a customer some three years before I became a shareholder.

How much might his comments cost someone looking to invest or take the potential savings they have to offer to the consumer should they be led by his comments.

He has his reasons beknown to him and that is fine if he is happy to not paint a clear picture and try and detract people from finding out themselves.

One thing I have learn't in life is to do your own research and be guided by others without doing that at your own peril.

Should I have believed a lot of what others have written about Utility Warehouse on here and the wider net then over the last four years I would have been worse off and looking at Martin's survey certainly have had a lot worse service from the big providers but more importantly a substantial part of mine and my wife's ISA's and SIPPS would have not grown by some 68% over the last 11 months for the part we have invested in Telecom Plus as a company.

Glad I made my own decisions rather than being swayed by less informed people.

Looking back further how much has uninformed advice cost many when you look at the growth of this company over a 5 year period.

If people want to put others in charge of their financial decisions whether it be where they spend their money or invest it better make sure it is very good advice if you do not investigate yourself.

Why do you think at last the financial services industry was cleaned up recently when some comission hungry IFA's were led not by what was best for the investor, but what was best for their pockets.

OK Ignition, you asked me for something concrete and I would be interested to see how you respond to the following pretty concrete evidence as to why Utility Warehouse might not be fairly represented via this web site for what would obviously be a better proposition for many of it's visitors.

I will give you an example of how this site at the moment could potentially cost a lot of people a lot of money if they did not do any research of their own and also a lot of heartache for the company being recommended.

This site is currently recommending a Talk Talk home phone and broadband package at £ 13.00 per month - this does not allow for any call charges and you don't find this out until you reach the click through link.

Incidentally in an ofcom survey published last December Talk Talk were the second most complained about Broadband service provider and it was unlucky enough to be voted the most complained about Telephone provider so does price really count - you pay for what you get don't you. Is it really a good idea to be recommending a company just on price alone if it is going to bring along a lot of heartache as reported by the official regulator. Just how far does this site dig when it makes it's recomendations ?

My current package with Utility Warehouse which has unlimited calls to UK landlines, Unlimited calls to other Utility Warehouse Mobiles ( which my entire family has ) and unlimited calls 10 top international destinations, Unlimited broadband downloads all of which is not in any promotion period costs me £ 262.68 per year or £ 21.89 per month. But because I use their exclusive cash back card I receive a credit each month of £ 30 - 45. So in my case they actually pay me to be a customer for those services.

Why is this information not available on this web site anywhere ?

How many people like me are being sold short because they believe what is being written by a financial expert which they take at face value.

Maybe the above example explains that when people are given an option to make their own mind up by being given the chance to find out what really is out there by companies like Utility Warehouse who don't waste money on affiliate links or major advertsing it does show a shortfall in the research done by sites like this hence the reason why people like me and the obvious growing customer base of Utility Warehouse do not get influenced by people like Martin Lewis making their minds up for them.

And long may that continue when you are an investor in a company that has obviously got it's marketing right to not have to rely on this type of web site to get it's customers.

It's for reasons like that example above whether you are a multi service customer or single service customer that Utility Warehouse should never be ruled out of consideration as to whether they might be right for an individual.

And I guess it is for that reason that it must be right for a lot a people hence the share price has risen by its listing price of 5p some 17 years ago to circa 1400 today. It has certainly attracted corporate investors such as Schroders to invest a large amount of money in the company for it's client investments.

As a private investor for many years I can tell you that this consistent growth does not happen unless a) a company is doing something right, and b) it's customer base must be extremely happy for it to continue to grow year on year at a faster pace with a churn rate that has been declining to just over 1% for the past few years.

This type of growth in a company does not happen consistenty by chance and the figures are totally transparent and there for eveyone to see being that it is a listed company.

I would welcome your further comments as to why Utility Warehouse should at least not be mentioned as a possibe proposition as there must be a lot of readers of this web site who like me will save a lot of money and benefit from a much better customer sevice than a lot of its competitors. I can speak from experience on this as when I used to be a customer of BT it was a common occurence to be left holding on a phone for up to 45 minutes at times just to speak to someone. The longest I have ever had to hold on the very few times I have needed to speak to customer service with Utility Warehouse is no more than 5 minutes and most times I am speaking to someone in under 30 seconds.

