Big Big difference from Amway, which I also saw through straight away. The thing with Utility warehouse is

1) you are not trying to sell products nobody wants. Everybody already uses utilities and you are actually just helping them find a good supplier.

2) You have no stock to buy, store or convince anybody to buy.

3) You have no big fees to start. The modest joining fee is made back very soon and can even be totally refunded in many cases.

4) Once you are a distributer you can take it at your own pace and it works well along side other businesses.

What exactly is there to see through? There is nothing to lose.

Sure the marketing videos and presentations can be a bit cheesy, but so are all the adverts on TV, thats not a reason to avoid a company.

The UW is a company providing a real service which people are using wevery day and is not just dependent on buiding a pyramid. If that happens however its a bonus.

Yes you could make money for the charity you work for but it would need some effort. Most detractors of this business model seem to think it just happens. No, it is a job, and yes it can make money but its not easy.

I have read several forums regarding Utility Warehouse recently, and I have to confess I am actually a distributor for them.

I believe I can offer a completely balanced view on this, as I have not been sucked into the hype from the company, and have chosen to form my own opinions on the evidence I have seen since selling their services.

The first thing I will say is that having looked around at different pricing etc from diferent energy providers, you can obviously get better deals than the ones offered by UW, and the same goes for their Broadcall service.

UW's USP is their multi service offering, which for some people is a completely brilliant thing and that is how I sell it now. It is obviously much easier to have 1 company for gas, electric, landline and broadband and have everything on 1 bill if you are that way inclined. I have to say that I personally am not, but can see how it works for others.

As for the business opportunity, you will not get a chance like this with any other major UK PLC, so the knockers and doubters are completely mis-informed and completely wrong!

My only negative point on this is that they do not train distributors to a high enough standard in my opinion. Far too much missing information at the beginning which would cut out a lot of wasted time in the months to come.

However, they have lots of Which? Magazine best buy awards and recently won PLC of the year. You do not get much better press than that as a company, and that certainly puts the thing into perspective for me.

One last thing I would like to say is that every company has their dis-satisfied customers. So to those who say how bad they are, they have just had a bad experience, like millions of other people in the country with other companies every day of the week.

In summary I would say their Broadcall package of landline and broadband is very competative and you have the ease of both on one bill. I have a friend who I did not sign up, but has been with UW for 2 years for his broadband and won't hear a bad word about it.

Interesting discussion, lol. I got to this page via searching for this company on google. I have been approached by a local distributor with regard to changing over my utilities to this company and as I hadn’t heard of them before I thought I would make google my friend!

Anyway, would really value you people’s input here as I’m in no way an expert on this (example of this being I have been paying BGs standard rate for as long as I can remember. The distributor just laughed when he was told of this! Oh dear). Here’s the deal I’ve just worked out for our consumption. Like I say, I’m no expert and the distributor told me he couldn’t work it out for me as they aren’t allowed to (due to the possibility of mis-selling? Not sure). I did find that rather a refreshing approach but it HAS made it a little harder for me to investigate, lol.

Home Town/Region: Wakefield/Yorkshire

Gas 17000 kwhs per annum

Electric 3500 kwhs per annum

Up to 24mb broadband (apparently my exchange has been upgraded to ADSL2 whatever that might be so this is good, lol! It apparently means much faster internet dependent on the distance from the exchange. We are approx 100 metres from it!!)

40gb monthly allowance (currently with Sky BB and they tell me we use approx 30gb per month between us)

Free calls 24/7 (this apparently includes 01 ,02, 03 and 0845/0870 numbers and 10 international numbers. One of which is Australia, where my brother lives!)

Option to ‘refer’ friends to the service and get a percentage knocked off your bill each month. The distributor told us this involves getting them to ring a free phone number and quote our account number. Is this true?

Further discount off the bill by using the cashback card. This really appeals because we are and always have been regular Sainsburys shoppers and this is one of the stores on the ‘5% discount list’ We have calculated we spend on average £150 per week on groceries and fuel at Sainsburys, we are a family of 4 and if I’ve done this correctly that would mean an annual discount off our bill of £390! Is that correct??? It seems a ridiculous figure to us!!) The distributor explained that there are costs associated with using the card, I believe it costs £1 per month in fees and then 35p per top up. We have calculated this as a total of £17 for the year with monthly fees and 12x 35p top ups so the net discount is £373?). Anyone know whether this is how it all works? Seems a massive incentive to use the company if it is!

A paper bill each month (this definitely appeals as we seem to get bills so infrequently from British Gas so tend to forget about checking our usage etc). Apparently this bill contains fully itemised details of all the services we take, less the cashback card discount and then just one direct debit for the whole lot). Sounds like a great idea to me but, again, maybe I’m missing something?

I’ve been on energyhelpline (headache-inducing!) and it’s telling me that the charge for my gas and electric will be £1072 per annum (the cheapest one, British gas Websaver2, would be £119 a year cheaper but on reading the small print this is a totally online tariff with no paper bills and they seem to charge you £60 if you leave before a certain point in time. Why??)

Adding the £1072 to the yearly charge for the phone line, broadband and 24/7 calls with Utility Warehouse (£240?) comes to £1312. Take off the cashback card discount and the net figure comes to £939?? £78 per month??? For gas/electric/phone/broadband/all calls?? I’m not say what we are paying currently as it’s frankly embarrassing!

Am I totally missing something here?? Please advise as I’m a very cautious person at heart and don’t change lightly (as you can tell from the amount of time I’ve been on my existing gas and electric tariff, lol). Thank you.

Sorry for the long post but I hope you’ve got this far and can hopefully give me some pointers.

Carespress, it is all true. Give it a go as you have nothing to lose and a hell of a lot to gain. And yes, when you tell your friends and they switch you get a discount off your bill. In 5 years time everyone will know who the Utility Warehouse is.

Due to persistent attempts by Utility Warehouse distributors to tout for business on this community forum - contravening the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service - this post has now been locked. Touting for business, advertising and marketing tactics will not be tolerated by this community.

May I respectfully suggest you look for more original means to advertise your business, while checking out the following:

1. moneysupermarket.com Community Standards.
2. moneysupermarket.com Community Terms of Service.
3. Unfair Trading Regulations - Please pay particular attention to 'Section 5: Misleading actions'.

Many thanks for your kind co-operation...

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Cheers,
Graeme Delap, Community Editor,
graeme.delap@moneysupermarket.com

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