BES Utilities review: mis-sold energy contract & prices 296

Hi Mr L P,

We really need direct contact from you with your account or contact details (please don't post these online), so that we can investigate and try to resolve this. We're sorry you've not been able to sort this out previously but would welcome the chance to look into this for you.

Please email us: forums@besutilities.co.uk

BES Utilities - Online Team

BES Utilities - Online Team

I would be interested to hear how you can look into this when i have already made a complaint to the BES complaints dept who basically told me, that your 3rd party people who sign up customers, only have to provide you with the recorded conversation for the actual contract, there by missing out how they got to that point.
your complaints dept were not interested and basically said they were happy.

So how are you going to deal with this, because I'm at the end of my tether and considering seeking legal advice. considering i have a letter from another company with a contract dated 3 days before yours

Hi Maria,

Sorry to hear you're unhappy with your billing. We've checked your account and confirmed that your prices and meter readings are as agreed. As promised, we're sending you something in the post which will hopefully help you reconcile your bills and payments made.

We'll follow this up with a call in a few days to answer any remaining questions, but if you want to contact us in the meantime then please either give us a call or email our dedicated online team: forums@besutilities.co.uk.

Regards,

BES Utilities - Online Team

I have a problem with BES - Commercial Electricity
I have agreed to a verbal contract which was all agreed by telephone call. I've never had a copy of it or signed for it.

When I've started with BES (from my first invoice 7th December 2013) I was billed on 20/01/2013 with an Invoice for the meter that I have since I have the restaurant. I have questioned the total amount as for me that looked very high £740.82 (which I use to pay no more than £400 monthly with EON) they said to me that when we would have a smart meter that they would provide that we didn't need to provide with meter readings anymore and that once was done I didn't have to worry anymore.

Since that first bill I've never had more issues inclusive I thought that I've made a great decision as now I was paying less than EON. The Invoices and direct debit was about £80-£100 less on a monthly basis than EON but I thought that since I’ve paid £740.82 on the first month that was too high, the account was in credit and with """savings that I should have""" that was about right. I haven't received any letters or statements to say that I was or not in credit or outstanding but I just thought That it got sorted when in 14th March 2014 the Smart meter was installed

All the Invoices I had from 20/01/2014 till 16/10/2014 were still showing the old meter number on which I have just realised yesterday. I was paying by direct debit, was never asked to provide a meter reading, and never got a statement.

Yesterday I have received just another invoice from 15/10/2014 to 15/11/2014 which says
Electricity charges for period 15/10/2014 to 15/11/2014 Total charges this period £2646.08
and in smaller letters Pre-payment £6.39
credits 0.00
Outstanding charges £2, 639.69.

When I have first spoken to customer service yesterday the lady told me to take a meter reading and send photos of it only when I said that it would be impossible in a month to get this charges.

Today I have looked and the meter reading is accurate so then I said why? So I have looked all EON's bills and did a total for the year 2013 and one for BES to compare and how I was imagining there's a big difference.

After looking closely at both accounts I then realised that the last Invoice was billed with the new meter and that I have never got a bill for the new meter. Then I though since I have never got a bill for the new meter and since the readings are accurate then BES should deduct £1, 272.82 (the payments I made since the new meter reading was installed 14/03/2014 to 16/10/2014) from the only bill I got with the new meter reading of £2, 639.69 and the outstanding should be £1, 366.87

After I spoken to Lisa today from customer service and she told yes but you have a credit for the old meter from March 2014 to 16th October, I then asked her where's the credit? she says in my account so I’ve told that I haven’t received credit/ refund, / statement or credit note, I have asked that I needed to speak with someone that did the contract or someone that could help me. She told me finally the only thing she could do was to ask a senior consultant/advisor to phone me back.

Jilly as she called herself rang me at 14:47pm tel: no: [protected] firstly said I don't know why I have never got a credit note / statement and later on said it was one sent to me and will issue another one.

