(Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but since this article was first posted, certain details of the 'Utility Warehouse' narrative have been modified: - the approximately £200 'Distributor/Partner' sign-up fee has apparently been reduced to around £100 for persons already under contract to the company as 'Members').
Recently, I've been asked for my opinion of 'Utility Warehouse', a UK registered company which claims to have '40 000 Independent Distributors' selling to 500 000 customers.'
Even the briefest examination of 'Utility Warehouse' reveals some enormous red flags. For a start, it costs approximately £200 to sign up as a 'Distributor' for 'Utility Warehouse.' The sign-up fee is then refunded if 'Utility Warehouse' contractees manage to sign up 12 more contractees within 90 days, and additional payments are also offered to the contractees for each recruit they sign up, and for the recruits of their recruits, etc. ad infinitum.
Wes Linden is a blame-the-victim 'MLM income opportunity' cultic racketeer. i.e. Mr. Linden, and his criminal associates, steal money by peddling vulnerable persons the pernicious fairy story that they have access to a proven step-by-step 'Positive Mindset' plan which can enable anyone to achieve financial freedom in 'Multi-Level/Network Marketing,' and that they are willing to share this plan with anyone (for a price).
Wes Linden has been a pitchman/shill for 'Utility Warehouse,' and any organisation with links to the likes of Mr. Linden, should be avoided like the plague.
'Utility Warehouse' exhibits the identifying characteristics of a dissimulated closed-market swindle, in that this legally-registered company doesn't seem to have any significant, or sustainable, source of revenue other than persons who have been under contract to it, and who have been giving their time and money to it, in the false-expectation of future reward. However, the bosses of 'Utility Warehouse', seem to have been following the classic tactic of labelling the majority of their contractees (who are unable to sign up more recruits), as 'Discount Customers.'
In reality, behind all the unsubstantiated success testimonies, celebrity endorsements, thought-stopping 'business' jargon and mystifying mathematics, the so-called 'Utility Warehouse Multi-level /Network Marketing Income Opportunity' has been based on the crackpot pseudo-economic theory that endless-chain recruitment + endless payments by the recruits = endless profits for the recruits.
David Brear (copyright 2016)
Hi David. The Guardian investigated Utility Warehouse in 2004 and said it wasn't a scam.
ReplyDelete
DeleteAnonymous - Rupert Jones of the Guardian published a somewhat timid article in 2009, in which he stated that 'Utility Warehouse had all the hallmarks of a scam,' but then he illogically concluded that it couldn't be a scam, simply because it was backed by a major PLC.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2009/dec/05/utility-warehouse-telecom-plus-distributor
I would suggest that you carefully re-read this Guardian article from 2009, and then ask yourself if Rupert Jones asked the right questions and if 'Utility Warehouse' declared the actual quantifiable results of its so called 'MLM income opportunity.' i.e. Exactly how many people have signed up for 'Utility Warehouse' and how many people have got back more money than they handed over to it in the false-expectation of future reward.
The answer to these questions is self-evidently 'No!' Sadly, Rupert Jones was unqualified to determine whether 'Utility Warehouse' is a self-perpetuating, dissimulated, closed-market swindle - a form of highly-profitable racketeering which has been allowed to infiltrate traditional culture all around the world right under the noses of ill-informed regulators, journalists, law enforcement agents, etc.
Yet withholding key-information from people in order to take their money, is defined as theft (in the UK) by the fraud Act 2006 (section 3).
Are you saying Utility Warehouse is a fraud?
DeleteAnonymous - My opinion of 'Utility Warehouse' could not be more clear, so why are you asking this pointless question? It would seem that the truth about 'Utility Warehouse' is as unthinkable to you, as it was to Rupert Jones of the Guardian.
DeleteOf course this is a fraud - it's a fraud hiding in plain sight.
Dear David, If it's a fraud then why does it win consumer and customer service awards again and again? If it's a fraud why is it still operating? If it's a fraud why have trading standards and the SFO not stepped in to stop this illegal activity? Fraud, whether hiding in plain sight or behind closed doors is fraud. Report these charlatans and be a public-spirited citizen. There's a good chap...
DeleteAnonymous - From your provoctive 'there's a good chap' tone, and your familiar thought-stopping drivel, I detect that you are involved with this swindle.
DeleteYou might have well have asked me - if Sir Jimmy Savile was a serial rapist and a paedophile, why wasn't he arrested and prosecuted. For that matter; why was he given a knighthood and various honorary degrees, not to mention the approval of Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher and the Pope?
The reason why Jimmy Savile's many victims didn't complain, is the same reason why virtually no one has complained about 'income opportunity' frauds, because most victims are convinced that no one will believe them.
David you are a total muppet frankly. You state that 'additional payments are also offered to the contractees for each recruit they sign up, and for the recruits of their recruits, etc. ad infinitum.' That is 100% incorrect so I assume you are basically just a total idiot trying to cause problems for companies.
DeletePartners get paid NOTHING for signing up new partners. They only get paid a commission when a customer signs up.
It's a real shame people like you have a motivation to write such bull****.
Anonymous - You really are a laugh a minute; for you are merely repeating the same Orwellian bullshit previously squawked by 'Herbalife' propagandists, before they were odered to shut their beaks by federal law enforcement agents.
DeleteIt doesn't matter what reality-inverting label you arbitrarily slap on 'MLM' victims ('partners, members, distributors, customers,' etc.) in order to continue to commit fraud and dodge prosecution.
'MLM' propagandists always insist that 'payments are not based on recruiting' and that the overwhelming majority of transient 'MLM' recruits (who have failed to recruit others and who have been compelled never to generate an overall net-profit) have merely been 'discount customers.'
s
Deleteheres why I feel UW are amazing
It highlights why we are different:
Single bill
UK call centre
Award winning clarity of bill
UK based tech support
Cashback card discounts
Free LED bulbs replacement
Find me the cheapest
Single point of contact
Me as an account manager
The amazing business opportunity
Extra 10% discount of phone and broadband
Choice of 3 call charge options
Free UW to UW calls
Free calls to UW mobiles
A decade of Which? awards
Named as Telecoms Provider Of The YEAR
Online Cashback
10% discount for TEP shareholders
Vouchers for referrals
Monthly Cashback offers from partner stores
Over 2000 online partners
FREE Gourmet Society card
Cashback app
Online or telephone meter read input
Free smart meters
Unlimited and unthrottled broadband
No connection for standard broadband
No minimum contract for standard broadband
Automatic loyalty discount on mobiles
Free Mobile Phone Protection Scheme
Free budget control
Online billing
Paper billing
Itemised cashback
No minimum contract on SIM only
Freedom to switch mobile price plans
Unlimited texts
International Saver - 50 destinations for 1/2p per minute
Double the Difference Price Promise
Lowest fixed energy price
Energy costs fixed for TWO winters
Fixed means fixed on mobile
Unlimited cashback
£200 to help you switch
Reduced cost new line installation
Energy billed monthly in arrears OR budget plan
Cashback paid monthly
Cashback paid automatically
Itemised calls for landline
Itemised calls for all mobiles
Clubhouse
Cashback Wizard
Automatic registration with TPS
Free wireless router
3 different ways to top up cashback card - PAYG, auto, min balance
Bill Protector
Ultra - low cost accidental death cover
FTSE 250 company
Joanna Lumley endorsement
Moneywise Awards - 7 awards in 2 years
Institute of Customer Service champion
European Business Awards People's Champion 2016
European Business Awards UK Winner 2017 (Main winner yet to be awarded)
Energy price guarantees even if not Gold customer
Layered discounts - the more you take, the more you save
No introductory offers
Every customer can qualify for every benefit regardless of time as a customer
Easy to switch - we take care of everything
The Nations MOST TRUSTED
Dedicated Homemover team
Roam like home on mobiles
10 Gb of data for Gold mobile customers
No interruption of services when switching
Bills arrive 10 - 14 days before DD is taken
Single direct debit
Mix and match any phone with any tariff
No upfront cost for any mobile on any tariff
Warm home discount scheme participants
Landline voicemail retrievable remotely
Keep your landline number
Keep your mobile number
Top up cashback card online, by app or telephone
Free Win A Mini Prize Draw
Small to medium business savings too
Broadband shop - fair priced extra equipment
Customers money not wasted on advertising
Loyal customers not subsidising new customers
FEMTO Cell signal booster for just £2 per month
Best environmental credentials - 6 services from ONE company
Oh yes - Lower bills!!!
FTSE 250 company. Cash positive. Market cap of £1bn (do YOU know how many zeros that might be? No thought not.) 20 years history. Nothing to prove any more. Except to the likes of you.
petrometro - All the evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt, that by design, the hidden overall net-loss/churn rates for so-called 'MLM income opportunities' is compelled to be effectively 100%.
DeleteIndeed, for decades, 'MLM' rackets have all been in a constant state of collapse. Thus, they cannot function without never-ending chains of ill-informed new recruits/victims to act as temporary de facto slave recruiters.
Despite all this unsolicited, tediously-predictable, thought-stopping bullshit you have dumped on my Blog, the bosses of the 'Amway' copy-cat 'Utility Warehouse' racket have withheld the actual quantifiable results of their so-called 'MLM income opportunity' from all past, and present, contractees of their company (contrary to section 3 of the UK Fraud Act 2006).
Thus, I'm calling your puerile bluff and asking you supply me with any lawful reason to explain why the bosses of 'Utility Warehouse' have failed to make this basic key-data publicly available.
