Utility Warehouse liked by Martin claim

MrsWife

I was stopped by a rep from The Utility Warehouse who claimed that Martin Lewis loved them as they were the cheapest but couldn't recommend them as they were a multi service provider?! Does anyone have any experience with this company as they certainly seem to 'talk the talk' but I'm concerned about their recruiting for agents as they offer agents a percentage off their bills for every person they sign up (pyramid selling?). Thanks for any advice.

Sharon

rchddap1

Generally if Martin likes a company he will say so and will recommend them...no matter who they are.

Edinburghlass_2

I would think Martin would be very interested to hear that speil from the salesman :eek:

Have a read of the Telecom Plus thread here

NigeWick

MrsWife wrote:

I was stopped by a rep from The Utility Warehouse who claimed that Martin Lewis loved them as they were the cheapest but couldn't recommend them as they were a multi service provider?! Does anyone have any experience with this company as they certainly seem to 'talk the talk' but I'm concerned about their recruiting for agents as they offer agents a percentage off their bills for every person they sign up (pyramid selling?)

I am an Independant Distributor with UWDC and I had not heard that Martin loves the company, although I do

I live in a small town, and by taking all the available services, I get the best deal fo *ME*. Others in different circumstances may find better priced alternatives.

Pyramid selling, go on explain what it is please.

Telecom Plus (trading as Utility Warehouse Discount Club) is a British Plc and therefore registered with Companies House. The way I make money is by offering electricity, gas, landline & mobile line rental & calls, Freephone numbers and internet access at competetive prices. I get a small percentage of whatever a customer spends for as long as that person remains a customer. This is known as "residual income." A bit like JK Rowling who writes a book once and gets profits from all subsequent sales. Should one of my customers (or anybody else 18 or over) want to make some money, (s)he too can become a distributor, offer the same things I do and get paid the same percentage of customer payments. I would then get an even smaller percentage of what her/his customers take in the way of services. I presume this is why you believe it is "pyramid selling" which is unlawful. The customer gains in two ways. One is price as UWDC is very competetive. The second is service. If one of my customers were to fail to get satisfaction from the Company's customer services, (s)he only has to contact me. As I do not want to lose any of my residual income, I will do my absolute best to make sure that the customer gets satisfaction.

I hope that I have explained the setup to you without boring you.

Nigel.

MrsWife

Thankyou for explaining that, and no I wasn't bored! I have not seen them recommended on this site before and just want to do some independent research before I commit to anything (and basically see what Martin thinks of them) The prices they have quoted me certainly seem competetive so I'll just keep researching for now. Thanks for replying

Sharon

NigeWick

MrsWife wrote:

I have not seen them recommended on this site before and just want to do some independent research before I commit to anything

Sharon,
Some people on the site do not like the way the company works, as they have a claim to be "the cheapest" supplier of electricity and gas. However, there are some exceptions to "the rule." I never claim that we are *THE* cheapest, but, I do believe that we are best overall value when a number of services are taken, and, you get the service from your Distributor (if required).

The way I see it, all companies in business will boost their benefits and not mention any drawbacks. If you do your own research, using figures that you gather yourself, you will end up with the best deal for your own circumstances. These circumstances will differ from what other people require. If we were all the same, it would be a boring old world :beer:

If you have any questions, I am quite happy to answer them, and if I don't know, I'll find out as it will be good experience for me. If you look up my profile, you'll see my web site and you can check prices against the opposition before you finally make up your mind. If you can't be bothered, I won't cry

Nigel.

Portlandbill

I had a look at your site out of interest.Can you tell me why i have to pay £1.76p a month for membership.What do i get for this.

Also i was thinking of shifting my line rental from BT .T Plus charge £10 a month against £10.50 yet suggest that you save up to £18 a year.Shouldnt comparism be based on like for like D/D with D/D.

I then discovered T Plus charge for CLI where as BT dont.Thus the small savings to be made are outweighed by the charges you make for cli.

Also your your call packages deals are not that competive.I want be moving to you.

NigeWick

Portlandbill wrote:

I had a look at your site out of interest.Can you tell me why i have to pay £1.76p a month for membership.What do i get for this

The £1.76 is just that, a membership fee. The UWDC negotiates prices with service providers and obtains a group rate. This group rate is then passed on to members, obviously less a bit of profit for the company. I suspect that it covers the cost of the billing system and keeps everything ticking over if no services are actually used for a while.

I believe that the line rental should be compared like with like too. My understanding is, that BT will be putting theirs up and then like for like, T+ will be £1 per month cheaper instead of the 50p per month now. BT still come out and carry out repairs as always, it's just that club members pay that little bit less for their line and calls. Calls to other members are automatically free for up to an hour. At 59 minutes, just put the phone down and redial. I do a LOT of phoning, so paid for the unlimited calls package which is cheaper than BT's. When I got notification that is was coming live, I saw that it had my home number and not my study/office number. When I queried it, I was told that the one fee covered both phones, nice one.

The way I see it, one must take into account the membership fee, standing charges, cost per unit, cashback for services taken and all other variables before making a decision. Then, there is customer service. As I explained to Sharon, any T+ Distributor worth their salt, will make a real effort to keep your custom, where the sales person who signs you up for another company will not. What works for me in my location, may not work for you in yours.

Hope that helps.

Nigel.

NigeWick

Portland Bill,
PS. Where abouts are you in Dorset, not really on a lighthouse, surely? My wife comes from Blandford.

Nigel.

MSE_Martin

I've never heard Martin Lewis recommending Utility Warehouse, and I've known him for 33 years.

So let's clear this up

Utility warehouse - phones - poor.
Mobiles - ok, but beatible
Gas & Elec, can be best for some, but use comparison services to find out, all comparison sites should include UW in my opinion, but then they should also include British Gas, doesn't mean im recommending either. I recommend using comparison services, and the ones I recommend do include UW

Overall. I don't buy the all products in one place arguement, you're far better with standalones. UW is a network marketing company that sells based on resellers evangelising. That makes is a powerful sales issue, but overall, the only reason for using it would be i. Gas & Elec, if the comparison services says its cheaper and the fees are taken into account.

NigeWick

MSE_Martin wrote:

So let's clear this up

Utility warehouse - phones - poor.
Mobiles - ok, but beatible
Gas & Elec, can be best for some, but use comparison services to find out, all comparison sites should include UW in my opinion, but then they should also include British Gas, doesn't mean im recommending either. I recommend using comparison services, and the ones I recommend do include UW

Overall. I don't buy the all products in one place arguement, you're far better with standalones. UW is a network marketing company that sells based on resellers evangelising. That makes is a powerful sales issue, but overall, the only reason for using it would be i. Gas & Elec, if the comparison services says its cheaper and the fees are taken into account.

I understand that you don't "buy the all products in one place argument." But, surely if a person gets best value for gas and electricity and they do not have access to cable (me), then it would make sense to take the landline rental at less than BT's, free calls to others on the same system (I use another provider for international calls) and get another £10 cashback? Similarly, if they have decided on the gas, electricity and landline, then another £10 back per year for a mobile may also provide a better choice too?

My point is, that a person should look at what goods and services they want as a whole. If standalone products give best value, go that route. If an all encompassing deal works out better, go for that.

BTW, I have found this site to be extremely useful for finding good value. Thank you.

Nigel.