Telecom+ have increased prices again!

Smartasss

Bear in mind when comparing prices that T+ have increased their gas + electricity prices as from October 1st.

This is the second increase from T+ this year! (Their last rise was in April).

Gas increased by up to 14.5%, and electricity prices increased by up to 19% depending on region.

Great news for their reps who get paid commission based on their customers bills - so 2 wage rises this year!

Lewis_Gerolemou

Hello Smartasss, instead of focusing on the increases why don't you give a balanced view - people may then take you a little more seriously.
Gas prices for all customers on the low user tariff have gone up by 8.5% not 14.5%. Customers on the standard tarff will now pay 1.42p per unit instead of 1.24p per unit which is as you say 14.5% but the standing charge remains £1.50 per month so the actual percentage increase will be slightly less than that figure depending on your usage.
I don't know which area or tariff your 19% increase in electricity relates to, I imagine you have spent all morning seeking out the highest figure to support your claim. You forgot to mention the fact that some electricity unit prices have been reduced for instance in my area (Seeboard) the unit price on the standard tariff has come down from 5.44p to 4.73p. I must add however that standing charges on reduced tariffs have gone up. The unit price of Econmy seven remains 2p per unit nationally. Many Telecom Plus customers will notice very little difference in their electricity bills.

According to the letter I received as a customer of Telecom Plus the overall effect of these changes will mean that 30% of electricity customers will see a reduction in their bills. I checked this out for myself, my rate has gone down from 3.37p to 3.24p per unit, my standing charge remains the same (£9.00 per month). I will now be paying £8 less a year for my electricity - some increase!
The figures I have used do not include VAT at 5%.
Telecom Plus customers pay £1.76 (includingVAT) par month membership fee. This is reduced by £10 per annum for each additional service.
Smartass you are well aware that most, if not all, energy suppliers have increased their prices twice this year why havn't you started topics on them when they announced price increases?
Lewis Gerolemou, Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus.

Smartasss

Lewis Gerolemou, Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus wrote:

in my area (Seeboard) the unit price on the standard tariff has come down from 5.44p to 4.73p.

But neglected to give us the other figure for the increase to the standing charge!

The monthly standing charge for your area has increased from £1.05 per month to £3.03 per month.

That is an increase of £23.76 a year!

There are a number of similar 'hidden' increases - you will now be charging manweb customers £3.67/month (previously 89 pence/month) - though you will no doubt be claiming they pay less for their electricity as the unit rate is now 6.048 pence (previously 6.625 pence).

The annual standing charge increase is £33.36!

You ask why no other topics have been started on the question of price rises - (though there are a number on this forum) - but you miss the point!

All other companies announce their price increases in advance so that consumers can bear this in mind when reviewing the market.

T+ seems to neglect to inform either their staff, customers, price comparison sites, the public etc until they have put their new rates into operation!

However, knowing the immediate rise this gives you in your pay, Lewis, no-one will blame you for trying to make out these price increases are in fact reductions!

As only one T+ rate is the subject of a reduction (the one you are on!), from 3.54p/unit to 3.4p/unit, then how this will translate into the 30% of your customers getting a reduction (which you quote) is hard to accept. All other so called reductions in fact hide price hikes to the monthly standing charge.

hansi

When are TP+ going to tell their customers? 'cos they haven't told me yet!

Lewis_Gerolemou

Here we go again Smartasss,
Yes that is an increase of £23.76 in the standing charge but for each thousand units used customers will save £7.45 a year in unit cost so a customer who uses 3200 units will in fact pay less than did on the old tariff.
How can you call a published increase to standing charges a "hidden" one. You quote Manweb presumably because it has the largest increase in standing charges but because of the reduction in unit rate a customer using 3200 units would pay a total increase of about £15 a year or 6%. This is not a big increase when compared to other suppliers and much less than the 19% you quoted in your first post.

You ask why no other topics have been started on the question of price rises - (though there are a number on this forum) - but you miss the point

No Smartass I asked why you hadn't started topics about recent price increases, why do you always pick on Telecom Plus? Which point have I missed? Is it something you said in your first post or is it something else you have just dug up.

