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

Hi Cerij,

Sorry to hear you're having problems with your BES account. Please would you send us your details so we can look into this and contact you?

Thank you,

BES Utilities - Official Representative

Hi Cerij,

Please contact the email address above with a PDF statement of your situation and it will be forwarded to the QC.

We are also trapped in a contract with BES. We supplied them with the correct amount of notice which was noted by them however they keep raising objections to the new supplier taking over and we are running out of time! Unbelievable that they are getting away with this!

Hi Emi,

As you will appreciate, I do need to be careful what I put online... What I can tell you is;

As a supplier of energy, you are issued a license. Naturally like a driving license or anything else, this license is conditional that you adhere to the terms of that license. It is possible to prove that they have disregarded multiple conditions of that license, and thus that doing this it has caused harm to their customers.

I would at this stage say, anyone reading this that has received a 'gagging order' in theory will still be able to bring their case to the group action as evidence - any attempt to stop you doing that will be taken very seriously, and is almost certainly perverting the course of justice, so please do contact us in confidence.

As/when it is proved a breach of supplier license is proved, then the customers and those affected by that breach will need to have damages awarded to them.

Part of due process is to collate information to prove the company has acted in this manner, and once it is proved fraud has happened in that respect, it will then spread to who authorised it etc.

At this point the authorities become involved, and Warrants can be obtained for computers, records, personal finances etc. It is likely due to the nature of the case, at a transition to a criminal case, telephone records would be requested I imagine from all parties including brokers. Witness statements will be taken from all employees - many of whom will be young and not fancy a criminal record, so are likely to tell all.

One of the persons who is key to this matter, will be the group solicitor, as he would most likely have knowledge of nearly every case - as in cases where they have issued bailiffs and disconnection agents, he would have been the person to over-see the legal side of the applications. At present we can prove at least two of these actions were obtained via deception, but are keen to hear more!

From there it will come down to proving that other members; Joel Chapman, Andy Pilley, Ben Jones etc have been personally involved in the fraud. Quite clearly, this can be difficult, as it would almost be inevitable that the defense would be that had no idea what was happening and it was the staff, big company etc etc.

The stages are approximately;
1) To prove they acted outside their license conditions; and if found award damages.
2) To prove they did so knowingly and fraudulently; and if found hand to the CPS.
3) To prove which individuals were involved; which will become a criminal investigation.

As I hope you appreciate, after Stage 1, the CPS will become involved, and so on it goes.

I can't promise this will put Andy Pilley behind bars, but the more people we hear from the more concrete a case we have!

Does that help?

I think for most people, the worst aspect about BES is the idea that it is possible to get away with what they do. The cold calling, the fraudulent lies on the phone about prices, the pretense that the brokers are independent, the edited contract recordings, the chain of companies to make the deal untraceable, the obnoxious & dishonest staff, the extortionately expensive bills and the complete refusal to reply properly to any genuine concerns, all leave you pinching yourself wondering whether it can actually be happening in a country and market you assumed to be more or less regulated for consumers against such blatant fraud. But that’s the trick, businesses have different rules to everyday customers and that’s where people get caught out when they open a business thinking they are protected. It seems an unlikely scam, but it obviously works.

I think people would sign up for this legal case if it held the possibility of the people involved in the fraud being held to account. The return of fraudulently taken money is welcome to most businesses of course, but I think it’s the idea that BES can get away with this and cause so much anguish on a personal level that is most troubling to small business owners. So Neil, is there a possibility that the managers and directors who obviously know this fraud is going on, will be convicted? What does the QC say based on the cases you have described?

Been scammed by these jokers. On two of my businesses. I feel very angry and will not let them win.
I did not agree to the contracts but they have cleverly adjusted the 'lengthy' calls.
We are being harassed everyday.

Arrrrrr

Hi Pantiques123,

I can't see what you have to loose at this stage you don't have to reveal any personal information. I also think numbers always add clout we can't all be wrong can we?
We have had the most traumatic 18 months at the hands of this company and three weeks ago I nearly gave in and let them disconnect us, but something has always told me that there has to be a way to get these sharks off our backs .
We to are very apprehensive but I think if you keep records of everything etc etc you should be fine.

Hi Pantiques123,

Yes the termination fees do appear extortionate. However, you may be able to get it back if we can prove you were mis-sold or somehow coerced into this contract under pressure etc.