I personally would love you to inform my readers how many persons overall have signed a contract with 'Utility Warehouse' since its so-called 'MLM income opportunity' was first instigated, and how many of these persons have actually paid income-tax on legally-acquired net-profits accruing from their unsalaried activities on behalf of the company?
Please don't try to fob us off by bleating that you 'don't have access to this data,' because that only proves my analysis to be accurate.
Furthermore, be warned, because you would appear to be trying to commit fraud, or to be trying to facilitate the committing of fraud, on behalf of the bosses of the 'Utility Warehouse' racket here on my Blog. In other words, anything you say might be used in evidence.
If my math is correct, since there are 50 000 distributors in this MLM, and only 500 000 customers, then that's an average of just 10 customers per distributor.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make sense.
Anonymous - Few things about so-called 'MLM income opportunities' make any sense, because this phenomenon is a form of non-rational ritual belief, but written in a thought stopping 'commercial' jargon.
Delete'Utility Warehouse' claims '50 000 Distributors,' but this figure is meaningless unless we know what has been the overall churn-rate.
That's simply because many people start and then don't do any work. They get a refund and no one is harmed in the process.
DeleteAnonymous - Each time you open your beak you are only proving the validity of my overall analysis; for all 'MLM racketeers have sought to blame their victims for 'not working' (whilst pretending that anyone can get a 'refund') by parroting essentially the same script which you are now parroting.
DeleteBTW - In the case of 'Herbalife' your blame-the-victim script has now been forbidden by the US FTC.
I've read this utter crap. Maybe the person who wrote it should have done a little more investigating before letting his fingers do the walking over the keyboards.
ReplyDeleteI am a distributor for UW and have not been brainwashed into thinking that this is an opportunity that doesn't require work - there is no such thing. Unfortunately there are people who see the opportunity and think just that, so even though there are 50K distributors on the books, you will find that there is only a percentage of this actually doing anything. Lets face it. If these people paid thousands of pounds for a business they wouldn't sit on their backsides hoping that it will happen - there would be too much at stake. Conversly, the UW Opportunity costs £100 to join as a distributor. You then get free training on how to move your business forward. You have a mentor who is invested in you making money. Anyone out there knows that it costs more than £100 for a training course - heck, it costs £70 to have a session with a medium, and you never get your money back.... but some people will pay that.
Just looking at the social proof. Sir Terry Wogan, after 2 years of investigating the company put his reputation on our company. The prime minister and mayor of london have visited our company, and endorsed it. We have people invovled from all walks of life, including Police officers, Fire Fighters etc all of which have to have anything they are involved in outside of work Vetted before they are allowed to do sign up. Heck, we've had journalists who have gone undercover to investigate UW have ended up joining up because they think it's a great Idea.
What are the qualifications of the Idiot who wrote the original article?
Don't be bitter and twisted if you tried it and screwed it up. Don't make assumptions about things you think you know about something. Have the courtesy to look at the world wide trend in NM or MLM what ever you want to call it. Have a go at Avon/Kleeneze/betterware/tupperware/forever living/herbalife etc etc etc. They are all network marketing businesses, and I do know that one of them you get money for signing distributors up. IN UW you don't. You have to put time and effort in to help someone make some money before you get any sort of income.
Rant over. Tired of thinking now.
Unknown - Thank-you for confirming the validity of my overall analysis. Now please go way and find a copy of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and read it, and then come back and tell my readers which one of the intellctually castrated characters best represents your own current (intellectually castrated) point of view?
DeleteMore than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that what has become popularly known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' is nothing more than an absurd, cultic, economic pseudo-science, and that the impressive-sounding made-up term 'MLM,' is, therefore, part of an extensive, thought-stopping, non-traditional jargon which has been developed, and constantly-repeated, by the instigators, and associates, of various, copy-cat, major, and minor, ongoing organized crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim closed-market swindles or pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites'), and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate training and motivation, self-betterment, programs, recruitment leads, lead generation systems,' etc.).
Hi David, all you have written is real true. I was a distributor once, although I became one just as a friend and never believed in it - so was never going to have customer because it would seem so unfair towards them As every distributor I had to be their customer as well and after a year I;ve had enough it WAS a nightmare! it wasn't easy to back out but i did even if it cost me money for early leaving and so on.
DeleteEventually I lose my friends I 've done this for in the first place. Thanks God it wasn't more of them!
I unfortunately signed up and what a mistake.
DeleteUnless someone is very gullible noone will sign up as all of its products and services are not that cheap.
Unless you use their card at sainsburys and spend thousands there every month it will never pay fir itself.
It's a sure way to waste money and lose friends.
It's a complete pyramid scheme and anyone who says other wise us a complete moron
Thanks yabs
DeleteIf you have time, please e-mail me at : axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
UW is a cult. Reps all spout the same BS and refuse to hear anything "negative".
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - I am aware that a significant number of people have become concerned about the radical personality transformations of friends and relatives who have become involved with Utility Warehouse.
DeleteIn brief, it becomes impossible to have rational discussion with UW adherents. They see all persons and all evidence challenging the authenticity of the so-called 'UW income opportunity,' as being a 'negative' threat to their future 'success.'
Eventually, persistent UW adherents will cut themselves off from all dissenters.
These are the classic signs of a cult.
Could you give me a short resume of why UW is a fraud?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - The following is my standard response to this FAQ.
DeleteIn 'MLM' rackets, the innocent looking products/sevices' function is to hide what is really occurring - i.e The operation of an unlawful rigged closed-market where effectively no (transient) participant can generate an overall net-profit, because the market is in a permanent state of collapse and requires its (transient) participants to keep finding further (transient) participants.
Meanwhile a tiny (permanent) minority rake in vast profits by selling into the closed-market and by controlling all key-information concerning the closed-market's actual catastrophic, ever-shifting results.
It is possible to use any product or service to dissimulate a closed-market swindle aka pyramid scheme. There are even some 'MLM' rackets which have hidden behind well-known traditional brands (albeit offered at controlled high prices).
In 'MLM' rackets, there has been no significant or sustainable source of revenue other than never-ending chains of contractees of the 'MLM' front companies. These front-companies always pretend that their products services are high quality and reasonably-priced and that they can be sold for a profit based on value and demand. In reality, the underlying reason why it's mainly only been 'MLM' contractees who buy the products /services (and not the general public) is because they have been led to believe that by doing so, and by recruiting others to do the same etc. ad infinitum, they will receive a future (unlimited) reward.
I've been examining the 'MLM' phenomenon for around 20 years. During this time, I've yet to find one so-called 'MLM' company which has voluntarily made key-information available to the public concerning the quantifiable results of its so-called 'income opportunity'.
The key-information which all 'MLM' bosses seek to hide concerns the overall number of persons who have signed contracts since the front companies were instigated and the retention rates of these contractees.
When rigorously investigated, the overall hidden net-loss churn rates for 'MLM' income opportunites has turned out to have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone claiming (or implying) that it is possible make a living in an 'MLM,' cannot be telling the truth and will not provide quantifiable evidence to back up his/her anecdotal claims.
Some of the biggest 'MLM' rackets (like 'Amway' and 'Herbalife') have secretly churned tens of millions of losing participants over decades. 'Amway' once hid behind utililies supplied by 'Enron.'
Tellingly, the bosses of 'Utility Warehouse' have never disclosed the actual results of their so-called 'MLM Income Opportunity,' because if they did, no one in their right mind would want to sign up.
Notice how 'UW' (just like 'Amway' and 'herbalife') has been peddled as an 'income opportunity,' and not a net-income opportunity.
Have you been following what has recently been happening in the USA concerning the 'Herbalife' racket?
Please get your facts right if you're going to write this stuff.
DeleteYou have your facts wrong and the issues in the USA relate to distributors being sold something that the up line distributor benefits from. UW partners get NOTHING from the sign up fee from a distributor. It is illegal for the company to pay for recruiting people.
In product based businesses distributors can buy products and then try to sell them on -that's been the big issue - distributors being lumbered with product they can't shift.
UW sells electricity and broadband. Distributors can't buy this and keep it in the garage can they? They simply introduce people to the business and then the customers pay directly to UW not a distributor.
So all the issues raised in the USA are irrelevant and your generic MLM' racket nonsense is a total disgrace.
Finally, the worst thing can that happen is they pay the sign up fee and then don't do any work - they they AUTOMATICALLY get a full refund after 90 days.
So, WTF are you talking about? I get that you probably think you're helping people but you're simply making this stuff up and then claiming it's truth - how is that helpful?
Anonymous - Oh dear, you'll have to do a lot better than that; for your tightly-scritpted-stupidity beggars belief. When are anonymous little 'MLM' propagandists (like you) finally going to realise that your universal bleating only proves the validity of my analysis? Indeed, your type wouldn't even make an appearance on this Blog if 'MLM' wasn't the cover for a racket.
DeleteTypically, you arrogantly pretend moral and intellectual authority and ask me what the fuck am I talking about?
Normally I don't respond to provocative 'MLM' sheep, but in your case I'll make an exception.
Even though you steadfastly pretend that 'Utility Warehouse' is completely different to 'MLM' cultic rackets facing investigation in the USA (presumeably, you are referring to 'Herbalife'), laughably, your transparent script completely ignores what I have actually written and is, therefore, typical of 'Herbalife's' own jargon-spouting sheep. The 'Herbalife' racketeers also included 'money back guarantees' in their fairy story.