As only one T+ rate is the subject of a reduction (the one you are on!), from 3.54p/unit to 3.4p/unit, then how this will translate into the 30% of your customers getting a reduction (which you quote) is hard to accept. All other so called reductions in fact hide price hikes to the monthly standing charge

You have referred to two other tariff reductions in your previous post and now you say there is only one. ??? In addition to the reductions in the standard user tariff you should also know that 10 out of 14 unit day rates in the Economy 7 high user tariff have been reduced, all except two of these standing charges remain the same. The night rate remains 2p per unit (ex VAT). I would say that accounts for the 30% reduction that you suggest is hard to accept.

However, knowing the immediate rise this gives you in your pay, Lewis, no-one will blame you for trying to make out these price increases are in fact reductions!

I resent that remark, you started this topic with a misleading headline and biased claims that I have responded to.
Lewis Gerolemou
Etc.

sergeant121

I have no prior knowledge of Telecom+ (until reading this thread, I would have thought they were just a telecoms provider of some sort) but, having read Lewis_Gerolemou's contributions, I have made up my mind about whether to switch to the firm (I'm still going to wait for Martin's advice on the subject).

Lewis_Gerolemou

Hello Hansi, I received a letter on Saturday as a customer as did several of my neighbours. Distributors were told about three weeks ago about price increases but we were not given details. The new prices are on the website. If you wish to change to another supplier the new prices will not be applied until 31st October.
Hope this helps.
Lewis Gerolemou
Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus

Smartasss

Lewis Gerolemou Independent Distributor for Telecom Plus wrote regarding their new prices:

If you wish to change to another supplier the new prices will not be applied until 31st October.

27 days to get a change in place!

Lewis, how long does it take to transfer from another supplier to T+? A great deal longer than 27 days!

It seems that some of your customers are only finding out that their charges went up last week by reading this thread.

You now say that if they aren't happy they won't have to pay them as long as they get someone else to take over by 31/10/04!

Isn't this why you don't announce new tariffs in advance like the rest of the industry?

(So that your customers find themselves faced with a fait accomplis?)

Though as I mentioned above, you ignore this point, which was the reason for the thread.

***************************************


P.S. You wrote:

I don't know which area or tariff your 19% increase in electricity relates to

As I'm sure you are aware, Manweb (low user)   customers are getting an increase in their unit price from 6.783p/unit to 8.085p/unit - an increase of more than 19%, (their standing charge remains unchanged).

hansi

Smarass please give it a rest. Every company is, or will be increasing their energy prices, but I don't see you talking about them!

COS

Yes Hansi, but most companies are up front and honest about it. !!!!!! only brought the rises to the attention of others, so whats the problem ?

Quote from Hansi-When are TP+ going to tell their customers? 'cos they haven't told me yet! ???

Smartasss

T+ have a number of "unusual" Ts + Cs as we have discovered.

Amongst them, all their customers have to agree to them being able to increase their prices without being given any advance notice whatsoever.

As they had taken advantage of that condition and last week increased their prices without warning I posted this thread to ensure that anyone interested, (be they an existing customer or someone contemplating a move), was aware of the changes - (which, despite what the T+ rep says, some of the increases are significant).

In response, Hansi - a T+ customer posted:

When are TP+ going to tell their customers? 'cos they haven't told me yet!

Presumably this was posted because Hansi was frustrated to learn about this via this forum.  Again presumably Hansi was grateful to at least know this had happened.

So why have you now posted this Hansi:

Smarass please give it a rest. Every company is, or will be increasing their energy prices, but I don't see you talking about them!

I have stated the reason for the original post twice in my replies to Lewis from T+.

And again for you:

All other companies announce their price increases in advance so that consumers can bear this in mind when reviewing the market.

T+ seems to neglect to inform either their staff, customers, price comparison sites, the public etc until they have put their new rates into operation!

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Other companies price increases do get aired on this forum, to which I have contributed (as do T+ people).

If you read this THREAD regarding BG's price increase you will see a post from a T+ Rep (garysletters) who is criticising BG for only giving 28 days advance notice of their price rise - this written when according to Lewis (in his post above) all T+ staff had been informed that a T+  price increase was shortly to take effect - though the T+ customers were kept in the dark!  The hypocrisy is astonishing!