As I hope you can appreciate I am privy to a fair amount of classified information, for both legal and obvious reasons I need to be careful what I put online.

Can you explain what you would like to gain information wise?

Hi Neil-uk.
I have postings on here re BES and have been one of those affected. I managed to buy ourselves out of the so called contract by paying an exhorbitant termination fee. I am always sceptical of sudden offers of help (BES made me like this). Can you perhaps share a bit more info?

Hello Everyone,

It is with some satisfaction I can finally reveal that a major London law firm has now agreed to look into BES with the intention of starting a group action.

I am unable to divulge who this law firm is at the moment, as there are a couple of loose ends and the QC wants to see the cases in more detail (and needs a few more to look at). However, rest assured that the person I have looking at BES is one of the best QC's in the UK. He is vastly experienced with over 30 years experience in litigation both representing and taking actions against banks, investment companies and even the Government over contracts worth billions of pounds. He is the man for the job!

The lawyer is also concerned about any letters anyone may have received from a law firm acting on behalf of BES threatening defamation. This is clearly defended by True Comment, Honest Opinion, Public Interest and Fair Comment, which under the circumstances are entirely reasonable.

The group action is bring organised by someone else, but I can advise you it will seek to;

1) Investigate and if possible prove an unlawful connection between BES and brokers .

2) Investigate and if possible prove that contracts had been miss sold via bullying, intimidation, harassment and unwanted pressured sales calls.

3) Investigate and if possible prove that the contracts in question should be voided and the Contractees awarded damages.

4) Investigate and if possible prove that a number of telephone calls have been edited to serve the purposes of winning a judicial process.

5) Investigate and if possible prove that BES and companies herein have colluded and conspired to decept a court of law in order to obtain warrants for bailiff action and/or supply disconnection.

6) Using the evidence provided show our findings to a judge before a court of law with the intention of proving that BES and companies herein have acted unlawfully, wrongly and unreasonably - and to award the victims damages.

The QC has kindly offered to look at cases free of charge, with the intention to mount a case once he has in the region of 10 cases - which I think will be somewhat of an underestimate of what he will receive.

If you feel that you would like your case to be looked at, please email besclassaction@gmail.com with your details, they will be passed on and you will receive a reply in the upcoming weeks.

Unfortunately they are the biggest con artists about. They lost there license a few years back and managed to redeem it, I have no idea why! They sign you in to a 5 year deal with themselves therefore you can not go elsewhere initially believing you're in a 3 year deal. Also they pretend to be other suppliers to bring you in. They do not provide you're readings or tarriff basically you could be paying 22p kWh when last year you was paying 12p kWh the thing is you will never know because they don't tell you do not send bills with a run down. Oh and they clip the calls so when you ask for them they edit and send to you removing incriminating evidence. Very clever people. I was advised a few times to go with Inenco Direct. Who I did speak to prior to going with bes and in all honesty they were honest and polite and related to all my issues. That's who I will be going with next time

It may be worth taking a look at this thread here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?434795-Commercial-Reduction-Services-auto-renewal

This is a bit of research I did, and does come up with an address for Commercial Power.

I can relate to all of the above after being duped into a contract with BES, I am in the middle of legal proceedings and will keep you all updated but on this occasion I wonder does anyone have an address and telephone number for the broker Commercial Energy I have been lead to believe they are a subsidiary company located in Filey. I have got my recording well the second one and BES tell me they don't have the first one but you can quite clearly tell its a second conversation. My argument is that the broker said they were from Utility warehouse my then supplier. We have paid BES thousands of pounds and I could give you page after page of info but it is very much like you've all posted but if I can find the broker I have a much better case and I think so will many of you.

Everyone here please take note the only way to close BES down is for a barrister to get involved and take them to queens bench as a class action' I too lost my business and the £120k I invested in it. If some of you are not sure how corrupt this firm is take it from me I'm still battling them three years on, and they will continue in this manner until everyone bands together.
So ask yourself, will we? Or will we just moan and see others suffer our fate

I do wonder if the Official Representative posting on this forum is new to the company (as BES are showing that they have taken on new recruits recently) but I am sure that you will soon realise in your training sessions that the way forward is to lie and con people. Someone who used to work for BES once posted on this forum that this is the case when he was taken into employment there. BES please don't pretend that you care about all of the people that BES and Commercial Power con and bully... because oh yes Commercial Power is also owned by the same man, the said Andrew Pilley! We forced Commercial Power to give us the name of the broker that mis-sold this contract to us and low and behold they gave us an address of a company that have never existed at the address and we have photographic proof of this. We wrote to Commercial Power asking them to explain themselves but we are still waiting for a response weeks later to our letter but I am sure that customer care is still their top priority as well as BES because they are both owned by the said Andrew Pilley.