Thus, please go away and read the UK's Fraud Act 2006 (section 3) then come back and tell me how many individuals have signed up with 'Utility Warehouse' since it was first instigated and how many of these transient contractees have got back more money from 'UW' than they have paid to it?
In plain language, I'm merely applying common-sense and asking you for the overall churn/loss rate for participation in the so-called 'Utility Warehouse MLM Income Opportunity.'
Bearing in mind the Fraud Act 2006 (section 3), could you please explain to my readers any lawful reason why this key-information has been withheld from the public and from regulators?
I'll bet you anything you like that you (or any other 'UW' propagandist) can't supply full and frank answers to any of the above questions.
BTW. Until the 'Herbalife' racket was recently partially busted by the FTC, its own propagandists had been hiding the same key-information - When challenged they steadfastly pretended that they didn't have access to it.
So please don't attempt that familiar 'MLM' dodge?
I completely agree with David and I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.acherontiq.com/blog/bollocks/utility-warehouse-discount-club-just-dont-for-your-own-sanity/
Thanks Another Anonymous - anyone with an ounce of common sense can immediately deduce that the 'Utility Warehouse' fairy story is far too good to be true. You might be interested to know that I've only ever had one UK journalist asking me about 'Utility Warehouse,' but subsequently, no article appeared. Interestingly, the journalist had been prospected by a family member and had even attended a gung-ho 'UW' meeting in Chesire. The first question the journalist asked me was:
Delete'This is one of those cults isn't it?'
A reader sent me this link from a UK local Newspaper. It features deluded recruiters from various 'MLM' rackets (including 'Utility Warehouse' and 'Herbalife') all appearing together.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/business/event-at-gaywood-library-gives-insight-into-working-from-home-1-7659619
Thank you David for your analysis. Having been approached by UW repeatedly over the last year or so, and having some misgivings about it, I'm glad I'm doing my research. It looks like pyramid selling, sounds like pyramid selling, so therefore...I also take issue with the fact that discounts apply when spending more money with selected retailers, the old marketing scam of spend more to save more. Being forced to spend money doesn't sit well with me.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Further research has been published by my associate Robert FitzPatrick (President of Pyramid Scheme Alert). This clearly shows that 'Utility Warehouse' has been copied from various US-based scams.
Deletee.g. 'Stream Energy' which was sued in 2009
http://pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/news/StreamEnergySuedasPyramid.html
The Texas-based MLM, Stream Energy, which sells gas and electric utilitiy services in Texas and in Georgia, has been sued for operating a pyramid scheme. The civil suit, which is seeking class ation status, claims that Stream misrepresents income potential, misleads consumers to invest as salespeople, is causing the great majority of "sales people" to lose money and is destined to collapse.
The suit notes that the ratio of Stream customers to salespeople is now only two to one. Therefore the income potential could only come from recruiting other sales people in an endless chain fashion. In such a plan, only a very small number can be successful and all others are doomed to failure. Stream's pay plan is a typical MLM that pays earlier investors with funds invested by new ones in an "endless chain" plan.
The lawsuit will be eerily familiar to consumers who have watched the MLM industry. Stream is a type of MLM similar to Pre-Paid Legal, the now defunct Excel Communications, the travel scheme, My TravelBiz.com that was prosecuted as a pyramid scheme in California, and the telephone scheme, ACN which has also been prosecuted in Canada and Australia, but was able to continue based on rulings by judges. These schemes offer payments based on the number of new sales people recruited and each salesperson must also have a small number of retail customers to be qualified for commissions.
By using the endless chain pay plan the scheme can drive a large number of sales, though almost no sales people actually earn a profit and virtually none actually earn a profit for "direct selling." Excel, for example, recruited 500,000 American salespeople in one year at one point and quickly became the 4th largest long distance phone service in America. Yet, 80% of its salespeople were quitting each year. It quickly spiked and declined rapidly, eventually going bankrupt, ruining all distributors and all shareholders. Pre-Paid Legal also enjoyed fast growth, but now is in steep decline, with recruiting slowing and the ratio of "retail" customers to salespeople narrowing. My Travel Biz became the 17th largest travel agency in America, though virtually none of its salespeople actually earned a profit from retail travel sales. The big earners were making money off all the other salespeople's investments.
In these cases, the products are sold at competitive prices, but each salesperson must pay upfront and monthly fees in order to participate in the chain. The net result is to produce a large base of customers, but the incentives and promises made to the salespeople – which produce the sales – turn out to be false. The salespeople are churned in huge numbers as they discover that it is mathematically impossible for them to build their own large downlines.
Most other MLMs – which constitute a variation on the pyramid selling model – have virtually no retail customers at all and they usually hype grossly overpriced products. 40-60% of those high prices are then transferred to the top of the pyramid. In those cases, the MLM companies do not track retail sales at all, though they may officially claim that each salespeople is required to make retail sales.
The Stream Energy model builds in a requirement for a small number of retail sales, giving an appearance of greater validity. Some news analysts are blinded by the large number "sales" these schemes produce. They also do not understand the pyramid pay plan that tricks the salespeople into losing their investments and wasting their time and effort.
http://pyramidschemealert.org/PSAMain/news/StreamClassComplaint.pdf
What a load on Tin foil cone hatted nonsense. People get actual service with UW. Phone, broadband, Gas, electricity etc and all cheaper than using the Big 6 energy Companies or Virgin / Sky,,, so where’s the pyramid?
DeleteAlso to answer the “spend more to save some” cretin. The cashback card is optional so if it doesn’t work for the customer they don’t have to have it. And how it actually works is buy spending money you ALREADY DO on grocery’s, clothes and meals out etc, you can knock even more money off your utility bills,
Lastly, they are regulated by OFGEM and OFCOM and the parent company is registered on the FTSE250, so it stands up to any scrutiny.
Apart from conspiracy theory nutcases which make up the majority of this thread who have made up their own facts to suit there fears
Have a good day
Unknown - You are engaging in what is known as 'gaslighting.'
DeleteFurthermore, OFGEM, OFCOM and the FTSE250 are not law enforcement agencies.
Seeing as you are so interested in facts Unknown, whilst you are here, pray do tell my readers:
- How many persons in total have signed-up for the so-called 'UW MLM Income Opportunity' since it was first instigated?
- What % of these transient non-salaried 'UW' agents have managed to remain active for more than: one year, two years, three years, four years, etc.?
- Bearing in mind the UK Fraud Act 2006 (section 3), what lawful reason can you supply to explain why the key-information contained in the truthful answers to above questions has never been made publicly-available by the bosses of UW?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/energy-bills/11115159/Investigation-into-how-energy-companies-chase-debts.html
ReplyDeleteIf a comic like John Oliver can understand what makes MLMs scams, then why can't regulators?
ReplyDeleteABotwatcher - You need a certain type of mind to see this tragicomic phenomenon clearly. A good sense of humour also helps.
DeleteJohn Oliver's humorous presentation began to explain that 'MLM' racketeers have co-opted senior regulators by offering them jobs.
Also, don't forget that the fully-deconstructed explanation of 'MLM' cultic racketeering has precious little connection with business. In many respects, the fact that business regulators have been tasked with looking at 'MLM' cults, has been a victory in itself for their bosses.
Good morning all the above is quite good fun but we should all be more factual
ReplyDeleteI am a UW agent and sell the members package to save money all the time.
Keeping it simple become a customer first if it works join the business if you want more income.
But please remeber we get nothing when you join the business unless we help you find customers
Chris Morely - Please note, I have posted your comment, but I have removed your link to the 'UW' recruitment Site.
DeleteThe rest of your comment is just classic 'MLM' thought-stopping BS which you have obviously copied.
I note that, like all 'MLM' parrots, your script very specifically does not claim to offer a net-income to recruits.
Interesting. Here is my take.
ReplyDeleteI Have been a customer for around 3-4 years now, my friend showed me this and yes was skeptical at first, he showed me his bill and was a very good friend. I save on average around £400 a year. it is because of this i'm seriously considering doing this business myself, hence me seeing this site.
Without his recommendation, and if Utility Warehouse had put an advert on the TV, there is no way i would have changed. Its an absolute minefield out there, full of untrustworthy suppliers. So i am, so glad he came, and i am glad he makes money from it. In changing suppliers i had been thinking about it but was scared not knowing where to start.
Networking is simply a route to market. TV advertising is a route to Market. Newspaper Ads is a route to market. Nothing illegal with any of them. Martin Lewis makes millions as he has built a 'NETWORK' of people. He uses affiliate links on his website so he gets paid. Its a form of marketing.
News reports say - 71% of people are overpaying on their utilities. I was one of them. I think you are upset because people can make money from it, yes i know it requires effort. I run a business which requires tonnes of effort. People need to be shown and on a personal level is great.
Just a week ago, my friend Rang me to change my tariff and save another £70 and book in my free LED bulbs. Do you see British Gas ringing me to lower my tariff?? I don't think so.
Have you ever had a sales man/women in your home?. Double Glazing, Solar Panels, etc. Remember he/she will get paid, so will his/her area manager, so will his/her national manager, so will his/her CEO. OR Would you have just ordered your double glazing or solar panels over the phone? Big difference personal and over the phone, don't you think?
Next time you see a special offer in a supermarket, and you tell a friend or family member, this was £££ at XXXX. Remember what you have done..
Why is Sainsburys, Marks & Spencers a lot more expensive than Lidl and Aldi??? its a business... The same way British Gas and Eon are a lot more expensive than Utility Warehouse....
