As i said in my earlier post i was with UW for both phone and broadband and i wanted to leave and i was told that it would cost me £120 to return to BT as i would need a new line, i phoned BT and explained my dilemma and they offered to do it free of charge, as i said to them when i went to UW they did not inform me that my BT line would be taken out? i would not of agreed and gone elsewhere. Now i have my BT line back in I was able to move providers,keep trying with BT, if they can do it for me they can do it for you! good luck

Another dissatisfied customer here.

My broadband keeps dropping, Im so feedup with it Im going to leave. Have just tried to call BT and yes they will charge me £120 to connect back to them, no negotiation possible. So my message to any one thinking of swapping to Utility Warehouse is DONT.

Hi Richie, really sorry you have had no luck with BT, you know i think it depends on who picks up the phone as to what kind of response you receive? I had no problem for some reason? the only other thing i can suggest is contact Sky as they initially proposed to reimburse my charges of going back to BT if i was going to use them as my internet provider, which i have and they are so much better and wish i had gone with them in the first place, so give them a try! If you ring them get them to put you through to DAS dept and ask for Lauren, she was really helpful! good luck

i think that you will have problems with all providers, horses for courses and all that.

as for commission, it is how all businesses work, im a mortgage broker and i get paid by lenders for so called signing clients up! is that unethical? i also take a fee as lenders dont pay us enough, i have a client who door knocks for british gas his average earnings per year are £70K dependent on the amount of people he signs up?

I inherited a Utility Warehouse account when I was executor for a family member who had a package that included broadband, phone, gas and electricity. Having wrestled with their customer dis-service people for the best part of a year, my advice is don't go near this company. Their lines are always unexpectedly busy - strange for a communications company! When you call them, they keep you hanging forever - strange as a non-subscriber, the call rates are much higher than for customers. More than once I received a refund cheque and a demand for payment in the same post. I cannot comment on the quality of their internet or energy supply, but from my experience their adminstration and accounts systems are a total chaotic mess.

What you dis-satisfied people should know is that if broadband keeps dropping out it's the BT line's fault!

BT were given the poisoned challice and that's the way they repay it!

As for the £120. isn't it funny that The Utility Warehouse guys did NOT tell you about this?

The reason as many have actually reported, is that BT will try it on but when push comes to shove it really is their line and they drop the £120 charge why? because it is in lala land!

So get real the utility warehouse is better than BT and WHICH have stated this so many times over the years, you have a gripe and no one listens, but will BT? No WAY

get real and enjoy the better values

Paul

a satisfied delighted and money saving UWDC customer

I wish `which' would come and interview me, I could also show them there billing practices! and how come since iv been back with BT and with another provider and my internet connection has been excellent and much much faster, i can only assume iv been paying for all the other UWDC customers to save money, or maybe i have shares in the company but was unaware?

WHICH is a consumer site it is designed for you to tell them if you do or dont like a product/service, therefore why dont you pay your subscriptions and join them and tell them. maybe you should buy some shares in telecom plus, you could be a rich person in a few years time!

Broadcall doesn't have a contract, at least mine doesn't.I have been with Utility Warehouse for over 4 years because I get electric, gas and mobile all on one bill, plus they gave back over £40 last month with their cashback debit card,

cowboy

Utility Warehouse are not perfect - neither do they claim to be...but I still think they are the best out there!

I originally left Virgin after several years of being promised (and paying for!) their 20MB Broadband and the most I ever got was around 1.5 to 2.5MB download speeds. Every time I spoke to their customer service I got a different reason (excuse?) for why it was so slow.

Then I finally lost patience with them and decided to try SKY. I was already a Sky TV subscriber and with the 3 in 1 bundle I thought I could make huge savings on my phone and Broadband charges...well, long story short, it was a LOT cheaper than Virgin for calls and broadband BUT my new Broadband speed which should have been up to 8MB was averaging at 63.4KBPS (that's just marginally faster then the old dial up modem speeds I used to get about 10 years ago!) I did lots of download speed tests - the worst was a cringe worthy 9kbps...I could virtually go have my dinner while a webpage loaded - it was painful! So cheap service...got what I paid for in the end! Customer service was useless - have a look at the Sky Customers forum and you can read page after page after page of dissatisfied and disgruntled Sky Broadband customers and many of them were also disgusted with the poor levels of customer service. Bottom line...their TV package is expensive but it's arguably the best in home entertainment...Sky Broadband cheap and, unless you happen to be one of the few lucky customers who are live beside the local BT exchange, speed leaves an awful lot to be desired. (Judging by the speeds I was getting, I think my nearest BT exchange may as well have been in Scotland - and I live in the Midlands!)

Moved to Utilty Warehouse in October and now get my Gas, Electric, Home Phone and Broadband all in one bundle and on one single bill. I'm very pleased with the services - and I'm already making great savings - my phone calls for example are now free 24/7 for local and national calls - and even for calls to 10 top International destinations are free! And their 5% Cashcard is fantastic - got £29 knocked off my January bill, just for buying what I would have bought anyway in December and using the Cashcard to pay for my purchases!

My Broadband speed is now around 1.5 to 2.5 MB (I know...should be up to 8MB) but, given my distance from the nearest BT exchange and after what I've had to put up with from BT lines with Sky, I think that is impressive by comparison.

According to Which magazine (Feb 2009), their new 24 MB Broadband and Home Phone package is now the best in the UK - and Which are a completely impartial consumer watchdog. I am told that as their new 24 MB package rolls out over the next few months (dependent on BT engineers making various upgrades at my local exchange I understand) my Broadband speeds should roughly treble in the next month or so.