BES don't you think that you have heard the last of us because I will make it my lifes work to help anyone that you con and bully!

Hi Cafe 98 Ltd

If you have any issues you can e-mail us at forums@besutilities.co.uk, you
will receive a personal response with direct contact details.
We would like to help you anyway we can.

Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

Such a same on the the good professional energy brokers out there like inenco direct or inenco I wish I had gone strait to them for the help and services. I will be doing next time

ENERGY SEARCH LTD ... Faraday way blackpool... Broker for BES COMERCIAL gas and electricity be carefore.. Never deal with these curule scam sales people

We now have no money and are business has been completely shut down. Ive had to re mortgage my house which in time we will probably loose are house too.. Me and my wife are so upset about bes and comercail utilities ... At Darwin court blackpool.. Also know as commercial energy ... The address is unit 5-7 Darwin court blackpool, off faraday way.. Hopefully someone goes and gets back what me and my wife and many other reputable businesses all there money back ..

Shut BES and Andy pilley the con man down

Bes... Biggest ever scam.. Don't deal with energy search ltd or commercial utilities .. Or commercial power.. They are all brokers that only work for bes.. They say it's the cheapest available option and you to bes. There's no such thing as meter registrations. And Andy pilley and lee goldy are only months away from been shut down. Keep goin everyone.. All are voices are finely been heared by ombudsman

Dear BESUtilities,

I issued you numerous letters of complaints, which were replied to defensively.

I also asked your Legal Assistant, Jessica Bennett to provide me details of;
A) Where you obtained my phone number
B) Why you continued to contact me despite being told in no uncertain terms not to
C) For the actual recordings of the calls, in which she claims she had listened to and found no issue with any of them
D) For the actual recordings of the calls, whereby she claims a conversation that never happened occurred

None of these requests were even answered - so I have asked the Ombudsman to investigate, I also have reported you to Trading Standards and Ofgem - and should you fail to compensate our wasted time and resources, I will be suing you for damages.

The bottom line is that I did the right thing; I tried to seek resolution with your 'Customer Services' department, to receive replies by a Legal Adviser who was rude, defensive and confrontational.

You've had your chance, a Judge can do the rest...

Dear Official Representative - BES Utilities...I see that you are still hiding behind an anonymous e-mail address and have failed to respond to my earlier challenge to post the address and number for Mr Pilley. Failing to respond to correspondence and e-mails seems to be a trait of BES and Commercial Power.
Why does the fact that you have failed to respond to the challenge not surprise me or any of the many people who have issues with BES?
Being as you are too scared to post Mr Pilley's address and phone number perhaps you could post the address and phone numbers for Ben Jones, the CEO at BES, or Joel Chapman, the head of compliance and regulation instead?

Dear Neil-uk

If you would like to send your details to the official BES Utilities email address, forums@besutilities.co.uk, you will receive a personal response with direct contact details.

Regards,

Official Representative - BES Utilities

Shelly, I agree.

But why doesn't the BES rep start by putting their own name and details first?

We have no idea who this is - just a random person claiming to be a rep and giving a random email address.

Very odd - if someone personally puts out to help you, you'd think they'd at least give a name a more personal email address?

Let's just be clear on something, which may make things a little more obvious...

We know very clearly that BES will claim you are bound by contract; by evidence of the alleged recording they claim to have.

HOWEVER - they are EXTREMELY quick to settle out of court when they know
that they will need to use the aforementioned recording as
justification of attempting to hold you in contract.

They are also equally quick to ensure that part of your out-of-court settlement is confidentiality.

IF you part-record a call, as BES do, then you are in fact tampering with evidence.

IF BES go to court and use evidence tampered with, they are intending to
pervert the course of justice, which is a custodial sentence to say the
least.

For this reason, this is why beyond any reasonable doubt BES are
continually running scared of being taken to court - and thus why you
should forget about jumping through their pathetic complaints procedure
hoops.

