BES Customers Gas and Electricity

I will try and be as brief as possible with my long winded case.

In March of 2013 we purchased a cafe and on takeover decided to stay with the then suppliers "Utility Warehouse".

Within 5 days of taking over

I took a call from someone who said they were reviewing our gas and electricity prices,

I asked if he was from utility warehouse and he replied yes

I thought no more of it and duly answered all his questions and stupidly gave all our details ( he knew the previous owners details ).

After a run down of costs and not being aware that the deal I already had was better

somehow I agreed to a new contract and I thought it was with Utility warehouse.

About 3 or 4 days later Barry from Commercial Energy called me again and said we needed to go over a few things, I duly obliged

at the end of the call I thought hey I've been duped,

I called BES once I'd received an email from them and they explained what I had agreed to.

I asked who the agent was and I was told they didn't know.

I called again a few days later after a call from Utility warehouse and the young man

I spoke to gave me the details but told me he wasn't meant to and I would have trouble getting the contract scrubbed.

My husband I were very stressed with the start of a new venture but did try to get out of it to no avail.

It was a case of hey ho we will just have to get on with it.

When I received the first bill I realised we were tied into a contract until 2017 once again I called them .

I was told tough.

The bills started coming in and were considerably higher than the previous owners

which was strange as we had changed all of the major cooking equipment to gas

so no high usage electric griddle etc.

I called BES and queried this and they said there could be a fault on the meter

and we would have to pay to have it checked.

We were not in a position financially to pay anyone to do anything so we just let things continue.

By July of 2014 we were getting bills of over £500 per month

I cancelled the direct debit because it would have bounced

and thought I will pay the bills as and when they come in

( huge mistake the extra costs have just about seen us skint) .

In October of last year I started paying them £60.00 a week by standing order as this is roughly what the bills should be.

We have ended up paying thousands and eventually put the electricity back on direct debit to try and save ourselves money.

It was in Feb the bill went back onto direct debit and we continued to pay the £60 per week to try and clear the debt.

We also had a smart meter installed ( which never sent a reading until 3 weeks ago)

On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate

but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days,

I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter

and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it.

We became so obsessed with the usage

we took readings every hour we were open

and I emailed them the info.

We are open 7 days a week but keep the same opening hours and on monitoring the usage is usually mirrored from week to week.

I had a visit one day and we paid BES £1000 over the phone courtesy of my parents

and then a week later another £1000.

We have continued paying the bills and they did ask for £200 per week on top of our bill

at first we managed this but in fairness we've nearly lost our home down to this i had to bring the payments up to date.

We have never stopped paying the £60 a week on top of our bill.

We have been hounded with up to 10 calls a day on the cafe phone and my mobile, text messages and emails.

I eventually asked the staff to say I wasn't in and in fact for a couple of months I was busy with outside catering to try

and boost our funds so wasn't available

they were called liars they have been given the state of play regarding our bills ( breech of data protection) .

We have a great team working for us and even they became afraid to answer the phone,

their latest tactic is drop calling and many of the calls are directed through a local exchange to try and trick you into answering.

Just when we thought the bill was about clear 3 blokes arrived about 3 weeks ago

and informed us they'd come to switch the electricity off

and they had a warrant from the local magistrates.

We should have been in court on the 5/09/2014,

apparently they sent us a letter informing us of the date and time,

I can honestly say we wouldn't have missed it for the world if we'd known.

Luckily the bailiff was half decent and even he was flabbergasted because disconnection was granted on the grounds

we had not paid anything and they'd had no contact with us.

Luckily the bailiff was willing to look at all the email we had sent and was annoyed

he'd been told that we'd not been paying ( We have bank statements to prove otherwise)

We eventually gave him £600 and agreed to pay the remaining amount which we were lead to believe was about £400

( we have never been given a break down from the court, BES or the bailiff)

we have since paid another £180 and another bill and when I asked yesterday for the balance its back to £1400 est.

The day they came to disconnect G4S had to change the sim on the meter because they couldn't remotely disconnect or get a reading!!!!

For over a year I have asked for recordings of the initial phone calls this has been ignored repeatedly,

we eventually received a recording last weekend and funnily enough its for the second conversation with a little bit of clever editing.

I have asked for the first recording and I was told they don't have it.

The recording I have leaves no doubt that there was a previous phone call so someone has to be able to produce it.

I have kept all emails, text messages etc etc.