I can join for £10 not even £100.... so if you think its a fraud, why don't you report it to Action Fraud, or Trading Standards.
Anonymous - Who ever you are, you have foolishly given yourself away, because your entire comment contains not one original statement or one shred of quantifiable evidence that any participant in 'UW' has made an overall net-income. Indeed, certain of the statements, and money making anecdotes, you have posted here, can be found being parroted by the adherents of other so-called 'MLM Income Opportunities.'
DeleteMy orignal statement was not intended to give 'Proof' or 'Quantifiable evidence that they have a net income'. What do you want, their bank statements?
DeleteI'm sorry, i don't ask anyone how much they earn. But my friend has been doing it for around 5 years.
I know my Friend better than you, i can tell you this, if he was not making any money then he would have quit some time ago... And with 1000s of distributors up and down the country, im sure there would be a lot more negative press if they were not making a Net Income.
"My orignal statement was not intended to give 'Proof' or 'Quantifiable evidence that they have a net income'. What do you want, their bank statements?"
DeleteNo, but I'm dying to see their UW-related income-tax payment receipts (I'll bet you anything you like that these won't be forthcoming).
I have been examining so-called 'MLM income opportunities' for more than 20 years. During this time, I've yet to encounter any 'MLM' adherent who has examined the income-tax receipts of any so called 'Upline Distributor.'
In the adult world of real business, it's unlawful in the UK to sell any form of existing business without first declaring all its available audited-accounts to the prospective purchaser. That said, MLM is not a real business. On the contrary, it's a puerile game of make-believe peddled as a 'business.'
'MLM' recruitment relies on the exploitation of existing relationships based on love and trust.
In reality, 'MLM' racketeers train their adherents to pretend to be making money in order to recruit more adherents. They are also told that, in order to recruit, they must never say anything 'negative' (i.e. tell the truth) about what they are doing (as part of a 'proven plan to achieve total financial freedom').
It's funny Anonymous, but I get the distinct impression that you are trying to execute this transparent 'positive MLM success plan' here on my Blog.
Having read all the stuff on here. you dont get anything for nothing also when it all sounds to good to be true it is to good to be true! no hard facts or real bank statements. if you are thinking of joining you should go to B&Q and put your head in the paint shaker machine for ten minutes then evaluate your next move!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat advice gordonheating, but be careful, because there might be certain 'UV' racketeers monitoring this thread who will adapt your advice and peddle a 'unique brain shaking machine guaranteed to eliminate negative thoughts and produce the MLM positive/success mindset.'
DeleteYou think I'm joking, but recently I was sent links to some media articles about a US company called 'NeuroCore.' This whacky, but profitable, outfit is financially linked to a gang of 'MLM' racketeers - the DeVos Clan of 'Amway' notoriety
The bosses of 'NeuroCore' peddle a series of 30 treatments (at $100 a pop) with a device which they claim can make you, and your children, more intelligent. Not only that, but the same device is supposed to be able to correct common psychological/behavioral problems (particularly in teenagers).
http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.fr/2017/01/betsy-devos-and-neurocore.html
Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick, bankrolled the 'NeuroCore' racket with $25 millions.
Betsy DeVos is Donald Trump's new US Secretary of Education.
Oh dear someone has all the incorrect information,
ReplyDelete1: uw is not pyramid selling, in fact no selling involved at all! The clue is in the full title. DISCOUNT CLUB
2:Not a cult either,
3:Company profits/turnover is announced regularly to distributors
4: Company is highly recommended by which time and time again and wins regular awards from other sources.
My advice to you is go get a correct insight into a properly run company that has been around for 20 years and is going from strength to strength
Anonymous says: "no selling involved at all!," but we can all clearly see that UW, and its transient adherents (no matter how they are arbitrarily labelled), have been peddling an 'MLM business/income opportunity' to the public and hiding the quantifiable results of this economically-suicidal activity in order to lure a never-ending chain of fresh adherents into the trap.
DeleteYour familiar script, and your transparent pretence of moral and intellectual authority, only confirms the accuracy of my overall analysis.
Typically, you completely ignore what I have written and instead, offer a blanket denial of my accurate analysis as 'incorrect information' (a la Donald Trump).
The UW front-company's profits/turnover information which you boast the bosses of UW have made available, is not what is as issue here. What's at issue is the lack of overall net-profits for UW's transient contractees and the number of these insolvent contractees who have been churned.
Plenty of 'MLM' rackets have been around for decades, indeed the 'Amway' racket was instigated in 1959.
As Bernie Madoff proved, when it comes to scams, longevity is no guarantee of honesty.
In short, you may take your unsolicited advice and shove it up your arse.
We got talking about utility warehouse at work, because a colleague is a recruiter, so I thought I'd have look on the net.
ReplyDeleteI knew it's weird, but I didn't realise how weird till I found your blog David.
What can you say to a recruiter to put them off? Our's never gives up.
James - There isn't one answer to your FAQ, because what will put one 'MLM' recruiter off might not work with another one.
DeleteAlthough a lot of people find it difficult to be rude, telling an 'MLM' recruiter to 'piss off,' can be very effective.
You've probably discovered that most polite 'MLM' refusals have been anticipated by 'MLM' racketeers, and 'recruiters' usually have a scripted-response.
You could also try complaining to senior colleagues.
Some people have even put off 'MLM' recruiters by pretending to be 'distributors/recruiters' for another 'MLM.'
BTW, I'm curious to know what your job is. If you don't want to tell me in a comment you can contact me via: axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
Greg Norman was in the UW advert you posted. I looked on the net and he promotes another MLM called Organo Gold.
ReplyDeleteWhat Greg Norman says in this OG video is crazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGErewZ0yVU
Skeptic - Greg Norman is not the first celebrity golfer to become associated with a scam.
Deletehttp://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=9032&tmpl=transcript
What Greg Norman pretends in the video link you posted (in return for stolen money) - that the Organo Gold Opportunity is infinite - is not only crazy, but also fraudulent.
The Organo Gold racket was also promoted by a less-well-known sports celebtrity in the UK, Ben Cockayne (a rugby league player).
Lately, video material featuring Mr. Cockayne peddling the Organo Gold racket has vanished from Youtube, but apparently he's still involved.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ben-cockayne-01a59196
Previously, Mr. Cockaine was involved in the 'Herbalife' racket.
Fuck! I thought Gary Player was an old fashioned gentleman.
DeleteHow can Greg Norman not see that MLMs are scams?
I thought it's a joke "Cocaine," but the rugby Bot is Cockayne.
If Herbalife is so fab, why did Cockayne leave? He says he was making millions of linkedin?
Sorry Skeptic, I spelled Cockayne wrong in the last comment. I too thought this name was a joke at first.
DeleteMr. Cockayne doesn't actually claim to have made millions in 'Herbalife.' What he says is:
"He’s was previously a Millionaire Team Member at Herbalife UK meaning his business did annual sales of $1m+."
Clearly this is just a puerile lie, because (as the FTC investigation discovered) virtually all 'Herbalife's' claimed 'sales' haven't actually been sales at all. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they've been losing investment payments made by 'Herbalife' adherents on the false expectation of future reward, which have been laundered as 'sales'.
Greg Norman was a great golfer, but I doubt whether he is able fully to comprehend what he has got himself into with the 'Organo Gold' racket.
Network Marketing or MLM is now taught at the Harvard Business School as viable route to market. No I don't know you but you've definately got a grudge against MLM as a subject or as a viable marketing platform. Carnegie once said I would rather have 1% of the effort of a hundred people than 100% of the effort of 1 man. All MLM does is leverage people's network and reward them for it rather than paying for expensive marketing and a sales force.
ReplyDeleteThere are non so blind as those who will not see
Anonymous - http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.fr/2013/07/mlm-mythbusting-did-harvard-business.html
DeleteHere's one of the most often repeated MLM myths: Harvard Business School teaches Network Marketing. That is a LIE. HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL DOES NOT TEACH Network Marketing, Multi-Level Marketing, or any such similar schemes.
MLMers who tries to legitimize the industry often repeat the claim that "network marketing is taught in 200 schools around the US, including Harvard Business School", and "HBS studied network marketing in detail and have developed a 3 item checklist to locate the successful ones." Som
etimes the list is also supplemented by a "4 stages of business success".
This is repeated ad infinitum by MLMers attempting to legitimate their own particular scheme, be in neutraceuticals and next uberfruit juice to woo bracelets and body wraps to... anything! In fact, search in Google for "Harvard Network Marketing" and you'll get bazillion hits. Okay, about 12 million hits. Almost all of them are lies.
Here's the honest truth:
There is only ONE SCHOOL in the US that offers a a degree in network marketing. It's a tiny little community college in Kansas called Bethany College. Technically it isn't even that. It's degree in marketing, with emphasis on network marketing.
Harvard Business School (HBS) themselves are VERY TIRED of network marketers claiming something they do NOT do. In fact, if any MLM business claim so, it will very likely face a LAWSUIT from HBS, as this article (back in 1995!) had already busted. Quoting from the article:
``If the registrar's office had a dollar for every call we've had over the years over whether Harvard Business School teaches multilevel marketing or has studies on it, we could throw a very nice Christmas party,'' reads one internal business-school memo. ``This claim is harder to kill than a dandelion.''
What was once a nuisance now looks like grounds for potential defamation or libel lawsuits, says Frank J. Connors, a Harvard lawyer. Some handouts, for example, now claim _ falsely _ that Harvard has conducted ``extensive research in the network marketing industry,'' and that the business school calls multilevel marketing ``a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.''