If you believe you have been entered into a contract with BES
fraudulently or against your will, take it straight to a Judge, and see
how quickly BES magic a "gesture of good will" out of the bag. Or better still take it all the way to Trial and give us a good laugh at BES's expense!

For those of you who don't know the Utilities & Telecoms Awards 2014 were held last night and BES Utilities were a finalist in the 'Treating Customers Fairly' award!
For some strange reason though BES were not selected as the overall winner of that category. Perhaps some of the judges had been reading the likes of Complaints Board and other similar forums before they reached their decision.
Still, they can always try again next year!

Here is a personal challenge to the 'Official Representative - BES Utilities'. Why don't you post the personal home phone number and address of Andrew Pilley on this forum and then people can contact the owner of BES Utilities and Commercial Power directly so that he can take personal responsibility for the actions of both of his companies?

Interesting to see BES representative has joined the forums.

As mentioned previously, our complaints were replied to aggressively and defensively. I wouldn't bother contacting them, they have no intention of being helpful beyond telling you (semi-politely) where to go.

I wanted two pieces of info from BES:

1) Where the hell did they get my number from.

2) To send me the recordings of the conversations they claim to have.

Funnily enough no reply was made, and they even got my post on another forum deleted.

BES know the game is up - hence why they are getting hot on these forums.

Forget going to BES, take it straight to the Ombudsman, Trading Standards and Ofgem. BES may claim you've not jumped through the hoops for the complaints procedure - but sod that.

Even if you get somewhere with BES, which is unlikely - I would suggest contacting the above anyway just so they are aware of how dodgy BES are.

As far as my case goes - it's being investigated by the Ombudsman, which has cost BES £500 to start with. haha!

I'd be happy to look into this if you'd like to send any details to forum@besutilities.co.uk.

Regards,

Official Representative - BES Utilities

I can't believe all this I'm reading - iv just taken over a premises where the meter has been removed but there is a key meter in place.

Have been asked by bes who own the supply to send lease and photo id?

Is this normal as the lease is in the company name...

Is there any supplier who will take on a premises without a meter and how?

I've tried to speak to BES customer service today as iv never received a reply to my complaint sent by email on 18th August!when I was speaking on the phone a noise was drowning out my voice & when she spoke the noise disappeared!still not getting anywhere & arguing the matter (see previous posts) she then put the phone down on me I'm now speaking with ombudsmen already had to go trading standards hoping to get back my loss of earnings!Please BE WARNED this company is intending to change their name!

Hi House of hair,
We're sorry to hear you may have ongoing issues with your complaint as we understood this was now resolved.
If you'd like to send the details of any further problems to forums@besutilities.co.uk, we'll be glad to look into this for you.
Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

I've made a complaint to BES & never had a reply so took my complaint to the trading standards!

I'm sorry that you are experiencing some problems with BES . If you could you send the details of your complaint to forums@besutilities.co.uk, I will be glad to get this looked into straight away for you.
Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

I too have had my electricity taken by BES despite being in 2 year fixed contract. I have also changed my business name yet they continuously block EONs attempts to take by my electricity. I have also had countless numbers of phone calls by Commerical Reduction Services who are working on behalf of BES and who keep trying to get my gas contract. Every time I have to put down the phone. I've had 3 calls in less than 24 hours (and will no doubt get more.) I have even had to call EON to put a note on my gas account to tell them that we do NOT want to move. How is this even legal? How can they continue to harass people like this? It's getting so bad I don't even want to answer my phone. How are you supposed to run a business like this?

Hi Guys,

We have had BES issues big style!

Basically, we completed on a property around 12pm on 4th June, and from
9am on the 5th June, my phone rang non stop from a variety of
landline numbers. The calls were in the region of one per hour.

Where the hell did they get my details?! I bought a property in my
personal name, and started to get calls harassing my Limited Company.

All I can assume is they did a Director search, or found my company/place of employment on Facebook.

Eventually, I picked up, and was told this person was from a company
called Commercial Energy, and he was a Meter Registrar for my
electricity. He told me he needed the registration of my meter, because
I was paying emergency rates and he wanted me to sign a 5-year
contract...?!

I explained I hadn't even had the keys yet - and I would contact a
suitable energy company when I had the time (and keys)! Not content
with this the caller (an Alex Barlow) went into a high pressure sell,
and I told him I wasn't interested. He said he would call back.