Jilly explained that actually they have credited to my account the money that I have paid from March till November but still outstanding £2, 639.69 ? She told for me to listen to her and when I said that I felt like I was robbed, kept saying I am trying to help you but nothing did except to say that will issue a statement with all the figures so I can understand what happened.

My issue here is ok now I see how stupid I was to change for this company what clearly is more expensive but the thing is I don't trust the company at all as How are they getting their charges? They are over charging me that's obvious.

Where are my rights? Do I need to be with them till December 2017? Jilly says that there's £8, 000 charge cancellation fee! I didn't know that!

I have not signed any contract is this actually legally? Can this company robbed you in daylight and you can't do anything about it.

Hi,

I have just started calls with them and they are about to sign me up... they haven't installed anything yet nor have a received any contracts... Am I at risk here or can I get out of this okay/?

Thanks...

Hi Mr L P,

We're sorry to hear you have a complaint regarding your BES contract. We acquire contracts via independent brokers and not direct sales teams.

Please send your details to forums@besutilities.co.uk so we can look into and try to resolve this for you ASAP.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Online Team

My Wife and I have also been mis sold by this despicable company.
She recently took over a retail shop and within the first few days was bombarded by companies stating that they could offer a better electric tariff than we were already on.
She with one specify company and got a 2 year contract which she was happy with. however a couple of days later a guy came on the phone and my wife thought it was the previous company, she called him by the name he gave a couple of days and he stated he had found a better deal, unbeknown to her it was not the same guy, it was one of BES Sales Agents. she was misold into a 5 year contract which we have now been trying to get out of.
when i asked for the recordings of course they only contained what BES class as the legal requirement and not the chit chat which my wife believed was the previous company,
I have a contract from the first company but it appears BES go in there first and swapped us over, who in their right mind would agree to sign a 5 year contract when we had just got a 2 year deal only 2 -3 days later.

I will be filing my second complaint letter to BES in the next few days with a copy of the first contract, should these people again not see sense i will of course be heading towards the ombudsman and seeking legal advise on how to proceed.

BES makes me feel physically sick that they get away with such practice.

Hi nize,

We're sorry to hear you've been having some problems with your BES account. We'd like to look into this for you if you have a complaint.

Please email the details to forums@besutilities.co.uk and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

Do not go near this company. . . Scam company that charges 2000 pounds for two months because of out of contract. . . Please i have suffered you do not have too. . . This company should be closed down. . . Worst company ever. . . They took 2 months to change the tennacy and did not allow me to go to other gas company and charged me 2000 pounds for two months. . . Worst company ever. . . Please stay away. . . I would not want any body to sign up to this company. . . If i had the power i would close this company down no matter what. . .

This is very interesting, perhaps you could forward that piece of information to Ofgem, they are VERY interested to hear if BES are in a position to hear full recorded conversations with brokers - to date they have always denied being able to do so. If it is in writing even better!

PM me and I will give you the email address of the Ofgem contact.

I have been offered either cheaper prices or a one year contract after writing to BES on the forums@besutilities.co.uk address. They claim, after reviewing the recordings, that I was offered a range of deals by the 'independent broker'. How they were able to review the recordings of a truly independent broker I don't know and they didn’t provide me with a range of options, they told me what npower’s deemed tariff was (which I was already on), and gave me their tariff as the cheapest. They did give me Total Gas and Power’s tariff because I asked what the next cheapest one was, and they were reticent about doing that.

Hi relics,

Please contact us so we can try to resolve this for you - If you send your details to our dedicated online team: forums@besutilities.co.uk, we will respond to you ASAP.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

Hi Ferhat,

Our dedicated online team would like to try and resolve your complaint - Please send the details to forums@besutilities.co.uk and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

If you need to send your complaint to Neil the address is besclassaction@gmail.com. Hopefully he can help if you can't get anywhere with BES.

The email address to Neil isn't the one that I have posted above, sorry that is BES email address. Neils address is posted on the previous page..

email besclassaction@gmail if you want to submit your complaint to Neil and not forums@... this will go straight to BES. Sorry for the mis print

Hello, the email is besclassaction@gmail.com if you'd like us to look at it.

