BES Utilities
reviews & complaints

BES are shamelessly taking advantage of the recent increases in energy prices to hike rates to well above market levels. I run a small business and have struggled over the winter to pay the bills at the already inflated rate. I am now in the position of having to choose trading next winter without any heating, accept an expensive penalty for cancelling my contract or simply closing the business if neither of those options is viable. There is simply insufficient trade in the current climate to support the level of costs that BES are trying to impose. I wish to challenge their right to put small businesses in this position through greed and exploitation of mis-sold long term contracts.

Avoid at all cost bes utilities contract. Once you are in, there will be no way out. It’s 4 months of notice to the change of tenancy, they ignore to terminate my contract because the new tenant do not want to work with terrible company. You will be out of your mind to consider their service. Please have your search before commit your self to suicidal contract.

On 25/08/21, I applied to British Gas Lite to take over the electric supply at a commercial property we are renting from SSE, who are the current suppliers. On 27/08/21, I had a telephone call advising me that British Gas Lite and disregarded my application as the electricity meter was showing as de-energised still, and that SSE are charging really high emergency tariff prices such as £1.50 per day standing charge, and 50odd p/kwh. They advised that they would be able to take over the supply straight away as long as I sent a picture of the meter showing two different readings to show that it was working and they would reduce the costs to 40p standing charge per day and 21p per kwh. I thought this was legitimate, and stupidly agreed.
I was surprised today 01/09/21 to receive an email from British Gas Lite advising me to complete the sign up process. I was obviously lied to. I telephoned the number back that phoned me on Friday to be put through to a recorded message from a National Utilities. I googled this and telephoned the number straight away. The lady on the phone kidly advised me that they always have phone calls trying to speak to National Utilities, but the original company that phoned me are not National Utilities and she wasn't sure of the name they trade as. Worried by now, I did an online chat with BES Utilities advising that I was lured into a contract under false pretences and I was lied to. They were not really helpful and said they would get a manager to call me back. I advised i would ring. So i rang them and was told the same thing. A manager named Eben is meant to be ringing me back, but as yet I have heard nothing.

Having had the experience I've had with this terrible company and reading other reviews I can't understand how they're still allowed to trade. They are absolutely disgusting in the way they keep making you chase your tail trying to do what they ask and then act like they don't know what you're talking about when you say you did it weeks ago, and then the process repeats itself over and over and the whole time they are knowingly trying to drain your bank account without ever agreeing to release you, no matter what you do. I've been in tears at times because of the way they've treated me over the last 5 years. I've seen this kind of thing has not only happened to me but a load of other people in the reviews. No exaggeration - this company should be closed down immediately and those responsible should face criminal charges.

Well, what can I say and where do I start. For months now I have had a contract with these monkeys, not happy and things are going to get very 'legal', they are the biggest con and scam I have ever come across and I wish I had put the phone down on the broker that called me.

We signed up to Gas and Leccy in September of this year, paying £132.50 per month, quite happily, then they send a bill to me for £938 due to the fact that they have basically estimated the open reads, even though I gave them the actual meter reads. They can't be bothered to speak to the previous supplier to find the closing reading. Then, just this week I get a bill from Opus for £290 for Gas, which BES are supposed to be billing me for. Which they arent and are saying its my fault that I told them the wrong meter serial number, even though I have email proof and photographic evidence of my meter which I sent to [email protected] so they are clearly lying and trying to put the blame on me. Opus have been great to be fair.
I also have an outstanding bill of £200 for cancelling my Direct Debit with BES as they where going to take the above balance which I disputed, as you do, you cancel the direct debit, to which I incurred a higher P/KWH price and a higher standing charge.

This is going to get very legal, I will absolutely light them up.

After several months of bes knowing they had taken the wrong gas supply to my business. They repeatedly still kept taking money from my account. They sent an independent specialist out who confirmed the mistake to them and after over a year of paying for the gas to the flats upstairs. I'm still getting told I have to wait for my refund. I owe EON for the whole years worth of gas I thought I was getting off BES

Still no formal apology

Bad

Incompetent company

Zero customer service

Unable to speak to anyone in the refund department
Avoid

Up to 21st August 2018 BES Utilities on Trust Pilot were 1 star bad with less than 10 positive reviews around 98% were negative or low star reviews. Since then (9 months) they are 4 stars Good after a 9 month bombardment of positive reviews. Each time a negative review is written it is either removed or if it stays it is followed by an influx of positive reviews. The positive reviews all tend to be just a few words, no substance and some having extremely bad spelling and wording and usually no profile to view or review history. We have a group full of BES victims most have been mis-sold an energy contract with them this still carries on to date and most have had negative reviews removed at some point as the truth clearly hurts. The irony here is you could leave a positive review stating lies and complete incorrect facts which is against Trust pilot policy but yet the review would remain. Many of us have questioned the behaviour of BES to trust pilot and told them our stories but they don't listen and the common views that many Trust pilot reviews are not genuine on an industrial scale has got to be true whilst a company still acting in a very questionable way manage to turn their review profile totally around in 9 months this is nothing short of ridiculous.