Got that? REPEAT AFTER ME:
Harvard Business School DOES NOT TEACH NETWORK MARKETING!
BTW Anonymous - Contrary to what you have pretended, there is absolutely no quantifiable evidence proving that anyone who has signed up for a so-called 'MLM income opportunity' has ever generated an overall net-profit lawfully by regularly retailing goods, and/or services, to the general public (based on value and demand).
DeleteThere is, however, a veritable mountain of quantifiable evidence proving that effectively everyone who has signed a take-it-or-leave-it contract with a so-called 'MLM company' has eventually abandoned their economically-suicidal activity.
I thought UW was a con as soon as it was pitched to me but I could never have explained exactly why - so many thanks. What I still don't get is how come folk who fall for MLM shit believe in it like a religion? Are they hypnotised or what?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Perhaps the answer to your question lies in the question itself; because, for its core-adherents, so-called 'MLM' is not 'like a religion,' it is a religion (ie a self-perpetuating non-rational dualistic ritual belief system) but re-written in 'commercial' jargon.
Deleteeg 'Sacred vs Profane' has become 'Negative vs Positive'.
I have a friend who joined as a distributer last year and she slowly but surely has started to exhibit all the defensive qualities and hallmarks from those that are embedded in a cult but don't realise it. I joined about 5 years ago but just as a customer and on month2 they upped by the charges so I left just a bit disgruntled rather than thinking they were anything nefarious. As someone with uber-OCD I check my meter readings every day and I put them through a s/s to see what my bill is. At no point have UW been the cheapest option. in fact gas is 50% more expensive than Scottish Power March 2018V2. [Though the thread was devoid of actual stat-facts] and is 10% more expensive on electricity when compared to UW cheapest Gold+ or whatever it is called option. Whenever I try and discuss she always gets defensive and comes out with "you need to have all the services to get the benefits" I read an article that shows that their line in marketing is almost true. They are the cheapest of the top 6 on fuel ... IF .... you compare with the average of the top 6 deals. i.e if you are on one of the top6 best deals you will be cheaper. UW is good for lazy and stupid people who cannot be bothered to mve each year but they never quite stich you up as bad a the standard tarrifs from the big6.
ReplyDeleteThank you too because I have been researching UW for 2 years now and struggle to find any negativity online but if true that they have an army of sensors and create their own fake scam sites this now makes perfect sense.
My friend btw the way is relentlessly always posting about how her bill is only this or that per month but she deducts the savings she has accrued from her spends. ... the more you spend the more you save mistake !!
I'll be back
Thanks for your comment MH - if you want to contact me directly, please feel free to do so.
Deleteaxiombooks@wanadoo.fr
Given all the recent media interest in the 'Herbalife' racket, it is quite extraordinary how the bosses of 'UW' have managed to maintain almost an absolute monopoly of information about their activities. However, this is demonstrative of how widely-misunderstood the 'MLM' cult phenomenon has been in Britain. Even journalists who sense it's a fraud, never know the right common-sense questions to ask, but why should anyone want to keep buying commodities/services in a centrally-controlled closed-market when these same commodities/services can be bought on the open-market for a lower price?
'UW' is a classic 'MLM' racket, in that the real reason why people (like your friend) have been recklessly giving their time and money to it, has been their false-expectation of future reward.
David, I don't know where you get your facts from as you do not back any of your statements or criticisms with any. I've been a customer of UW for years and being tight as a duck's butt check annually for better deals but to date have not found a better deal with the numerous other suppliers with the collective supply of five utilities and the partner cash back card. I also have close friends who are distributors and all are more than happy with the company. Back up for distributors and customers is excellent from a UK call centre. What a distributor gets back is undoubtedly directly proportional to their endeavours
ReplyDeleteBernie Guymer - You have made the mistake of coming on this Blog expecting to get away with denying reality and reciting unsubstantiated jargon-laced scritpted bullshit; for my article is clearly backed up with UW's own puerile propaganda which tells of a Utopian world and implies that hundreds of millions of people are all happily earning a share of $150 billons sales via their own 'MLM businesses.'
DeleteIn the adult world of quantifiable reality, the actual hidden overall loss/churn rates for the 'MLM' phenomenon have been effectively 100%. Thus, anyone (like you) claiming or implying that it is possible to earn an overall net profit from the operation of a so-called 'MLM' business, cannot be telling the truth.
You will also observe that various commentators on this Blog have all discovered that, contrary to what you pretend, UW most certainly does not offer a better deal than other suppliers.
Your jargon-laced defence of UW, particular your sinsiter claim that, "What a distributor gets back is undoubtedly directly proportional to their endeavours," indicates that you are not the independent skeptical customer whom you pretend to be, but yet another transparent 'MLM' propagandist reciting an unoriginal script which has been designed to blame victims for their own inevitable losses
Bernie Guymer - A brief Google search reveals that (as I suspected) you are, in fact, not a 'UW customer,' but a so-called 'UW distributor' who has been pretending to be in business.
Deletehttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/bernie-guymer-55854945
If at any time in the future you decide that you need help to think your way out of the 'MLM' trap, please do not hesitate to contact me.
David - The UW narrative says 400 000 people are "building a network marketing business" in the UK? Where does this dubious statistic come from? What's your take on it?
DeleteAnonymous - This 400 000 figure has been floating around for years and it apparently comes from the so-called 'UK Direct Selling Association.' The 'UK DSA' is a private commercial company and it has been the effective propaganda arm of 'MLM' racketeers in Britain for decades.
DeleteThis snapshot 'DSA' figure is absurd meaningless drivel, because it hides the effectively 100% overall churn rates of so-called 'MLM' income opportunities.' Furthermore, when challenged 'MLM' propagandists (like those who have appeared on this post) pretend that the overwhelming majority of constantly churning so-called 'direct sellers' in their particular scheme haven't actually been direct sellers at all, they've been 'customers who didn't lose money, because they never tried to build the business.'
Like all 'MLM' rackets, 'UW' does not publish its annual adherent churn/loss rate, only the current number of contractees, but there is no reason to suppose that the hidden 'UW' churn rate is any different to any other 'MLM' racket.
If we just take the example of 'Herbalife' (which has been a member of the UK DSA snce the 1980s), various independent investigations, and forced declarations, have revealed that more than 90% of its claimed adherents have been churned each year.
In other words, leaving aside all the 'MLM' Utopian BS, the only really interesting UK statistic would be the overall number of UK citizens who have been quietly churned through 'MLM' rackets since the phenomenon first arrived in the early 1970s. A succession of jargon-bleating employees of the so-called 'UK DSA' have all been engaged in hiding this key-information from the public and regulators.
Hi David - I have been a distributor for UW for 3 years but not active with them in the last year as I have been involved with a product based MLM company. I do agree that there are a lot of issues surrounding how these opportunities are marketed and I have found that the product based ones are really tough and you can end up spending way more than you earn and have a garage full of stock. I parked my UW business as I found recruiting really hard and the big money in all network marketing is is building a team. And due to the high level of failure in new recruits, you waste a lot of time and money trying to support people who join and do nothing. However, in terms of your assertion that UW takes more from distributors than it pays, I can say that I paid £100 to join and I earned £500 - £800 each month and had two fully expensed trips with them. I have done absolutely no work for a year and I still get almost £500 every month. My customers have all stayed and I saved them all money. I think some of the points you make are true and stand for all MLM companies eg unshakeable belief in the business, need to recruit etc but in my view, UW stands apart in that you cannot get stuck with stock, you dont need to recruit to make money and most of their customers are not distributors they are just customers of UW. My feeling is that this is not the case for product based MLM companies who sell a large percentage of their product to distributors trying to re-sell it, use if for samples or underpin their position by meeting volume targets.
ReplyDeleteAlexa - Please read this second article (see link below) which I posted last week, and then you tell me how is it possible that what you are claiming can be true for all but an insignificant minority of UW recruiters at the top of the pyramid?
DeleteFurthermore, according to its own declarations, UW makes 18% gross profit on the services it sells as the agent for other companies, but it pays back only 2.85% of its gross revenue to its non-salaried commisssion agents (whom it is churning at a rate approaching 50% annually). Thus, in order to earn (almost) £500 per month (or £6000 per year) in commission payments you require how many 'customers' to keep spending the average of £1230 annually with 'UW'?
I make it approximately 12 times the mean average per distributor of 13. ie just over 150 customers at £1230 per year.
By extrapolation, if you really are earning almost £500 per month (which would be approximately 12 times the mean average of approximately £40 per month) then this means that 'UW' is earning approximately 6 times as much, ie around £3000 per month or £36 000 per year.
How many of your claimed approximately 150 'customers,' are members of your family, friends etc?, because if what you say is true, each year 'UW' is earning around £36 000 out of your friends and family and paying you back around £6000 out of their money. If all of your customers are saving money and none are leaving 'UW' (as you claim), then for each subsequent decade 'UW' will be earning around £360 000 and you will get around £60 000. During the same period, if the claimed numbers of 'distributors' remain the same (around 40 000) and the hidden churn-rate doesn't vary, then somewhere approaching 200 000 further persons will pass through the so-called 'UW MLM income opportunity.'
This makes you a very rare 'Utility Warehouse' adherent doesn't it?
http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.fr/2017/06/millionaire-utility-warehouse-boss.html
Alexa - I think I've just worked out what you have been doing.