I am so glad I have enough intelligence not to be led to making decisions from a commercial site that at the end of the day however you look at it is in business to make money from it's visitors, period !

SAMFOB

Honestly, all this has put me off Utility Warehouse too. And I'd never heard of them before either!

BUT my biggest concern is the isupplyenergy votes! They are an abysmal company! Granted, less than 40 votes doesn't shed a great deal of light, but for around half of the people to be voting them good it must their employees. Or people voting on the price. Yes, they are cheap on the comparison websites, but they also estimate bills, despite being provided with meter readings! It works out a lot more than the comparison site stated! Looking at their twitter, FB and all the online reviews, their service is consistently complained about. I can't fathom how they aren't predominately being voted as "poor".

psmith64

SAMFOB wrote: »

Honestly, all this has put me off Utility Warehouse too. And I'd never heard of them before either!

( End of Quote )

And that is the real shame of it because people are brainwashed by sites like this and let others make decisions for them without checking out fully other options not mentioned on sites like this.

Instead of dismissing Utility Warehouse which have never had a fair chance with this web site and others like it from what I have seen I would be asking myself this - against the direction of the general economy over the last five years why has Utility Warehouse ( Telecom Plus PLC being its parent company ) as a company in growth terms out performed companies like Apple, Google, Tesco, etc ect.

Why is it's current customer base growing at the fastest rate in the company's history ?

Why would 96% of current customers be happy to recommend the company to family and friends ?

Why has the company attracted major institutional investors such as Schroders ?

Why has it been awarded many recommendations from Which magazine ?

Why is the company so confident of it's services that it doesn't need to lock anyone into long term contracts like it's competitiors ( exception is if you buy a mobile phone ) ?

Why does the company not need to rely on sites like this to gain it's customer base which as confirmed by the companies latest trading statement has just had another record 6 months of customer growth ?

How does the company provide some of it's customers with totally free services which is proveable from the easy to read bills it produces which no other provider can offer.

It just leaves one why really which only Martin Lewis can answer and that is why does this company not get any recommendations from this web site when it is obvious it would be a better proposition for some people than the recommendations this site makes and I along with its 500,000 growing customer base can confirm that.

Strange really, and one reason why I would never take sites like this at face value without doing my own research, it can be very costly.

MSE at the end of the day is a business with commercial interests to make a profit upon the majority of it's recommendations so that makes me think very carefully before acccepting it's advice as correct.

It's ideal for lazy people, but lazy people in general are never at the top of the pile when it comes to money.

cepheus

Of course it could be a deviously clever double bluff by established companies to rubbish a new entrant? Doubt it though.

meher

Nhpus wrote: »

The company is growing so fast at the moment...

i'd have believed you if you weren't sendin a battalion here e-begging to be promoted through this website

cepheus wrote: »

there should be at least a rule that people should disclose conflicts of interest due to employment or political membership.

ok be our guest; you go first - yet another mindless labour party follower
gwinnie - die hard UKIP devotee and their self appointed astroturfer
me - conservative to the core, also anti anti elite cos of what we suffer
an imbalance in justice due to the upsurgence in benefit class and culture

psmith64 wrote: »

Continuing to ignore this company is quite plainly a dis-service to your web site and all those that put faith in what you say.

So you care about this site and the service and want the site to promote you, please pay royalities those who put faith in this site are business minded, like me ofcourse Really we need to be convinced that yours is not yet another micky mouse provider - i just visited that site. i never trust the cash back promises and such wooing tactics. It just demonstrates that the services you provide need such crutches to keep it going. i also don't like the club business and would be hugely disappointed if mse were to promote that because that is when we forget to do our research and switch.

i use ovo, heard of them on this website through comparisons, switched a while ago - they are green and belong to a different league, will switch if something else aesthetic is on offer

skitler

Please rate your current supplier’s SERVICE over the last six months in this week's poll:


electric 10-10 (solar panel, £ free, after initial purchase of panel wont be much use in next 6 months though).

gas 10-10 (47 kg bottle £65 lasts about 6 months in summer and 3 in winter.

water 10-10 free all year

telephone 10-10 Tesco low tarrif rate payg

internet 10-10 3 payg dongle £15/30days signal everywhere

council tax free

rent free

and you wonder why your all skint!!! life style choice's.:j:j:j