Customer service is also given 5 stars by Which - and the few times I've had to phone them, the call has been answered in under 20 seconds and I don't get passed from pillar to post either - I speak to one customer service representative who can quickly sort out any problem. Unlike my previous experiences when I used to be with BT and I'd end up trying to communicate with someone in India or someone on the other side of the world this made a refreshing change to speak to someone who was in the London Head Office, had their finger on the pulse so to speak, and could actually resolve my query.

At the end of the day there are loads of things that can go wrong with any utility service and if you've been one of the few unlucky ones then I am truly sorry. But every company has its 'unlucky' and therefore dissatisfied customers. Utility Warehouse are remarkable in that so many customers are not only happy with their services - but over 90% of them are happy to recommend them to their friends and family. I think that speaks volumes for the company.

Not sure what the complaint above was about their 'billing practices' - I think my bill from Uility Warehouse is probably the simplest, easiest to read (and fully itemised) bill I've ever received.

A very happy customer.

Cheap gas & electric???? Who are they trying to kid!!? I've just opened my March monthly bill, to find my gas consumption (as far as Utility Warehouse can see) is already £93!! And my electricity consumption is £38 which is far better than £93. Bear in mind as I type this, it is only the 12th March, so I'm really worried that my gas bill at the end of March will be about £393. They wonder why I've contacted a different utility company for my gas and electric supplies.

Hey ho. I'm going elsewhere from April.

I CAN'T WAIT!!

And, no, I don't keep my gas on all the time.

Hi,

Well, I have just joined UWDC as a Distributor. Can I say that I did not become a customer first, I just saw a real opportunity. Forget that its supposed to be cheaper, just look at the benefits. If you really want to save you will use the Cashback card to make purchases you would anyway, 5% of what u spend comes off your bill, now you do the maths. The reason why its called the Discount Club is because that is what it is. Get the card and start saving. I think that this is a great opportunity, helping people get the best out of the UWDC. There is no such thing as a perfect company, come on people who bank with HBOS banks are probably still with them, even though they supposed to be to blame for this recession. You still continue to pay them each and every month for a membership, so why not with your utilities.

I am sorry to hear that your bill was higher than expected, but you talk about your March bill, I have not read all the post so you may have already answered these questions, but I would like to know how long you have been with them, and who you were with before, and if you are a member or just a regular customer???

iclove2

I haven't read all the comments here, however:

I have been a customer of Utility Warehouse (Telecom Plus PLC) for over 10 years. In that time I have never had to contact them to complain. I have not had any problems with their phone service. I have had one problem with BB in about 4 years and that was because of an external network fault that affected the whole of my area. I do contact their energy customer services to update my meter readings about every 6 months or so at which time they check my budget plan and help me to ensure we are not paying too much or too little. As a multi-service customer I do benefit from their free calls package which, according to my calculations, probably saves me between £15 and £30 per month, so about £200-£250 a year.

I am also an authorised distributor who has introduced about 100 customers. If I read most of the comments on this forum thinking they were the norm, then my life would be one of constant angry phone calls (all my customers have my freephone number), endless complaints and the earth would be opening up to send me down to the depths with Lucifer. Well, that has not been my experience. I don't have customers complaining in fact just the opposite. Why else would they get their children and other family members to contact me to become customers?

As someone else stated, it is horses for courses. Very few of the UW services are supplied on anything more than a rolling one month contract. So if you are dissatisfied, it's very simple - find another supplier and leave.

Yes, I am biased. But then I'm also happy, I get good service and I know my bills are lower than they would be otherwise.

Oh, and one final point - one of my customers contacted me recently to ask about the 5% Cashback card. He and his wife do most of their weekly food and petrol shopping at Sainsbury's. They regularly spend around £150 to £200 a week, so 5% back would give them somewhere around £450 back each year - that's possibly equivalent to 3+ months FREE electricity, gas, broadband, phone and mobile usage every year. Are they happy? You bet they are!

honeypie:

Cheap gas & electric???? Who are they trying to kid!!? I've just opened my March monthly bill, to find my gas consumption (as far as Utility Warehouse can see) is already £93!! And my electricity consumption is £38 which is far better than £93. Bear in mind as I type this, it is only the 12th March, so I'm really worried that my gas bill at the end of March will be about £393. They wonder why I've contacted a different utility company for my gas and electric supplies.

Hey ho. I'm going elsewhere from April.

I CAN'T WAIT!!

And, no, I don't keep my gas on all the time.

I am distributor and customer of the Utility Warehouse and find it unusual that their charges are uncompetitive. They do not claim to be the cheapest but they are definitely not expensive. In my experience where people find that they are dissatisfied with their bill it is because of a misunderstanding of the readings.

The bill you will have recieved around the 12 of March should be of your February usage and will be for the full month.

Also bills will often be estimated unless you call in with meter readings taken on the last day of the month. Remember also that bills are averaged over the year and sometimes it can take a while for a suitable monthly payment to be calculated. There is no reason whatever energy supplier you use for there to be massive differences in your monthly bills. To check that you are on a suitable comparably low tariff all you have to look at is the cost per Kw.

If bills have gone up considerably then it is usually because energy accross the board has gone up and what ever supplier you use an increase would have been noticed or usage patterns have changed, I find customers often think that a new company has cost them more even when it has actually saved then money.

The personal service provided by your distributor should be able to answer these sort of questions so use them and ask why you think your bill is so high.

Met someone who talked to me about this and how I could make money for the charity I work for. Just watched the promotional DVD on line and immediately I thought of Amway - back in the 70's went to one of their presentation saw through that then and see through this now. Wouldn't go near them.