Utility Warehouse

Threesheds

I have had a chat with a UW 'partner', and whilst not as perfect as it painted, the idea does seem worthwhile.
Does anyone have any experience with them, and is it money saving ?

QrizB

Their customer service is notably poor, their energy prices aren't particularly cheap, their broadband is white-label TallTalk, and their mobile phone tariffs are quite expensive.

There are some niche use cases (they have one of the lowest E7 off-peak tariffs of anyone, for example, although the peak rate is swingeing) but many people can do better elsewhere.

WiserMiser

They're just seeking to monetise you.  What's best for them may not necessarily be best for you.

"For every customer a Partner helps to switch, we pay an automatic upfront commission of up to £250.

"Partners can also earn what we call a residual income - between 1% and 6% of a customer’s bill each month. This continues for as long as that customer remains with UW."

Guess who pays all that commission and continuing income?  That's right, YOU do. 😱

Source: https://uw.co.uk/about-us/newsroom/earning-an-income-as-a-uw-partner

Exodi

It's a pyramid scheme MLM - the person pitching this to you is doing so to benefit themselves.

Very few scenarios that UW is a good choice (unless you can scam recruit a load of people to join under you).

Threesheds

The figures they presented did appear reasonable. Though they where reluctant to supply KwpH prices.
Broadband is now supplied by Openreach with EE mobile at £13/month, unlimited. Though that is based on you taking out sufficient services.
But, not for me at this time.

WiserMiser

Threesheds said:

Though they where reluctant to supply KwpH prices.

Not surprising, there's no such thing.  (It's pence per kilowatt hour, p/kWh.) 😈

QrizB

Threesheds said:

The figures they presented did appear reasonable. Though they where reluctant to supply KwpH prices.

You'll find full tariff details on their website.

Threesheds said:

Broadband is now supplied by Openreach .. 

Openreach don't deal with consumers, they're strictly business-to-business.

UW's broadband service is supplied by TalkTalk.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6619310/talktalk-transfer-to-utility-warehouse-is-this-legal

Threesheds said:

... EE mobile at £13/month, unlimited.

Very few people need "unlimited" internet, though. If you're a low user you could get a deal for £3 a month, or a higher user might be happy on a £5 plan.

Or you could get "unlimited" for £11.50, without UW.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

Threesheds

WiserMiser said:

Threesheds said:

Though they where reluctant to supply KwpH prices.

Not surprising, there's no such thing.  (It's pence per kilowatt hour, p/kWh.) 😈

But you knew what I meant anyway.

Threesheds

Threesheds said:

Broadband is now supplied by Openreach .. 

Openreach don't deal with consumers, they're strictly business-to-business.

A previous poster said TalkTalk was the UW Broadband provider, which is why I mention.
As we know, apart from Virgin most lines are currently provided by BT/Or

WiserMiser

Threesheds said:

WiserMiser said:

Threesheds said:

Though they where reluctant to supply KwpH prices.

Not surprising, there's no such thing.  (It's pence per kilowatt hour, p/kWh.) 😈

But you knew what I meant anyway.

Yes, I was only winding you up, hence the emoji.

However, there is a relevant issue  Many people confuse kW (instant, power) with kWh (bucketfuls. energy) and use the terms interchangeably.  Even the BBC, the broadsheets and gov.uk get it wrong.

Problems arise when people look at the meter on the wall and submit a kW meter reading, especially when they miss the minute 1-pixel decimal point.

lohr500

I am one of those niche customers where their E7 rate is, as far as I am aware, unbeatable.

I switched from Tomato Energy in October last year for a number of reasons that I won't clutter up this reply with.

I took out an expensive unlimited EE SIM with them at £23 per month to secure a 12 month fix at 4.93p for 7 hours off peak / 33.31p peak. S/C 65.4p per day. 

But in the round, it was a cracking deal for me. We use -/-19,000kW/h p.a and 99.8%+ of this is off-peak.
The security of a 12 month fix was worth the on-cost of the SIM. As QrizB points out, there are much better value SIMs out there.

The high peak rate is pretty much irrelevant to me and the s/c is more than offset by the 4.93p off-peak rate given our high usage.

I dealt direct with UW, not via a partner.

I also found their customer service to be superb : 

• They let me switch to a lower cost tariff outside of the cooling off period without charging the exit fee.
• They quickly fixed an issue with my smart meter whereby the internal ALCS contactor switch timings were not aligned to the Eco 7 off-peak times. (A legacy issue from a previous EDF TOU tariff prior to my traumatic time with Tomato Energy).

UW probably aren't for everyone and I would definitely suggest you scrutinise carefully the offers you have received, but for some customers it does make sense.