utility warehouse

[Piggybilling]

No problem Littlerun,

I think it would be better for your U.W agent friend to use his Extranet to email them about this.

As this can sometimes be better than phoning in.

 

A lot of the time when you phone companies, the call-centre operator(s) can only tell you

what they see on the computer(s) they are using.

With Utilities in general they can be a time delay, as the data has to moved around the different systems.

 

As you have cancelled your DD, I would just wait it out.

You have had a lose of Service and the deal has not been honored/respected.

 

You always have Ofcom & Otel to cover your back.

But i reckon the problem should be sorted within a couple of weeks.

 

Paul

[baldwelder]

After only 22 days the same sim that i was having the initial problems with gave a message when trying to dial that we had exceeded our minutes so calls were barred until such a time that i could contact customer services.

So again i contacted my agent and customer services, only to be told that there was a fair usage policy on the tarrif of 3000mins, do bear in mind that i also had unlimited txts of which only 2 were sent.

3000 min in 22 days?????

What on earth can you talk about for 2 1/2 hours a day? but that`s irrelevant, unlimited means unlimited and if your agent is manually adding in the clause you need to ask him for a copy of a blank contract (you will then also know whether he is as helpful as you think) for evidence in any future legal tussle.

Be mindful also that if they have any of your bank card`s long numbers - they will bill you that way instead of setting a new DD. Tell the bank that you have lost the card and need a new one - The number will change to stop them.

And do it as soon as possible.

Good luck

Bunch of spivs indeed.

Edited February 18, 2011 by baldwelder

[watchinginvestigation2010]

Correct there over the warning of giving the long card number on a debit card, my bank warned me its called a cpa and virtually hard to cancel apart from cancelling the card as a last resort. You would hope a company would only use it as a one off, but hey in case with any company can you trust them?

 

 

NOOOOOOOOOOO:wink:

[nottslad]

NEVER set a CPA for anyting, this week's Rip Off Britain explains all

[baldwelder]

I don`t think many people would sign up for one if they knew the consequences - that would mean reading the small print and how many of us do that and understand it? count me out of that one

[littleun]

Thank u so much for the info i really do apreciate ur input.

Update time............ I phoned utility warehouse yesterday and waited 20 minutes b4 i spoke 2 sum1, i then had to wait another 7 minutes to speak to the head of customer relations( Angela O'Donnell).

I had to explain everything again, i felt as if i were banging my head against a brick wall.

Anyway this lady did not want to listen anything i was saying except that she wanted to know if i was going to pay earlier for the services and advance one months payment........lol

I told her she was arrogant as well as condescending with her behaviour and tone of voice so she told me shev was going to terminate my account which she consequently did.

I was also told by angela that i had no desire to pay the bill from the onset and had signed the paperwork with this in mind. She also told me that she had been trying to contact me via the home phone which does not accept witheld numbers so she rang on all the sims but no one had answered. My answer to that was the distributor had no problems phoning me at home but it could have been possible if she was ringing via switchboard. But there were no calls received on the sims as we were all waiting for the service to be reconnected and did not ignore nor disconnect any calls. That's when she sounded irate, she then went on 2 explain that she was charging me for the 5th sim which has not been activated, i refused to pay for that sim as i had asked the lady wen i originally placed an order for it if i would be charged and she had told me i would be charged wen i activated it.

I have worked in customer relations for a long time and have never had anyone make lame excuses or snide remarks bcoz of the position they are in......this lady is a dragon with a chip on her shoulder. All i have got from utility warehouse is excuses, promises of ringing me back which never happened, lies and bad behaviour. I did tell her that i wanted to contact charles wigoder( the boss) in writing directly and was told to write to the address on my correspondence, so i asked wether it would be opened on post opening and be dealt with by sum1 else and the answer was a definate defiant no. So i continued to tell her that i had spoken to another customer services memeber who had assured me that indeed that would be the case and charles would never know about the letter as the top execs would deal with it. bless her cotton socks she even told me how to get my complaint directly to the elusive charles.

By the way the advertising standards agency has been in touch and i am also liasing with them so keep checking bcoz i am not going to let these deluded people fleece me for a penny, i wil be making a payment but only for the services used.

I did ask angela why the rest of my sims had been manually barred and she told me bcoz one of the sims had gone over so i argued that the last time that happend my other sims were still active, she knew that but decided to ignore answering. I then went on2 ask how many minutes i had used on the 3 sims and was told in a very abrupt maner that she would not provide an answer bcoz it had no relevance to the situation as a whole.

