to not want our neighbour ''going over'' our energy bills ....

[Laiste]

DH has had a text message from a neighbour. A nice chat to in the street neighbour, but we're not close. DH reads it out.

They are wanting to ''make a little money'' and ''need 'guinea pigs''. They ask if we would we be prepared to go and ''watch a presentation''.

I'm thinking god, ok, as long as it's not too long. It's going to be oils or tupperware or something. Then DH continues; ''We'll go over your energy bills together and see where you can save money ...''.

Will we heck!

How would you reply?
(if you didn't want to go)

And, as an aside, how do they make money out of this?!

My gas and electricity bill this month was £34!

Wow, so basically the standing charge and about the same (or less) again? I presume you don't have most of the basic appliances that other households consider essential, or ever use any heating?

@Bitterbean

its not, at all, an odd thing to say! Even now some people think their DD is all they have to pay, irrespective of how much they use.

The last time I was asked to watch a presentation, it went on too long. They were very pushy and arsey when we left without committing. I would never do it again for anyone. If I want to change providers/buy something, I'll check out reviews and testimonials. Just say no thanks, I'm not interested.

I think also consider if the pair of you struggle to even say no to a text without help you will be absolutely fucked if you sit and go through all your bills with her face to face and have to say no then.

This made me laugh 😂

You're absolutely right! It's why we don't want to go.

Neither of us want to be in a position of finding ways to say say no to someone we don't know well, but see and will see occasionally socially. DH, in particular, could well end up swearing at her and telling her to stuff her energy plan where the sun doesn't shine

Their customer service has always been brilliant - in the pre cap days I had a long conversation with one who worked out it would be cheaper for me to take their mobile offer at £20 a month and get the lowest rate available than stay on the rate I was on. We were high energy users in a big house with teenagers. I did the sums and she was correct.

My current rate with them is just below the energy cap 35.313p electric, 10.294p gas. but the standing charges are very good compared with others. 26.515 per day electric and only 10.137 a day gas. That's double Gold as I have the phone and broadband.

Their bills are easy to understand, The broadband is good in my area and they really do get back to you when you contact them!

I really suspect that MN is being used for advertising nowadays.

Snug Sofas every few months. Now we have Utility Warehouse.

It's not even being carried out subtly!

Mumsnet chat I'm referring to, obviously.

Lots of the replies seem to be the same too - "I am with them, had some slight issues but they are great and their customer service is great"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I smell a rat!!

Not exactly, no. But price comparisons have to know what they are quoting on. They also have a thing where one of their engineers will come and replace all your light bulbs with LEDs so maybe I was asked about how many lights in the house. Useful for working out how much the costs would be with lower usage lights. The person who signed me up has been brilliant tbh, helping me sort out queries. Not that I've had many and I've been with them about 5 years now.

Exactly this.

STEER CLEAR and tell them that you will not be engaging with their exploitative pyramid scheme.

The reports of how amazing they are to customers do seem very incongruous with their very aggressive (many would say dishonest) drive to get customers in anyway possible.

Most of the best companies spread via word of mouth. When I say word of mouth, I mean friends happening to mention to each other how impressed they've been when the subject comes up and not being encouraged to spam everybody they've ever met with tales of wanting guinea pigs to hone their 'presentation' technique.

Think what you like, but I have genuinely been a UW customer for about 10 years, and am not a rep for them. I didn't attend a presentation. It was offered but I said I was only interested in looking at being a customer, not setting up a business.
I didn't have any "slight issues" either. 😁
When I moved from a small house to a much bigger one with my partner I got the UW friend to visit and everything got swapped over there too.

That's as maybe - but people do get their knickers in a twist about UW. I've switched to my actual real name for this, because I'm happy to be outed as a happy UW customer as well as GC 🤣 (double Gold, and yes those tariffs up thread are the same as mine).

I think there is a major problem with the MLM tactics being used by their reps and I think they need to rethink their business model around that. BUT, I've been with them for over a decade (with my own account) and for a few yrs before that on exH's and I am very happy with their service and pricing.

Over the years they have performed well on WHICH surveys for customer support, and that has been my experience. You don't have to use a rep to sign up - I didn't, and one of my DC is with them and didn't use a rep.

There's a brilliant Energy support and advice UK group on FB ATM - and bizarrely it looks like I've been thrown out of it for speaking positively about UW (even though they said it was only reps they banned, not happy customers). I can only assume they, like you, suspect every happy customer is a rep in disguise.

