Utility Warehouse

[Scion]

Theo Markettos spake thus:

That is correct. If you introduce (for want of a better word) a new customer to UW then you get 0.5% off your bill for every service they sign up for. So if a mate signs up for gas, elec, phone, and broadband then you get 2% off your bill. AFAIK there's no limit to how many people you can introduce.

They do say that they will beat the "big six" utility companies for dual fuel prices, although with the caveat that they may trail by a month or three i.e. if BG/NPower reduce their prices then UW might take a while to catch up.

Look carefully at the cashback card - you have to pay £10 for it, plus a pound a month (free for the first six months) plus 35p every time you top up. You get between 3% and 7% of your spend at the various partners refunded off your bill.

Pros: One monthly bill, easy to interpret. Very good customer service. Good value if you sign up for multiple services e.g. free phone calls (including 0870 but not including 0845 - never worked out why!). Can get your bills reduced if you persuade other people to sign up. They aren't British Gas, NPower or BT :-)

Cons: Unnecessarily tortuous terms and conditions. Too many gotchas e.g. there's a minimum spend of £1 every month on phone calls, if all your calls are free ones then you get billed the £1 anyway. Less good value if you only sign up for a couple of services e.g. the times you can make free phone calls are reduced if you take less than four services.

I am a UW customer (and very happy with them so far) but not a distributor/ reseller.

[Alan]

In message , Davey wrote

£14 on Ebay for an unlocked PAYG phone

£10 on GiffGaff for credit on a PAYG SIM that will last as long as you have credit on it.

I keep one in my car just in case I forget my other phone (or it runs out of battery).

[Tim Streater]

Avon advertises all the time on the telly.

[michael adams]

Which particular products ?

I thought they only did catalogues same as mail order and betterware which the agents then bring round and the customer chooses from.

michael adams

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[michael adams]

You're right.

ding dong "Avon Calling"

Where else could I have heard that ?

michael adams

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[Tim Streater]

Cosmetics. There's the girlie with what looks like a fridge full of the stuff, from which she chooses some and some matching togs and then goes off to commune with some similar girlies. We always have the sound off by then so I don't know what's really being sold.

[michael adams]

You're right of course - "Avon Calling"

The difference I think, is that you can't buy Avon stuff in the shops. Only through an agent.

Not that I've tried.

michael adams

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[fred]

In article , michael adams writes

or online . . . . .

Fun trying to getting a VAT invoice out of them though, bunch of clueless tossers.

[JimK]

VAT receipt for makeup??..... go on then what's your stage name then?

Jim K

[alan_m]

Avon advises in TV adverts that potential customers need to contact an 'independent' agent.

[fred]

In article , JimK writes

Well fred of course . . . . .

They sell more than makeup, including Skin So Soft which we have issued to teams working outdoors in midgey weather as it has the benefit of acting as an insect repellent.

[michael adams]

"Which" would only have needed one response either from one of their own members or from a member of the public that Utility Warehose was a scam, for them to take down that page.

Indeed the very fact that "Which" updated that page as a result of further responses would seem to confirm that while Utility Warehouse may be incompetent and offer poor service, or not as the case may be, they're not in fact dishonest pyramid sellers - which was what was being suggested, and which was the only point I was addressing.

michael adams

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[michael adams]

Your point being ?

michael adams

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[DerbyBorn]

"michael adams" wrote in news:lv6p8s$jvv$ [e-mail]:

When people talk of "poor service" from Utilities, it makes me wonder if they are really contacting the right organisation. Distribution of electricity and gas is not the responsibility agencies such as Utility Warehouse. Issues like Power Outages are not their problem.

[alan_m]

You only have a contract with your supplier. It's up to them to sort out the problem.

[michael adams]

"Poor service" covers such things as how many hoops you have to jump through on the phone, in order to speak to a human if you want to query a bill, how quickly they can access your details once you've answered their security questions, etc. etc.

And more generally, whether the person you contact by phone, email or letter - the customer's only point of contact with the company - gives the impression that they've got at least some idea of what you're talking about and the nature of your problem. Or if they haven't whether they're willing and able to transfer you to someone else who might. Rather than being forced to simply go round in circles.

michael adams

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[John Rumm]

While true, they are between a rock and a hard place if your complaint is actually about physical supply problems since they will get the blame, but in reality are not in a position to prevent the problem in the first place.

(I suspect in most cases though "poor service" comes down to problems with billing or talking to their customer services etc. None of the big suppliers seems to be particularly good in this respect)

[John Rumm]

Indeed. I was in one respect quite impressed with EDF recently - they assigned a bod to look at a billing problem, and he saw it through to the end, and phoned me when necessary etc. So for that part I give them full marks.

They loose marks however for arbitrarily deciding that they had transposed my night and day readings for the last 4 years and refunding me a couple of grand when in reality they had it right all along! While it was tempting to let them get on with it, I figured they would eventually work out that had it right in the first place and want a load of extra money so had to raise the issue as a complaint to get them to unfix it.