I have concluded that utility warehouse r not interested in the customer as a person rather as a number with money in the bank to be fleeced like a sitting duck!!!

The customer is wrong angela o'donnell is right in the decisions she makes and had no calms in telling u that u r a person who had no intention of paying for services signed for as my intention was to fraudently obtain services 4 wich i had no intention to pay for. The womens integrity is flawed this is what i told her aswel as mentioning that she was an employee of u.w not the companies boss and was getting paid to resolve problemetic customer issues not escalate them as she did.

She did say i had breached the rules by cancelling my d.d. but i explained that i did not do this without u.w's knowledge as i informed the distributor until such a time that my complaint was resolved. If u phone u.w to complain don't bother or be prepared 2b shouted at, interupted while ur talking without an aplogy and be labelled a liar and a cheat which really is satisfaction in it self as charles wigoder's ethos for the company was the complete oposite.

Hopefully will keep u guys updated about trading standards and the advertising standards agency, my goal for 2day is to reply to these two instituitions and to mail rip off britain, martins money saving tips forum, Dom Little and watchdog!

[shining Light]

Bad customer service is very irritating no matter who the company is.

 

I have to say though that a "Fair user policy" is pretty standard on just about every "unlimited" phone/internet deal I have seen on the market. To be making 50 hours of phone calls in 22 days is almost unbelievable. Allowing 8 hrs for sleeping would mean 50 hrs of calls in a 352 hr period including mealtimes and anything else a normal person does in the course of a day.

 

Is it being used for business I wonder? Just a though although it still isn't an excuse for poor customer service.

[baldwelder]

no and neither is implementing a fair use policy that isn`t in the contract!

[littleun]

Bad customer service is very irritating no matter who the company is.

 

I have to say though that a "Fair user policy" is pretty standard on just about every "unlimited" phone/internet deal I have seen on the market. To be making 50 hours of phone calls in 22 days is almost unbelievable. Allowing 8 hrs for sleeping would mean 50 hrs of calls in a 352 hr period including mealtimes and anything else a normal person does in the course of a day.

 

Is it being used for business I wonder? Just a though although it still isn't an excuse for poor customer service.

 

Thank you for replying to my post i was wondering when you would reply as you have a knack of sniffing out anyone who is unhappy with utility warehouse. Although i welcome ur opinion in this situation i do believe that as you have a vested interest in utility warehouse ur opinions are biased. There's a saying that goes 'Never bite the hand that feeds you', no disrespect but utility warehjouse is filling your pockets so you are going to defend them till death do u part.

Please don't make assumptions that i am a business user or that the phones were aquired for business use as this is not the case. Next time rather than assuming it would be better to just ask don't u think. Give a teenager a mobile phone, especially todays teenagers and u will realise how long they spend on the phone as well as getting on with their daily lives.

I did welcum ur opinion on bad customer services as this is something that cannot be disputed.

I do apolagise if i have upset you in any way or form as this was not my intention!

[shining Light]

Hi Littleun, no, you didn't upset me. Whilst I may have "a vested interest" I don't like bad customer service, even if it is UW. I have posted many times before as you say but I don't think I have ever said anything to defend the company just because I am a UW distributor.

 

Some things I have read aren't good from the point of view of the company and I believe I have said as much, but equally, I don't like unfair or untrue statements (and I have seen a few of those too).

 

That said, i think we all want and expect good service.

 

next time rather than assuming it would be better to just ask don't you think

 

I agree, which is why I said "is it" and ended with a question mark.

[Piggybilling]

The main problem with the Utility Warehouse is the Distributors earn more for recruiting more Distributors.

Hence you end up with the Blind leading the Blind.

And people read of scripts, and don't even have a basic understanding of the Product(s) they are selling.

 

*It's called confusion marketing

[shining Light]

piggybilling, I am surprised at your comment saying it is the "blind leading the blind".

 

There is detailed training available on all UW products as well as how to talk to potential customers and what you shouldn't do, and this training is available to all distributors who after attending their first (and compulsory) training session can re attend as many times as they wish until they are completely familiar with everything.

 

In general, most distributors do have a very good knowledge, however, there will always be those who "can't be bothered" to keep up with changes etc and so end up confusing everything.

[watchinginvestigation2010]

Hahahahahahha now arguing with another distributor giving opinion.

 

Blind leading the blind seems fair comment based on complaints on this forum. You can never get an unbiased opinon from most reps when there is commission involved a bit like the window salesman who sit in your house for hours to get the sale, uw might not take hours, but dealing with them when somthing goes wrong sure can take years off your life!!!!!!!