The address Shelly put up is to contact BES directly.

I would advise to write to Ofgem as soon as possible. Ofgem are currently investigating BES. Have a look at the Ofgem website under investigations. I am sure Ofgem would be interested to received your complaint. You could email Neil at forums@besutilities.co.uk who is collating complaints at the moment with a view to taking action against BES. Don't be intimidated because you are not on your own, there are many people going through the same thing including us.

I purchased a shop on the 26th September and found that I inherited BES as the electricity supplier to the shop, the shop had been empty for a year and there was an outstanding bill of £600+ for a daily charge to the previous person who previously rented the shop despite them telling BES they were no longer trading and the shop was empty.
I phoned BES with the reading that day and told them that I wanted to use another energy supplier to supply the shop, they told me that i would be charged £1.50 per day and a 54p unit charge. Thankfully I have not used one unit so far as the shop remains empty but I have had so many calls from BES requesting my Direct Debit details, they are so aggressive and rude. Scottish Power agreed to take over the supply on the 20th October but I am still being hounded by BES for a bill for a daily charge and if I dont pay it then there will be a further £50 late payment fee! What I cant understand is that they issue monthly bills yet the bill that I have had is only for three weeks from the 26th September to the 15th October, they tell me that they will issue me with a futher bill for the 5 days up to 20th October, why dont they issue me with one bill which is still not quite a month. Because I have read so many bad things about BES I am very wary and dont trust them.

We have also been Mis sold an agreement with BES based in Blackpool & The Fylde Football ground. These are still a relatively small set up, run, certainly not managed in the most inappropriate manner. These people are rude, arrogant and tell lie upon lie. If l am to give one piece of advice it would be to stay well away from this so called business and it's employees. PLEASE BE WARNED NOT TO GO WITH THIS COMPANY

On the morning of 9/10/2014 (Thursdays are our busiest days at the NHS clinic) our temporary receptionist has received a phone call by a male identifying himself as D... It was a quick and rushed chat he mentioned electricity and gas and us not having a contract. Whilst attending to the NHS patients and the staff she couldn't pay great attention. But she asked for his number and tried calling back at a less busy time but couldn't get through. During one of these calls BES agent told her we didn't a have current contract with any of the suppliers and that we are using illegal supply. BES sale people are professional liar and their customer service department is just wasting our time and costing our small business huge amount of money. I am planning to join your class action against BES. We have already raised a complain via Ofgem. We cannot afford to lose small amount of money as a NHS practice, and the stress your Company caused is huge.

Posted on another forum, but nonetheless;

Well Mr Jones, I have to commend your attitude for optimism, and it is really great you optimistically anticipate that this is an "opportunity to seek guidance on how to improve our processes and in this instance, as every other, we will be looking to Ofgem to help us tweak our processes for the future".

You mention the 'big 6' have outstanding investigations, however these generally relate to Section 12 of the License Conditions, which is essentially using the 'wrong' meter, relatively trivial in comparison to what you stand accused of. In any case the 'big 6' certainly do not have multiple conditions of their License under review to the extent you do. Plus logic dictates as a small company you should be able to managed your processes/company far better than the 'big 6'?

One of the investigation's focuses is on Section 7B. For those who are unaware, this (in short) relates to being honest, transparent and avoid providing misleading or omitting information.

You interestingly claim that "an almost 10 year untarnished record as a supply business". Have you ever Google'd your company's name? Have you seen the enormous amount of very upset and angry people there are who feel your company has in some way been the aggregator of circumstances leading to their business's demise?

What frustrates me more is that you had the audacity to instruct a reputable law firm to issue threatening letters claiming their genuine and honest accounts were "a malicious attempt to start an internet campaign of which [you] deny all veracity". Some of the people that got these letters have been treated for depression and have contemplated suicide since being in receipt of that letter! The letter infers that you had no idea as to why people may be making these claim/posts - and purports those claims to be malicious, false and defamatory.