AS someone said upthread - its not as though they are selling aloe vera shit, - I need my energy supplied by someone and none of the "big names" have managed to attract me away from what I think is a good service at reasonable costs.

Lots of the replies seem to be the same too - "I am with them, had some slight issues but they are great and their customer service is great"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, nobody is saying "they seem to be pretty OK, as far as I can tell so far", are they - rather they do everything apart from pick your kids up from school!!

But price comparisons have to know what they are quoting on. They also have a thing where one of their engineers will come and replace all your light bulbs with LEDs so maybe I was asked about how many lights in the house.

All they need to do is ask you what your current price per unit is - from any bill -and then tell you how their price compares. Anything more than that is just hard-sell. Everybody has a calculator in their pocket these days, even if their basic maths isn't so hot.

But why on earth do they need to send out an 'engineer' to change your lightbulb?! I remember in the past, when energy-saving bulbs weren't as commonplace, companies would send every customer a couple in the post or pay a door-to-door delivery person, but a personal visit for every customer is ridiculous.

Why couldn't they just tell you "for cheaper bills, invest in LED bulbs - if you don't know what they are, look online" ? Even most elderly and disabled people who would struggle with buying or fitting them would have family, friends or neighbours who could spare them five minutes.

I'm astonished that a company that is not only giving a house-full of free bulbs to every customer but also employing travelling 'engineers' to go and fit them all would still be in a position to have profit margins enabling them to be significantly cheaper than other companies.

Call me a cynic, but any company insisting on coming to your house for such a routine, easy matter (unless for vulnerable or disabled customers with no carers, family or friends) is wanting to get their foot in the door for less than merely 'charitable' purposes. What's the betting that these 'engineers' are actually high-pressure upsellers?

Is it UW who always used to set up their stalls in supermarkets and village halls and 'assertively' accost you with the promise of the chance to win a Mini (for which entry, of course, you would have to give them your personal details)? Do they still do that?

I tend to find that companies with the genuine best prices and/or best quality products and services don't need gimmicks or competitions to increase their customer base.

Readers Digest always used to use extremely suspicious and high-pressure techniques to sell their books and products - which I always thought was a terrible shame, as many of the books were actually excellent in their own right.

I suppose a kind of modern equivalent would be when you buy something online from an apparently-reputable company and they then try to sign you up to that third-party monthly 'subscription offer' at the last minute - which are heavy on the 'save £X off your order' but very light on informing you that you're signing up for a recurring subscription of dubious value.

Nevertheless, it seriously tarnishes a company's image when they get involved with these kinds of tactics, and it's not enough for them to just blame some renegade outliers when it's clearly sanctioned and encouraged from head office.

It isn't engineers, it's just their sales reps. My friend's dad is always going into old people's homes to fit LED bulbs and sign them up.

I tell everyone that our <insert whatever they are trying to flog> is covered by our company as we WFH.
Shuts them up.

It is - and tbh I just thought it was retired people making a few bob on the side - I hadn't realised that it was full on MLM with aggressive techniques..

UW don't advertise on TV / print etc - this is the way they get customers - theoretically "word of mouth" which is, I thought, how they kept their costs competitive.

I say the same

I say, rather grandly, that all our finances are dealt with by a family trust. Then change the subject abruptly. Always leave 'em wanting more (info).
(Well, DH and I are family, and there is trust between us.)

It isn't engineers, it's just their sales reps. My friend's dad is always going into old people's homes to fit LED bulbs and sign them up.

So with an ulterior motive, then. Not a kindly, concerned advocate, but a salesman preying on the elderly. That sounds borderline illegal to me. What's the betting that he tells them that, with these new bulbs, UW can save them money, rather than making it clear that any company will be cheaper with those bulbs? I wonder if they pretend to be 'engineers', so as to make a perceived link between them and those bulbs: i.e. no other company is fitting them, because they know that most people can easily do it themselves!

That reminds me of the way credit card companies used to proudly tell you that THEIR Visa cards were better because they could be used in however many million outlets worldwide, in such a way as to make it sound like it was only theirs and not any bank's Visa card!

Not quite correct. UW offered to change lightbulbs to LED for ALL customers - existing ones - quite a few yrs ago. It's just a standard part of the deal.

I was annoyed as I'd just done it myself about 6 months before. It's not related to getting customers - it's a standard service TO customers.

Not a rep,
but this has been my experience too so I am not surprised to see it repeated.

Any issues have been sorted, without a lengthy wait, by a real human at the end of a phone.

Not always the cheapest, but I have stayed with them because they are cheap enough, and the customer service is really, really good.