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but have you been posing as an 'independent commercial energy broker' in order to recruit 'customers' into 'Utility Warehouse?'
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alexanoble
Apparently, you are now a 'NuSkin' adherent and 'NuSkin' is a 'Mormon' controlled 'MLM Prosperity Gospel' cult which has not only peddled the secrets of 'eternal wealth,' but also those of 'eternal youth.'
http://bnidorset.co.uk/dorset-harbour-poole/memberdetails.php?memberId=1489564&t=f43524768083c3d6934dfc696d2f306ea6f4ac7dbc011602ba766f8c3628eb3c&name=Alexa%20Noble
David - I posted on your blog in a genuine and open way so am disappointed your tone is so accusatory. You cast doubt on my earnings and say you need to 'work out what I have been doing'. None of what I have done is rocket science or hidden.
DeleteFirstly -Yes - you are wrong and need correcting about your assertion that I have been 'posing as an independent commercial energy broker'. How you could pose as independent with only one product is ridiculous and most companies would laugh at the commercial rates offered by UW who do not support the full range of commercial meters. The truth is that whilst running my UW business, I joined a local commercial energy broker to allow me to win commercial business. I still work as a commercial energy broker and give unbiased whole of market cots. If you had looked at my linkedin profile properly you would see a recent article I posted to make businesses aware of the problem with verbal energy contracts. This article is irrelevant to UW and further undermines your assertion that I was 'posing' in order to recruit UW customers.
Secondly, none of my family are customers and only a few of my friends are either. I gained customers through networking and events and recommendations.
My commission is not paid back 'out of their money' - that is provocative wording to make it appear distributors are paid money they have no rights to. Every business pays commissions from the revenue generated by their customers and my payment is no different. Each time the customers buys their product it is a new sale and commission is due to me as they are my customer. This is no different to insurance policy renewals paid annually to a financial advisor
Thirdly, maybe I am rare. I worked my business as a business and worked long hours. I supported my team and helped those that worked with me to be successful.
You wouldn't know (and probably dont believe either) but UW are concerned about churn and were trying to find ways to minimise this. They provide a lot of excellent training which costs more than the joining fee so they lose money on unsuccessful new starters.
I have well over 100 customers which is what gives me the income including number of larger properties which generate a bigger monthly income. For the record, almost all my customers are NOT distributors and never have been. UW customers who decide to become distributors will take their account back into their own name and earn commissions on their own usage.
As far as considering what I earn, I get paid every month for the work I did so I am happy. I continue to help my customers if they need it and particularly elderly customers who need help reading meters and setting up their mobile devices. This personal service is not available with any other company.
I realise you will put a totally negative and doubting response to this post as you have done to every post on this site. It's a shame. I am an educated person and aware of the negative side to network marketing. Doing your due diligence is helpful when getting involved with any company and blogs like yours are part of that process. I was sent a link which then led me here as part of by someone doing just that. Unfortunately, the style of your blog is so coloured by your view that it is all bad and totally without merit, means that there is no balance and loses respect. What you look for, you find is the old adage that springs to mind.
Alexa - As someone who is under contract to 'UW,' you can't be independent, can you?, but you now seem to be claiming that you never claimed to be an independent energy broker and that you never signed up 'customers' for 'UW' in that capacity?
DeleteStrange isn't it that, like all core-adherents of 'MLM' groups, you see the world in mechanical two-dimensional terms, 'negative vs positive,' and that any evidence-based challenge to the authenticity of your 'positive' claims which I have written, but which doesn't tie in with your anecdotal statements, you systematically seek to characterise and exclude as 'negative.'
Classically of an 'MLM' adherent, you are also seeking falsely to characterise me as a rude, closed-minded and bullying 'negative' and thus, make me feel guilty for doubting your 'positive' anecdotal statements. This is a familiar tactic taught by 'MLM' racketeers to shut down the critical and evaluative faculties of persons who dissent from their absurd commercial fairy story.
Meanwhile in the world of multi-dimensional reality, the available evidence demonstrates that what you are claiming (to have been the hard-working positive leader of a team of positive recruiters who built a stable network of over 100 happy 'customers' none of whom are family members and few of whom are friends, and to be making around £500 per month without any further effort) makes you an extremly rare UW adherent. In fact, you now seem to be saying that you are an almost unique case which confirms the accuracy of my overall analysis.
Despite what you insist, according to 'UW's' own declarations, whatever commission you are being paid (which averages out at 2.85% of the sales to the 'customers' whom any 'distributor' signs up and maintains) must be coming from the 18% gross profit margin (which 'UW' earns on its sales of services to the 'customers' whom any 'distributor' signs up and maintains).
Hi David - this could clearly rumble on! I am not characterising you, but some of your facts are wrong and when anyone tries to correct them, you have tar us with the same brush - brainwashed core-adherents to mlm, mlm racketeers etc. Some of us do have a realistic knowledge of the pitfalls of mlm but are happy to get involved as despite your assertions, we make money, go on fully expenses trips and have fun.
DeleteAnd just a couple of final corrections - I am not 'under contract' to UW as you state. And I do not promote UW to commercial customers. I work as an independent utility broker as I offer them WHOLE OF MARKET prices. The pricing they receive does not include UW as they cannot cater for the range of commercial meters and are not a contender in the commercial sector. When I signed up residential customers, you are not purporting to be independent, any more than other sales people for any given company. UW distributors are not brokers for the whole of market and do not purport to be such.
Whether you choose to believe me or not is irrelevant as I have given you straight facts. I earn £500/month for no further work after 2 years and whatever you think of MLM, if you need extra income and pick the right company, you can do exactly what I have done. There is a positive side to MLM in terms of the money you can make and the friendship and trips you can go on and your blog gives absolutely no recognition to this which is why it is unbalanced and as a result, loses respect.
Signing off from returning to this site as I dont think we are likely to ever agree David.
Alexa - I don't know who you think you are trying to kid here: yourself or my readers, but you are certainly not kidding me.
DeleteYour parallel logic is flawed; for by trying to justify 'MLM' rackets by bleating that friendships are created and that some people go on trips and have fun, is the same as insisting that a counterfeit banknote has value, and that I should accept it without question, because some parts of it can pass inspection.
In reality, there are a lot of people who have been, and who are being, severely damaged by 'MLM' rackets. Decades of quantifiable results prove them to be counterfeit 'income opportunities,' but that is apparently of no concern to you. You seem to be primarily interested in justifying your own involvement.
Self-evidently, you have signed several annual 'distributor contracts' with 'UW' and, if as you claim, you are still being paid money each month by 'UW,' then you must still have a actual contract with the company whether or not your previous annual contract appears on paper to have lasped. Furthermore, I would assume that you would have been in breach of your contract by making statements on this Blog about 'UW' without the authorisation of the company and its army of lawyers.
Again, the quantifiable evidence demonstrates that what you are claiming (that anyone can generate income, presumeably net-income, from 'UW/MLM') is not, and cannot be true, for the overwhelming majority of 'UW/MLM' contractees.
The following comment was left on my other article on 'UW,' it just about sums up the utter foolishness of your current position:
Without need to exactly quantify external revenue or annual churn rates, or how many “customers” are just the accumulation of failed “distributors”, it is clear that UW's bosses and Joanna Lumley are trafficking in extraordinary deception when they tell people that they can make thousands a month. The only way that can happen is by pyramiding recruits which means only a handful could ever achieve that income, no matter how much they believe or don’t believe in the MLM fairy story. The average per capita gross income in 'UW' is about £40 a month. If the average customer spends about £1200 a year and the commission rate is about 3% on revenue, then the average profit per 'customer' for a 'distributor would b £36 a year! If everyone had on average 13 'customers, they would earn £468 before all expenses and taxes, and signup fees. So how does one earn 'thousands' a month? And if only £21 million is paid out to 40,000 salespeople, how many could earn 'thousands a month?'
If thousands just meant two thousand, or £24,000 a year: (£21 million / £24,000 = 875! The maximum is 875 and everyone else would have to earn ZERO.
3 years recruiting without a salary and paying all her expenses, and now Alexa says she's getting just over $100 per week. This doesn't sound like the life changing opportunity promised by Joanna Lumley. + If her 100+ recruits dwindle she will get a big fat nothing and yet Alexa will probably be in the top 0.1% of distributors.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - We shouldn't be too hard on Alexa, because on the one hand she confirms my overall analysis and courageously admits that (from her own experience) it is effectively-impossible to recruit and retain further 'UW distributors,' but on the other she insists that it is possible to make money by recuiting 'customers', albeit by working 'long hours,' because she has achieved this.
DeleteIn reality, at the exceptional level of commission income she claims (ie around £500 per month from 100+ 'customers, or 12 times the mean average)) I very much doubt whether even Alexa will have yet generated an overall net-profit (after deducting her 3 previous years of expenses + her hours of labour), unless this current commission income level remains stable for several more years. As you point out, if enough of Alexa's customers quit, then her income will vanish.
Ignoring her inexplicable latest involvement with the 'NuSkin' racket, Alexa seems to be at the stage where she has real doubts about the authenticity of the 'MLM' fairy story, but she is still trying to justify her previous behaviour.
In her current state of mind, Alexa evidently cannot accept my evidence-based analysis of 'MLM' as a damaging fraud built on closed-logic ritual belief in an economic pseudo-science, because the truth about 'MLM' is systematically catergorised by the closed-logic ritual belief system as, 'negative'.