How you managed to instruct a law firm claiming what you did and guarantee it as truthful and factual; when there literally thousands of posts from hundreds of users over tens of websites giving shocking accounts of your company, is entirely beggars belief and a cause for some grave concern. The balance of probabilities are that you have probably mislead or omitted information to allow a law firm to issue letters of that nature.

Mr Jones, wake up! I am afraid to inform you that your reputation has been tarnished for some years (no matter what you demand removed from the internet, or no matter how many 'gagging orders' people are forced to sign). I think quite frankly if it is found that BES have breached or failed to comply with license conditions, in particular 7B and 14 it is untenable that they can continue to hold a license, or remain suppliers to the energy market. Many others manage to keep to their license conditions, what makes you think Ofgem want to give you "guidance" to the pretty simple task of doing your job properly? Maybe they just don't want companies with your apparent ethics in their industry any more?

So Ben Jones thinks that OFGEM is going to try and help when they see the level at which BES have deliberately ripped off small businesses? I imagine one look at the percentage complaints per customer will not be very favourable. The details of those complaints might well close the company down.

Don’t forget problem number 2 - there are hundreds of people in Lancashire who know about this scam - they’ve worked in the broker call centres cold-calling new businesses repeatedly, they’ve deliberately lied to them on the phone to broker deals (fraud), they’ve fiddled bills and meter reads. The biggest job BES have now is keeping these people quiet, because I doubt they’re going to be pleased when their call-centre and admin jobs are gone. I’m sure there will be at least a handful who either out of honesty or anger will spill the beans on what’s been going on behind the scenes. It’s easy to keep people happy in a boom, not so much when the wheels start coming off, I would have thought this OFGEM investigation marks the turning point and I also would have thought that Ben Jones knows that.

I think clearly that most people on here and similar forums to this one has complained to BES directly. I am at a loss as to why the BES representative feels the need to ask people on the forum to email them with their complaint because I am sure that they would have already had their complaint wouldn't they? It is my opinion you may be asking people to email so that you can find out when you get an email to who has been making the posts on here? If you had have dealt with customers enquiries fairly and constructively then I am sure that they would be happy and not had the need to share all their worries and concerns on open forums. My suggestion to Mr Ben Jones is for him to go through all complaints received by BES in the last 12 months and make an informed decision as to whether BES treat people fairly.

I am sorry BES Utilities - Official Representative, IF you are a legitimate employee then your Company has had over 6 months in which to come clean. You have had numerous correspondence from me and I have spoken to so called Customer Service Managers who have simply said if I go back then they will give me this and that and my money back. Stop hiding and come out in the open and face all the unhappy people who you have ripped off.

Hi Pantiques,

I'm sorry you are unhappy and would be happy to investigate any complaint or query you have regarding your BES account. Please send us the details at: forums@besutilities.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

I am sorry Mr Jones you are completely wrong. Your tactics are diabolical, you have taken over £1000 of my money for a service we had forced upon us and only used for a month. We were conned in to a contract under false pretences. When we asked for a recording of the conversation with the original agent it was an edited version we received. You may think you trade correctly but trust me you operate very close to the line and bend the line to suit yourselves! I would be very happy to meet with you as would many of the people your Company has forced in to contracts by misrepresentation. We will all be making our views on your activities known to Ofgem and the ombudsman and indeed many of us have already! Your Company has already forced many small businesses to close and peoples lives have been ruined. The £1000 we have 'given' to you for a service value of around £50 is extortion! We cannot afford to lose this sort of money, and the stress your Company caused is huge. Once again come out in the open and meet with us and listen to the recordings and see for yourself the misery your activities have caused. The evidence is clear from this forum and others that something is wrong you are in a position to put it right! A start would be to refund the £950 back to me that you have taken.