 

Can a potential customer of uw risk that they might not get the helpful rep who has more than just a concern of commission, NOPE

[Piggybilling]

piggybilling, I am surprised at your comment saying it is the "blind leading the blind".

 

There is detailed training available on all UW products as well as how to talk to potential customers and what you shouldn't do, and this training is available to all distributors who after attending their first (and compulsory) training session can re attend as many times as they wish until they are completely familiar with everything.

 

In general, most distributors do have a very good knowledge, however, there will always be those who "can't be bothered" to keep up with changes etc and so end up confusing everything.

 

This made me laugh!

 

Shining Light, I think you have made the hole deeper!

 

So who's responsibility is it to deal with those who can't be bothered?

 

*The Utility Warehouse likes talk big,

But when it comes down to it, It's just about the Money!

 

You can do a simple test, go to a U.W open day:

 

Tell them your unemployed,student,home-maker, etc and you will most likely be ignored.

 

*But if you tell them you have a Business already, and have lot of possible leads.

Then they can't wait to get in bed with you.

[MrOverheads]

Hi Surfer01, some of your observations are correct but i think we need to clarify something here.

 

Until a few years ago UW were the cheapest supplier, they adverised as such and no other supplier disputed this fact. Unfortunately, when the prices were rising rapidly it became unprofitable to always be the cheapest so the way UW operated, changed.

 

UW do not now claim to be the cheapest supplier. They guarantee to be cheaper than BG for gas and your local electricity supplier for electricity and comparable to the other "big 6" suppliers. This basically means that some months they may be slightly cheaper, some months slightly more, but always the prices are very close. However, this guarantee does not take into account "online" deals which may be available.

 

That said, with other services and/or their discount card which was launched last year, UW customers can save £20-35 pm (average customer, could be a little less, could be more). This makes a HUGE difference.

 

Just thought I would clear this up because your post did seem to suggest UW were misleading people which they most certainly are not.

 

What most people seem to fail to grasp from UW's marketing material and also what the poorly trained UW Distributors fail to grasp, not their fault the training only teaches you how to sell NOT anything about the products they are selling, is that they promise to be cheaper than British Gas STANDARD Electricity and STANDARD Gas. Standard is actually a tariff name at British Gas and is British Gas's highest tariff and only people that have been with BG for many years are likely to be on it. It is easy to be cheaper than BG Standard. UW is expensive when compared to the majority of tariffs found by either calling any energy company directly or by using a comparison website or the energy co's own websites.

 

Even Shining Light above fails to include the word Standard in his wording and is therefore making a misleading statement, I'm sure he didn't do it deliberately he has just been poorly trained by UW.

 

Any UW distributor that tells you they are the cheapest is actually going against OFGEM's licence conditions and you should report them to UW. As the poster above points out, none of UW's material says they are the cheapest.

 

(I know about the training because I've been on the training, but because of the flaws in their marketing material I've never sold a single UW product nor use them myself).

[Surfer01]

Mr Overheads a well informed answer. I wonder how shining light is going to respond. As I said originally they offer misleading info but SL is so dedicated to the job that they cannot see the wood for the trees

[Piggybilling]

This is the real Truth about how the Utility Warehouse operates.

 

Notice there is not even a phone number to call!(and it's mean't to be their market)

 

They are so lazy, They don't even bother to re-act to possible problems.

[MARTIN3030]

2 posts unapproved.

Please dont post up unauthorised links-if in doubt seek clarity from site team.

The reproduction of email content is also forbidden since it is likely to be priviledged outside the recipients systems.

Aside from that feel free to carry on,theres some interesting things been raised,but lets remember theat the CAG is not here as a platform to try to convince members that UW is the best thing since sliced bread.

[MARTIN3030]

I was looking at the CC database.So note the addresses.

 

Licence Number:0590655

Licence Status:Current

 

Current Applicant / Licensee:

 

Business NameCompany Registration Number Gas Plus Supply Limited5199935

 

Categories:

 

Consumer credit Consumer hire Credit brokerage Credit reference agency Debt adjusting/counselling Debt collecting

 

Right To Canvass Off Trade Premises:Yes

 

 

Trading Name(s) (Current):

 

Npower

 

Issued Date: 24-Sep-2006

Expiry Date: 23-Sep-2011

 

 

Legal Formation:

 

Body Corporate (incorporated inside UK)

 

Current Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Christopher Ian Johnson Giuseppe Di Vita Jason Anthony KeeneOFFICER Kevin Miles Simon Stacey

 

