Utility Warehouse - Unarguably The Best deal For Us! (Utility Warehouse)

Member Name: VerySatisfiedCustomer

Product:	Utility Warehouse
Date:	02/03/09 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing deals available, one monthly paper bill, one monthly DD, UK-based Cust. Services!

Disadvantages: None have shown themselves so far. I'll keep looking!

Bikerchris, I really hope you know what you are doing going to Eclipse (and paying I assume £22 per month WITHOUT phone line rental included?). Have you actually seen the reviews for Eclipse? Get googling, mate!

My own experience is very different. Signed up to UW 6 months ago, took 4 services (gas, electricity, phone and broadband). As a package, for me at the time, it represented the best deal out there. If you have loads of time on your hands to constantly check out each particular market and were happy enough to continually switch companies then maybe you could save a few bob but my time is far too precious to be bothered with that. That was then. Have to say I was sceptical at first as they don't operate anything like the Big 6 who rely on national advertising and the switching sites (both activities contribute to higher prices, of course!). We signed up to the company after contact with a local distributor who explained that UW are owned by Telecom Plus, a company quoted on the full stock exchange (and now, I believe, big enough to be in the FTSE-250)

Now, I can confidently say I could spend as much time as I wanted searching for a better deal and there's no way on Earth I would find one. Reason? UW's new cashback card. An incredibly simple idea (so why didn't any of the Big 6 think of it, I wonder?). Basically, it's a card which you load money onto (unlike a credit card you can't 'overspend' and get into expensive debt) and then spend like you woudl any other Mastercard. So, where's the advantage in that, I hear you asking? Well, there are a total of 25 retail outlets that give you 5% of your spend in cash off your UW montly bill (appears as a credit).

One of these 25 retailers is Sainsburys (for both food and fuel) and we have been Sainsburys shoppers for many years. Now, instead of paying for our shopping/fuel on our normal debit card we pay for it on our shiny new UW cashback card. We average a £150/week spend. Nothing has changed for us, we still do our shopping like we always have, but the difference now is we get approx £33 credited to our UW bill each month (unlike with ANY other company you get a MONTHLY, PAPER, ITEMISED bill each month, including ALL the services you take and just one monthly DD for the lot!).

This deal was very hard to beat when we signed up. Now, it's absolutely impossible to beat.

Customer Service has been absolutely fantastic so far (we have the silver membership which gives us entirely free calls to customer service and broadband helpline!). The local distributor who got us onto the company also has a freephone number and is available to us anytime if we have a less than satisfactory experience ever (we haven't so far but do the Big 6 have CS staff who live just down the road from you and are happy to be contacted at any time?). Plus, and this is a BIG plus for someone like me who has endured countless frustrating hours speaking to Indian-based call centres, UWs customer service centre is based 100% here in the UK. In London. In the exact same building the company big brass work in! Fantastic!

To summarise, so readers can get an idea of the deal we have and what we currently pay, here's our breakdown:

(Yorkshire Region)
Annual gas usage: 20,300 kwhs
Annual electric usage: 4,800 kwhs
Phone Line Rental
Broadband (up to 24 mb, 40gb monthly allowance, it's been very relaible so far!)
Free 24/7 calls (including to 10 international destinations, we have family in Australia and it's amazing to be able to ring them anytime for absolutely nothing!)
Free calls to customer services/ local distributor.
NO MINIMUM LENGTH CONTRACTS (OK, as previously said in another review, if you leave the broadband offering in the first 12 months you have to pay £50. Contrast this with the standard BT broadband contract length of 18 months. Leave this in, say, the first 6 months and you are looking at a bill approaching £500 to get away!)

Average monthly DD payment (after taking off the cashback card credit)?? £103!!! That's for EVERYTHING shown above!

Have a go if you think you can beat that and by all means come back if you find you can that gives a similar specification for cheaper. I'm not expecting anyone can!

Summary: It's the very best deal for us - no question about it!