We are happy to comply with Ofgem and always have been, following an almost 10 year untarnished record as a supply business. Investigations are common place in the energy industry and this is one of 16 live investigations across all energy suppliers currently including many of the ‘Big 6’. We treat all Ofgem intervention seriously but we also see it as an opportunity to seek guidance on how to improve our processes and in this instance, as every other, we will be looking to Ofgem to help us tweak our processes for the future. I would encourage people to respect that an investigation is neither admission nor an accusation of any wrong doing, it is simply an opportunity for the regulator to understand in more detail how we approach compliance against a small handful of the many supplier licence conditions which are in operation in the market. Any outcomes of this process we therefore intend to use to strengthen for future growth as we look to continue to take the fight of the smaller independent suppliers to the wider market and in particular, the ‘Big 6’.

Ben Jones – CEO, BES Utilities

Hi Mattc2. I am so sorry that you are in a similar situation as the rest of us. Look at the previous page posting and send your information to forums@besutilities.co.uk as I think Neil (also in a similar situation) may be able to help you.

Wish I'd read these comments before I signed up earlier this week. I was contacted by a 'broker' called UK utilities who found me the 'best deal around'. Looking at their website they are actually a marketing company that list bes (and eon actually) as their clients who told me they were an independent broker, so that was a lie from the start. I am so angry bes are getting away with this. I will sign up on the ofgem site

As earlier posting OFGEM have at last started to investigate BES. Please register with Ofgem so they know the scale of the issue. Just go to their website search BES and it will come up.

Whilst you're at it, perhaps you could explain why Ofgem are investigating whether you are adhering to your Supply License Conditions?

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-bes-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-standard-licence-conditions-7a-7b-7-14-and-21b

"...the licensee is required to behave and carry out any actions in a fair, honest, transparent, appropriate and professional manner. It is a requirement that information is provided (whether in writing or orally) to each Micro Business Consumer which is complete, accurate and not misleading (in terms of the information provided or omitted); that it is communicated (and, if provided in writing, drafted) in plain and intelligible language; that it relates to products or services which are appropriate to the Micro Business Consumer to whom it is directed; and that it is otherwise fair both in terms of its content and in terms of how it is presented (with more important information being given appropriate prominence)."

If you are being investigated as to whether you are complying to this requirement, is sounds rather concerning especially as "[Ofgem] are aware of a high level of complaints made about BES and have also received a referral from Citizens Advice"...

Can you please comment further on the company's position, and whether you accept or reject the allegation of non-compliance in this respect?

Hi BES representative
Can you please explain why you want to help when people post something derogatory on public forum and ignore repeated requests via email, post and telephone?

The company wouldn't get all this bad press if you dealt with your customers in an honest open manner.

no wonder after years and years of complaints on forums like this and cag..
suddenly we get to see BES Reps appearing all over the place
me thinks they are VERY worried.

of course those in the know have been aware they are all related to each other foryears
now we appear to be nailing them

good luck.

For the attention and information of everyone on the forum please be aware that Ofgem are now investigating several issues re BES. If you want further information about their investigation then please check out the Ofgem website and look under the investigations tab. You can also register on their website for e-mail updates on how their investigation is progressing.

Hi paul26911,

We're sorry you're having some problems and are keen to look into any concerns via our dedicated online forum team. Please send any details to forums@besutilities.co.uk and we will get back to you ASAP.

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

Hello Paul,

Please provide a witness statement to besclassaction@gmail and it will be forwarded to the relevant people.

Thanks

My wife did the same mistake and got to the contract with BES despite that few days before I agreed for the 12months contract with Eon. It was last Friday and after few days we sent them cancelation letter, but they rejected. Today we are going to the solicitor, hope there is something to do about it... Any suggestion please? We will join any group against them. My email pual26911@googlemail.com

Hi Cerij,

That wait time doesn't sound right at all - We'll arrange for someone to call you straight back if you would please send your details to forums@besutilities.co.uk.

Thanks,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

Thanks for the help Neil-uk, I will forward the information on. Surprised about the message from BESutilities, I phoned them about this three times yesterday only to be put on hold for 15 - 20 minutes and then hung up on each time!