Today we received another letter regarding the gas account demanding £1500,

we are refusing to pay this on the grounds our gas bill used to be £80 to £100 per month

and could probably accept up to £150 per month we are currently paying £278 per month with no clue as to how they work this out.

I have compiled a whole dossier on this corrupt company and all the other companies run by Andy Pilley friends and former employees.

this is sadly a far too frequent scenario we see.

there are numerous threads here

about what these despicable reps get up to on the phone to spoof people into signing up with BES

to get the commission & the business

then say tough 5yrs our prices else we'll bleed you dry.

sorry but this company should be ashamed of themselves

you cant wallpaper over every crack on every forum

dx

Here we go again!

The thing that makes me so annoyed is that two weeks ago BES instructed lawyers to threaten users of this site and others with 'deformation', who offered honest and genuine views and opinions of the company.

This quite honestly, is a nasty way to attempt to clean up an already tarnished reputation, and is rather ineffective as any claim is defensible under Honest Opinion, True Comment, Fair Comment and Public Interest which under these circumstances are entirely reasonable - plus people like me who actually took legal advise will tell everyone these letters were issued!

My legal advise was they would "be mad" to attempt to issue proceedings, and if they did with their provable reputation the case would fail and some expert witnesses. Unfortunately, my actual legal advise is rude to share in the internet, but it came from a major QC who is used to litigation cases in the billions!

It would appear BES are getting through their solicitors too. Heatons LLP, Berg, now Harrison Drury. Perhaps the solicitors are starting to realise something is clearly wrong here?

Of course Pilley is nothing but a victim. Victimised by major news corporations, victimised by the BBC, victimised by multiple websites and their hundreds of users , victimised by Ofgem..... Which is clearly why near identical complaints have been made hundreds of times over 5+ websites over 4 years.

Rant out of the way...... Let me look in some detail at your complaint, and I shall get back to you on how I think you can get yourself out of this mess!

Here we go again!

 

The thing that makes me so annoyed is that two weeks ago BES instructed lawyers to threaten users of this site and others with 'deformation', who offered honest and genuine views and opinions of the company.

I am very sorry to have to point out on this forum, Neil, that it was largely because of your undisciplined and unmethodical and unstructured approach and your emotional and wild rants in a previous thread which finally obliged us to submit to pressure from BES solicitors to remove most of your posts.

If you had been rather more directed and focused about the way that you moved your complaint forward on this forum, you would have not suffered this humiliation – and others who have had similar problems with BES might benefited from the ongoing discussion.

You are welcome to make contributions to discussions about BES and their treatment of customers and potential customers on this forum, but if you continue to do it and an intemperate way, you will simply damage the chances of those who who you are claiming to help in getting some kind of redress.

There is no doubt in my mind that BES need some serious attention from regulatory authorities and also from the press. All the people who complain about them for similar reasons across the Internet can't all be wrong. I am aware that BES through their lawyers have been trying to clean up some of this stuff from the Internet.

I think it would be very interesting, Neil, if you would start your own thread and lay out the problems that you have had with this company in a measured way and explain what you have done to achieve solutions and in that way others who have been similarly affected will learn from your examples rather than from your direct contributions on their own threads.

The views that you previously expressed on this forum and which have subsequently been removed as a result of legal pressure may well have been honest and genuine views, but I am well aware of the content of what you posted and the terminology which you used could scarcely have been called factual – and was never supported by evidence.

I do note your position, but I think that is a bit over the top.

While I was harsh on the rep, I did acknowledge their comments, but they were generally poor - so I grilled them to get a definite answer, which they declined to do.

It makes me very sad and angry to see companies operate like this, it is not fair on hard working people.

For example, one person who I've come to know through their experiences; his wife sadly died aged 37 leaving him with 3 young children to look after.... He invested her life insurance into a business, and had to close his business as the electricity bills were coming in 4-5 times higher per month than promised. So he's now lost everything.

I'm sorry, if I gave BES a grilling, and made them feel uncomfortable and the knock on effect to you - but it is within the Public Interest for them to be exposed for what they are. They had every right of reply in the public eye, but chose not to.

Plus, if your company is in a reputational crisis, you don't take those steps to save it.... Logic dictates that you show people that you are a changed business - but it would seem from the recent post about a non-profit organisation, this doesn't seem to be happening.

I can provide supporting evidence to many of my comments... But as you will appreciate, I didn't want genuine victims to suffer more harassment and intimidation.