Bear in mind here, my company is on the telephone preference service,
as I am personally. There is a legal argument that, which of course the
legal adviser at BES tried; the TPS is canceled out by virtue of a
'relationship' - but I had nothing to do with the company, it was an
unsolicited sales call and I expressly told them I wasn't interested;
and due to the high pressure sell NEVER to call me again!

A few days later he called again, fed up I told him to email me prices,
and that he was under no circumstances to telephone me again. On
receipt of the email I also replied (copying in 2 sets of Lawyers) and
reiterated my request... Guess what, two days later the phone rang
AGAIN, it was him!

Curiously, the email from the sales person was signed BES Utilities - not the Commercial Energy the guy told me he was from!

Luckily, I had a great guy at EON who took care of the actual energy side.

This post may seem an overreaction - but I urge you once you've read
this email to do a Google search of BES Utilities and see what comes
up. The sales person was rude, aggressive, high-pressured - and in fact
lied several times.

I made a complaint to their 'Customer Services' team... I asked they
looked into my points, and also to either investigate and issue
compensation for my inconvenience - or issue me a letter of deadlock so
that I could ask the Ombudsman to investigate and make a decision.

They were prepared to do neither. Which is suspicious. Their claim was
that they didn't have any evidence that the calls were continuous -
but did have a recording of the calls from the mysterious Alex Barlow
that they concluded were not a high pressure sell; this is despite me
asking him verbally never to call me again! In other words the
evidence when they were in the wrong they didn't have - and the
evidence when they thought they could intimidate themselves into being
in the 'right' they suddenly did have.

It is also worth noting that BES only part-record the calls during
their contracts, and stop the recording when stopping reading the terms
out... "Surely this is illegal, misleading and tampering with
evidence" I asked a top Lawyer - to which the reply was "well we don't
know what a Judge would conclude, because BES always settle their
cases before they to court, and issue confidentiality clauses"
suspicious, huh?

Amusingly, I had even listed the numbers, times and dates to the legal
team in my complaint - who replied and told me they had "no
relevance"...and in the same paragraph asked me for
times/dates/numbers of these calls. So we're definitely dealing with
bullies here, but people who are by no means the sharpest pencils in
the box.

BES Utilities have come under numerous investigations by the BBC,
Ofgem, UIA, Daily Mail and Ombudsman - and every time claim they are
the victims, and aggressively peruse the aforementioned claiming
harassment, personal grievance etc. They even asked Ofcomm to delete
recorded evidence by an insider of their dodgy deals. By the number of
articles out there they have beyond reasonable doubt crippled shops,
hotels, restaurants and small business by their aggressive sales
nature, and over-priced energy. I have been reminded by their legal
team that of course, these have no legal grounds - however we are all
intelligent enough to draw our own conclusions to around 10 websites
and around 250 bad reviews - plus all the media coverage...and
their preference to always settle out of court.

Once happily in our new contract with EON, we received a call from a disconnection agent.

I didn't really know what one was - but I later have found out they are
responsible for any bailiff action to forcefully cut the supply off!

Quote how they planned on doing that with a firm contract with EON I don't know.

Anyway, before composing my complaint to BES, I called the mobile number
of this 'Mr Lawson'. He got EXTREMELY cagey (sounded like he was
[censored]ing it), wouldn't give anything apart from his name and mobile, and
said to contact BES for more information.

Guess what? The legal advisers at BES told me that they couldn't comment and that I would have to ask Mr Lawson directly.

I told BES I would be making people aware of what they are like - and
they have advised me that this could bring a deformation case against
me, which is amusing as they would have no case; everything I have said
here is entirely factual - and has been by no means exaggerated.

The companies to watch out for and whom may address themselves as;
Commercial Energy, Commercial Power, BES Utilities, BES Electricity, BES
Gas, Meter Registrations - and numerous others.

What annoys me most is that when you're moving/buying in business it is a
MASSIVE upset of everything, and these guys play on that. I read
several of the other threads on this forum, which luckily I had a close
escape; but I am saddened and really upset to read of the various people
who have had their businesses ruined by this company.

Anyone reading this who've just had the phone calls start - please log
them all, times dates etc. Send them to the TPS, Trading Standards,
Ombudsman - and stop this company crippling any more businesses!

i have private messaged you please call me i can help

Sorry it is electricity meter no gas at the premises

I've got proof because I've received a letter today dating Friday that the change of tenancy has been done!