If at any stage in the future, Alexa recognises, and decides to come out of, the 'negative vs positive' game of 'MLM' make-believe and re-enter reality, then I will gladly help her.
Unfortunately, right now Alexa will probably be highly-offended by my suggestion that she needs help.
I know a retired couple UW Bots who quit. They were told to draw up a list of at least 100 people to contact, but could only snag a couple of friends and family as customers. At first it seems cheaper then prices are hiked. Helping 100s of strangers to save money and Alexa says recruiting was done by hard work of her team at events? So how much does her team get paid and whose customers are these Alexa's or her recruits'? Then she says most of her distributor recruits didn't stay because they wouldn't work?
DeleteThank you for your 'negative' questions Skeptic - I'm going to post a new article soon which will contain a thought-provoking questionnaire for past and present 'UW' adherents.
Deletee.g.
During you time in 'Utility Warehouse,' were you taught that the 'exact duplication of a proven step-by-step plan' would bring you 'total financial freedom?'
As part of this 'proven plan,' were you taught:
that you should draw up a list of prospective 'MLM' recruits comprising everyone you had ever encountered in your life?
that you should progressively contact all these persons and attempt to recruit them using a precisely-worded 'positive' script?
All I know is I've earned 700+ quid and weekend away since joining mid May. I'm happy enough with that. X
ReplyDeleteRai Jayne - I've lost count of the 'MLM' adherents who have all posted (or attempted to post) their vague claims to have 'earned' money on my Blog. Not one of them has supplied any quantifiable evidence in support of their claims or declared what their operational expenses were.
DeleteYou are no different - so why should my readers ignore all the evidence proving that it is effectively impossible for the average participant to generate and overall net-profit in any 'MLM' racket, and believe you?
Purely because I have no reason to lie. I am new to this business and have no stake in it...if it works it works if it doesn't I'll move on. I don't care that much.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you exactly how I made the 700 if that helps,although I doubt you're too interested in that.
Much love
X
On the contrary Rai Jayne - adherents have every reason to lie about making money in any 'MLM' racket, because if they told the truth, no one would want to join would they?
DeleteMountains of evidence prove that 'MLM' adherents are led to believe that they can make money by signing up more and more people, who then sign up more and more people, ad infinitum.
For obvious reasons, 'MLM' adherents are trained never to say anything 'negative' (ie tell the truth) about their activity.
Furthermore, it is basic human nature to want to justify your previous behaviour.
Now if you were the victim of a fraud Rai Jayne, would you be able to face that ego-destroying reality or would you want follow your instincts and defend your ego and lie?
'The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.'
Never heard so much drivel from one guy in my life. Sounds like a pompous ass that's got a bee in his bonnet, and no idea of why.
ReplyDeleteAs for your description "a dissimulated closed-market swindle, in that this legally-registered company doesn't seem to have any significant, or sustainable, source of revenue other than persons who have been under contract to it, and who have been giving their time and money to it, in the false-expectation of future reward. " (I can copy and paste drivel as well)
Lets cover the "significant, or sustainable, source of revenue" - Did you actually notice that UW sell Utilities? Are they not a sustainable source of revenue? If not, then we need to tell British Gas, British Telecom, Eon, EDF, EE, Vodaphone etc etc, cos they obviously don't have a sustainable source of revenue....
I do take offense at the personal attack against a truly nice guy, who only helps people have better lives, Wes Linden. Have you ever met him? Have you spoken to him? Have you given him chance to have his say? Obviously not, and I'm guessing that he doesn't take the crap you spout on your blog to heart.
I am worried that you don't have enough else to do with your life than write uncorroborated bullshit, and putting people off making some extra money, at a time where many are struggling to make ends get close, never mind Meet....
How about you bung them a few bob to help them out? Guessing you can't - too busy writing crap to go out and get a proper job......
Anonymous (or should that be Wes?)- Your provocative comment is typical of a deluded 'MLM' adherent or shill, because in it, you pretend moral and intellectual authority, but demonstrate that you possess neither. You also foolishly imagine that all persons exposing 'MLM' as a racket, cannot be wealthy, and/or successful, and/or happy, etc.
DeleteFYI. UW acts as an agent for utility suppliers. Non-salaried UW contractees have been persuaded to buy their utilities via UW at an approximate 18% gross mark-up on the price that UW pays to the utility suppliers. Last year, less than 3% of UW's gross revenue (around £21 millions) was paid back to approximately 41 000 non-salaried UW contractees in a classic dissimulated rigged market swindle. This would have produced a mean average gross commission income per non-salried contractee of less than £10 per week, but approaching 50% of these transient de facto slave recruiters are being quietly churned each year.
The quantifiable evidence proves your claim (that Mr Linden helps people to make extra money) to be be part of a puerile fairy story, but then if you are an 'MLM' adherent you will have been trained (by the likes of Mr. Linden) to exclude any information which doesn't fit in with the 'negative vs positive' MLM narrative, because it has been arbitrarily deemed to be 'negative.
Liberals don't understand economics, so it's understandable that you'd react as you do. You are also likely a shill.
DeleteUW requires payment to become a distributor while boasting free tutoring. That's a lie, because the initial payment covers that.
UW boasts between 0.5% - 2.5% cheaper alternative to competitors. That's a lie, because inflation occurs on certain services to offset the cost of others, which results in paying more money to UW than it would be to pay to a service provider directly. UW is a proxy company.
Distributors earn a little over one pound sterling per service per customer, meaning you'd need at least 100 people indefinitely paying for four services in order to earn a passive income of 500 pound sterling per month. I can guarantee you that that will not happen.
The scheme is legal, but that doesn't make it any less malicious.
Gaius Marius - It is unclear who you are addressing in the opening statements of your comment. Also, your further statement which includes the unqualified term, 'passive income' (i.e. without explanation of whether this means net-income or gross-income) is effectively meaningless
DeleteAs for your closing statement, I would refer you to the UK Fraud Act 2006, particularly section 3.
What the bosses of UW have been doing has clearly been in breach of this legislation, but then, no one has been trying to enforce it.
@David Brear I was addressing Anonymous's comment. I figured there would be some kind of indication, seeing as I chose to reply directly to his comment.
DeleteBy monthly passive income, I meant the gross income made from fools that distributors maliciously have subscribe to the services leased by Telecom Plus.
You are right about the the breach of legislation. Telecom Plus have been sued several times in the past for swindling customers. It gets by by the illusion of operating as a legal service provider.
Thanks for that clarification Gaius Marius and welcome.
DeleteTellingly, all so-called 'MLMs' have been peddled as - 'income opportunities' and never as 'net-income opportunities.'
I presume you have read my other articles featuring the 'UW' racket - one of which contains an unsolicited e-mail from 'UW' boss, Charles Wigoder, inviting me to visit with him.
The carefully-crafted illusion that 'UW' is an entirely lawful enterprise, is what makes it the corporate front for a racket: rather than just the front for a fraud
What on earth have "liberals" got to do with this? MLMs such as this are simply predatory fraud, and often seem particularly aligned to fundamentalist Christian rightwing groups, and Mormons, as opposed to anything that one might term as "liberals." Apart from that they seem to prey on people of all political persuasions
DeleteThanks for your input Barry - You are correct, 'MLM' racketeers have all been peddling a future (non-existent) Utopia. They have been controlled by a fictitious narrative which mirrors that controlling right-wing 'religious,' and 'political,' factions.
DeleteThe commentator who introduced this somewhat odd opinion (that an 'MLM' propagandist was someone who can't understand economics, because he/she is a 'liberal') has not returned to my Blog.
However, it's not clear what this commentator actually meant by the term,'liberal'.
'Liberal' is a term which I would not generally use, because it means different things to different people.
That said, the recent administration of President Obama was what is broadly referred to as 'liberal' in the USA, and no one in that admistration did anything much to expose the 'MLM' lie, let alone put a stop to it.
Funny how all the Wes Linden videos got pulled off youtube?
ReplyDeleteYes Skeptic - the 'UW' mob have reacted as though they are guilty even though they pretend to be completely innocent.
DeleteLaughably, the self-righteous anonymous commentator above, pretended that I have not given Mr. Linden a chance to have his say, but the Net has been full of Mr. Linden's fraudulent videos in which he pretends to have access to a secret knowledge which can enable anyone to achieve success in 'UW.'
Avoid at all costs.
ReplyDeleteThey will charge you a monthly fee to even be a distributor abd selling isn't easy as people can switch themselves and their discount card is better with even natwest . Plus their gas and electric serices rates are horrendous.
I would label it a semi scam.
More emphasis us given t recruiting thus it's a pyramid acheme
Thanks yabs
DeleteI would very much appreciate it if you contact contact me via e-mail
axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
Its a route to market, MLM is a business model, its not a scam if earnings are capped. Franchises, like Subway, Tax Assist charge renewal fees.
DeletePraful Shah - To give Blog readers some idea of the absence of critical/evaluative thought in of your scripted-comment: You have completely overlooked the key-fact that, in order to have a chance of finding sufficient customers to generate net-profits, franchises (like political constituencies) need to be strictly limited to geographical enclaves based on population, but 'MLM' rackets do not limit the number of participants, because they are based on peddling the crackpot pseudo-economic theory that: endless recruitment + endless payments by the recruits = endless profits for the recruits.
DeleteImagine if you'd bought a franchise, but you had not been shown quantifiable evidence that the overwhelming majority of other claimed frachisees had been transient and had been unable to generate an overall net-profit? Yet (contrary to the UK Fraud Act, 2006, section 3) no 'MLM' front company has ever voluntarily disclosed the effectively-100% loss/churn rate of its so-called 'income opportunity.'