Historic Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Andrew James DuffOFFICER David Lee ThrelfallOFFICER

 

Current Address(es):

 

Address TypeAddress Principal Place Of BusinessTrigonis, Whitehill Way, Windmill Hill Business Park, Swindon, Wilts, SN5 6PB Registered OfficeDryden House, Humber Road, London, NW2 6EW

Edited February 26, 2011 by MARTIN3030

[MARTIN3030]

Licence Number:0590656

Licence Status:Current

 

Current Applicant / Licensee:

 

Business NameCompany Registration Number Electricity Plus Supply Limited5199936

 

Categories:

 

Consumer credit Consumer hire Credit brokerage Credit reference agency Debt adjusting/counselling Debt collecting

 

Right To Canvass Off Trade Premises:Yes

 

 

Trading Name(s) (Current):

 

Npower

 

Issued Date: 20-Sep-2006

Expiry Date: 19-Sep-2011

 

 

Legal Formation:

 

Body Corporate (incorporated inside UK)

 

Current Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Christopher Ian Johnson Jason Anthony KeeneOFFICER Kevin Miles Simon Stacey

 

Historic Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Andrew James DuffOFFICER David Lee ThrelfallOFFICER

 

Current Address(es):

 

Address TypeAddress Principal Place Of BusinessTrigonis, Whitehill Way, Windmill Hill Business Park, Swindon, Wilts, SN5 6PB Registered OfficeDryden House, Humber Road, London, NW2 6EW

Edited February 26, 2011 by MARTIN3030

[MARTIN3030]

Licence Number:0536753

Licence Status:Current

 

Current Applicant / Licensee:

 

Business NameCompany Registration Number Telecom Plus Plc3263464

 

Categories:

 

Consumer credit Consumer hire

 

Right To Canvass Off Trade Premises:No

 

 

Trading Name(s) (Current):

 

Telecom Plus The Utility Warehouse

 

Issued Date: 10-May-2003

Date Maintenance Payment Due: 09-May-2013

 

 

Legal Formation:

 

Charity / Trade Union / Other

 

Current Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Charles Francis Wigoder Keith Stella Melvin Anthony Lawson Michael James Pavia Peter Robert Nutting Richard Francis Michell Richard Ian Hateley

 

Historic Individuals that run the organisation:

 

NamePosition Dominic Marius Dennis AnthonyOFFICER Mr John Anthony LevinOFFICER

 

Nature of Business:

 

Other

 

Current Address(es):

 

Address TypeAddress CorrespondenceDryden House, Edge Business Centre, Humber Road, London, NW2 6EW, United Kingdom Principal Place Of BusinessDryden House, Edge Business Centre, Humber Road, London, NW2 6EW, United Kingdom

 

Historic Address(es):

 

Address TypeAddress CorrespondenceDryden House, Humber Road, The Edge Business Centre, London, NW2 6EW Principal Place Of BusinessDryden House, Humber Road, The Edge Business Centre, London, NW2 6EW Registered OfficeDryden House, Humber Road, The Edge Business Centre, London, NW2 6EW

Edited February 26, 2011 by MARTIN3030

[MARTIN3030]

Note the Swindon addresses on the first 2 above.

 

This is the H/O of the RWE Group.

 

And.....is also listed for;

 

NPOWER COGEN LIMITED

[MARTIN3030]

RWE

 

RWE is one of Europe’s five leading electricity and gas companies. The company is active in the generation, trading, transmission and supply of electricity and gas. This integrated business model enables RWE to take advantage of the rising demand for energy. More than 70,000 employees supply over 16 million customers with electricity and approximately 8 million customers with gas. In fiscal year 2009, RWE recorded about €48 billion in revenue. RWE is currently running the biggest investment programme in its history, with an overall investment volume of over €32 billion by 2012. Energy from renewables plays a key role, with investments totalling €1billion per year.

[MARTIN3030]

So........there you have all the connections.

[Piggybilling]

TML are also part of the Utility Warehouse group:

http://www.choosetml.co.uk/index.taf

 

I used to work for TML back in 2005-2007 and they wanted another way to promote Telecom products for small business & break into domestic sales markets.

 

Npower has done a deal with U.W and have offered money for new customers, As this way Npower can charge a higher rate for Gas & Electric,

Under the gise of a cheaper complete package i.e gas,electric,phone,mobile,internet & cashback card.

 

The plan is to make it much harder for people to move away from the Utility Warehouse,

As they risk losing all there services at once!

 

It's a confussion tactic to scare people too:???: As it's hard to work out what you are really paying with U.W.