Are you aware that, prior to the instigation of the 'MLM' phenomenon, deliberately-unviable (fake) franchises were once a common form of fraud in the USA?
Praful Shah -The following text comes from an essay I wrote some years ago. I sincerly hope that it will kick start your critical and evaluative faculties, before you waste your time and money?
DeleteBy the 1960s and 70s, franchising was becoming a widespread, viable and profitable, form of business in USA. At the same time, the peddling of deliberately-unviable (fake) retail business franchises to commercially-naive Americans (bedazzled by their own hopes and dreams of becoming your own boss), was being recognised as a serious problem. A significant number of victims had come forward to tell the painful truth that had been persuaded to abandon their careers and hand over many thousands of dollars (often life savings, inheritances, loans, etc.) to slick performers who styled themselves as 'franchisers.' In return, they'd been handed effectively-worthless contracts which arbitrarily defined them as 'franchisees.' These take-it-or-leave-it documents obliged signatories to buy effectively-worthless 'franchising' stock, materials, equipment, etc., at exorbitant prices fixed by their criminal authors. In the most serious cases, victims quickly wound up destitute - their hopes and dreams destroyed along with their families and friendships. There is no record of how many Americans committed suicide, fell ill or died prematurely, as a result of their lives being poisoned 'franchise' Long Cons.
The numerous copy-cat peddlers of these economically-suicidal 'business/income opportunities' were fully-aware of what they doing, but as far as I'm aware, none were charged with criminal fraud or racketeering. Not only did they place no common-sense limits on the numbers or locations of the 'franchises' they offered, but they also deliberately over-charged their victims.
The bait in this cruel trap was a perverted version of the 'American Dream' - an enticing capitalist fairy story of a secure future Utopian existence, presented as reality in colourful brochures and adverts, and recited as Gospel by clean-cut smiling shill-performers who all pretended to have achieved freedom, prosperity, happiness, etc.
It goes without saying that no key-information regarding the catastrophic quantifiable results of these dissimulated criminal enterprises was made available to new victims.
Eventually, franchise disclosure rules were introduced, along with a mechanism to enforce them, by the US federal government. These common-sense measures are credited with largely-curtailing this particular variation of the Long Con. In reality, essentially the same Long Con has been allowed to poison the lives of countless victims not only in the USA, but also around the globe, simply because its instigators have developed a system to hide the evidence of their crimes whilst peddling a perverted version of the 'American Dream' entitled, 'Multi-Level Marketing.'
I've been waiting for this thread to kick off again. Rude and insulting? I don't know how you remain so polite with these MLM Bots David. Those saying you can save stacks of money in MLMs, it's because they are only trying to sign you up.
DeleteAnonymous - Thanks for your support.
Delete'MLM' adherents and progandists have been regularly warned that my Blog is not a morally-relativist zone and that they cannot expect to get away with reciting elements of their absurd, but nonetheless pernicious, fairy story here without challenge.
The evidence I've examined (like the Joanna Lumley recruitment video that was withdrawn from Youtube) demonstrates that the so-called 'Utility Warehouse MLM Income Opportunity' is neither original nor unique and that, conseqently, it cannot be fully-understood in isolation.
The 'UW MLM Income Opportunity' racket is essentially just another 'Amway Prosperity Gospel' copy-cat. It has clearly been based on peddling the crack-pot pseudo-economic theory that: endless-chain recruitment + endless payments by the recruits = endless profits for the recruits.
You are correct, in that 'UW' adherents can only recruit by ignoring all quantifiable evidence to the contrary and steadfastly pretending that 'UW' offers services at prices generally inferior to those on offer elsewhere. However, basic common-sense would strongly suggest that this is far too good to be true. However, when challenged, 'UW' adherents cannot produce independent quantifiable evidence to support their anecdotal statements.
David, I think this MumsNet thread gives the true picture of how UW operates.
Deletewww.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3024645-To-think-that-i-have-been-screwed-over-by-Utility-Warehouse-and-their-fucking-smart-meter?pg=1
Most ordinary folks complain they've eventually been srewed by UW, but a few brainwashed UW Bots ignore all this and insist its the best thing since sliced bread.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks again Anonymous. This MN thread draws attention to another sinister aspect of the 'UW' racket.
Deletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ofgem-utility-warehouse-customers-debt-energy-treatment-bills-suppliers-a8379211.html
Due to complaints, there has been an ongoing official investigation of 'UW's' tactic of luring customers into debt and then sending in an apparently independent debt collection company, which is really just another arm of 'UW.'
David Brear
DeleteYou are an absolute twat. After 20 years studying MLM do you not have the brain capacity to let anyone decide for themselves? My guess is you joined an MLM in the USA did nothing and cannot comprehend why you did not get paid. Rather than sitting on your arse writing about something you have no clue about, get up and do some work.
Anonymous - The fact that you pretend moral and intellectual authority, but all you can write is puerile abuse and ill-informed guess-work, proves the validity of my overall analysis.
DeleteMy reasons for examining, and writing about, 'MLM' cultic racketeering have been openly-published for years, but you have evidently been too wrapped up in the thought-stopping 'MLM' fairy story to discover them, let alone digest them.
Whilst you are here Anonymous, perhaps you would like to disclose to my readers your own reasons for being here?
From your behaviour, it seems that you are a temporarily-deluded de facto slave recruiter for the wealthy bosses of the 'UW' racket?
There have been more reality-invering self-righteous comments sent to this post, insisting that I am not prepared to allow people to decide for themselves.
ReplyDeleteDue to the abusive content of these comments, I am not going to post them.
The fact remains that, like all long con artists, the bosses of 'MLM' cults have ensared their victims by giving them the illusion that they are making a free choice, whilst hiding the effectively 100% overall net-loss/churn rates of their so-called 'income opportunities.'
Since a truly free-choice is a fully-informed choice, the proposition that I am trying to prevent people from deciding for themselves, is utter drivel.
Well I almost signed up for this today but after reading this thread over the last few hours as well as a few others I can safely say I think I may give it a swerve :( I almost fell for it
DeleteThanks for your input Unknown.
DeleteI don't know if you have read my other 'Utility Warehouse' posts; one of which contains an unsolicited e-mail invitation from its multi-millionaire boss, Charles Wigoder, for me to visit with him so that he could educate me as why his company is not like those fronting other 'MLM' rackets'.
Needless to say, I did not accept Mr. Wigoder's creepy invite and have not heard further from him (or from his attorneys).
http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.com/2017/06/millionaire-utility-warehouse-boss.html
Mr. Wigoder only contacted me when he discovered that I had tried to warn Joanna Lumley that she had been tricked into promoting his fraud in a couple of kitsch videos.
As far as I'm aware, Ms. Lumley still refuses to withdraw her (paid) personal endorsement of the 'UW' racket, despite the facts that its criminal/cultic nature has been clearly explained to her and that she is (reputedly) someone with a remarkably high IQ as well as a high-level of social concience.
Oh dear did you sign up to an mlm and do nothing and lose your investment. I've had people sign up as distributor then cancel with in the allotted time period and get there money back.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - You could not be more wrong with your foolish assumption, but then if you had to capacity to read and comprehend this Blog, you would know that what you are reciting is part of the classic 'MLM' blame the-victim script.
DeleteBTW. The possessive case of the pronoun 'they,' is spelt, 'their.'
Whilst you are here Anonymous, pray do tell my readers:
- How many persons in total have signed-up for the so-called 'UW MLM Income Opportunity' since it was first instigated?
- What % of these transient non-salaried 'UW' agents have managed to remain active for more than: one year, two years, three years, four years, etc.?
- Bearing in mind the UK Fraud Act 2006 (section 3), what lawful reason can you supply to explain why the key-information contained in the truthful answers to above questions has never been made publicly-available by the bosses of UW?
I am in dispute with UW trying to get recompense after being charged a monthly estimated bill on my rented flat based on the previous tenant's usage. My problem is that all of last year I spent only 3 days a week at my home having worked away during the week and most of that period was in summer, so I suspect my electricity bill was well overestimated. I have tried unsuccessfully to give meter readings but finally accepted with the help of my local UW member. Now they tell by letter that I owe them nearly £400 owing to my readings being higher than they had estimated. On further investigation I realised that they had conveniently reversed my day and night readings. The night reading being a third higher than the day's. No-one involved with UW were able to advise me how to read my 3-digit readings until I was able by trial and error to see which reading actually moved during the day. I am now told to ignore the large bill but that my readings will still be estimated until the matter is sorted. This all smells. I have complained using 'Response' website and await their response.
ReplyDeleteAnony Mouse. This type of billing-error (massively in favour of 'UW') seems to be not at all unusual, but can I ask you :
DeleteWould you have entered into your current take-it-or-leave-it 'customer' contract with 'UW' if you had known that the company's parallel so-called 'MLM income opportunity' has been the bait in a pernicious trap, designed to steal its victims' time and money and prevent them from complaining?
'UW's' own in-house (turn-a-deaf-ear) 'dispute resolution' procedures will almost certainly be a further waste of your time and money, but you have other more-interesting avenues of complaint. In my experience, since the bosses of 'MLM' rackets cannot risk the loss of their monopolies of information, anyone with a full knowledge of what they have been hiding, is therefore, in a very powerful bargaining position in any external (legal) dispute with 'MLM' front companies.