In any case, innocent members of the public with no connection to the websites didn't deserve to receive these letters.

Controversial energy company Business Energy Solutions is facing a class action from business customers who claim to have been misled into taking on hugely expensive energy contracts.

Solicitor Christopher Newton, of Newtons Solicitors in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, told Financial Mail he had been contacted by several businesses unhappy about their dealings with BES and energy broker Commercial Power, both of which are owned by Andrew Pilley.

Last week, Newton successfully defended a hotel business in court against attempts by BES to disconnect it in a dispute over bills.

 

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1372679/Energy-supplier-Business-Energy-Solutions-faces-class-action-contracts-row.html

Business Energy Solutions Limited - Notice of revocation of electricity supply licence

 

Publication date

20th February 2013

Information type

Decisions

Policy area

Licences, codes and standards

Notice of revocation of licence

 

Whereas

 

A. Business Energy Solutions Limited (company registration number 04408013), having its registered office at Parkside Stand, Fleetwood Town Football Club, Park Avenue, Fleetwood, FY7 6TX, Great Britain, is the holder of an electricity supply licence (the licence) treated as granted under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989 (the Act).

 

B. Section 6(8) of the Act provides that a licence granted or treated as granted under the Act may be revoked in accordance with any term contained in it. The terms of the licence provide that the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (the Authority) may at any time revoke the licence on giving 30 days notice to Business Energy Solutions Limited where it agrees in writing with the Authority that the licence should be revoked.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/business-energy-solutions-limited-notice-revocation-electricity-supply-licence

Two small business energy suppliers have been heavily criticised by the industry watchdog for taking advantage of the inefficiencies of their larger rivals and imposing "savage" time restrictions on their contract transfer policies.

Energywatch has singled out gas provider Business Energy Solutions (BES) and Electricity4Business (E4B) for censure, referring multiple customer complaints against both suppliers to Ofgem, the regulator, for consideration.

Both use contract conditions to insist customers switch to new suppliers within a certain timeframe after contracts expire: in the case of BES this is 24 hours and E4B has a seven-day cut off. Any that have not managed to switch by then are automatically renewed on new long-term contracts with BES and E4B. The problem is that switching takes longer than many small business owners think.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/2792559/Watchdog-criticises-firms-transfer-policies.html

However, a few months after taking over a small grocer's a bitter contract battle with an electricity company left her facing financial ruin and shutting up shop for good.

 

Wendy contacted The Crusader, who helped unravel the complexities of her agreement and why she had responded in the way she did, and then put her case to the Energy Ombudsman.

 

It ruled against her supplier, BES Commercial Electricity Ltd on appeal, leaving the entrepreneur free to seek a deal better suited to her circumstances.

 

THE SOLUTION

 

Wendy's Holly Farm Shop in Cromwell, Nottinghamshire, is in the regulator Ofgem's microbusiness category, which now gives more safeguards for firms that use less than 200,000 kWh of gas or 55,000 of electricity a year, or employ fewer than 10 staff.

 

A factsheet on the website (http://www.ombudsman-services.org) lists the must-dos for firms starting or ending a contract.

http://www.express.co.uk/finance/crusader/433885/Shift-in-balance-of-power-A-Crusader-investigation

It was time for us to move offices here at Dijitul, we had planned to move to the new one they’ve been building next to the bus station as it was new, initiative and awesome – then MDC decided to call it a silly name and were being extremely sketchy about the details – so we looked elsewhere.

 

We found an awesome office just on the outskirts of the town centre, and the second we walked in we had made our minds up

 

After moving all our stuff, and porting the phone line -we started working from here at 8am on the 16th of September. The SECOND we started working we were inundated with phone calls from companies claiming to be in charge or sorting our energy bills out – and despite me having a knack for spotting sales calls – these guys were convincing!

 

His name was Tony Becker and he called from some company claiming to be an appointed energy broker calling to get me on a new tariff for our electricity.

 

He read me some details that you’d assume only someone legit could get, and then asked me to confirm a few more – he then proceeded to list the top 3 companies that could supply me with energy and the prices associated with them.

 

The top company was one called BES energy, and he read me the prices – all seemed fair enough. I agreed to go with them, he read some stuff out at 100 miles an hour and that was that.

 

My suspicions started being triggered when THE NEXT SECOND we had another call, same spiel, different company name… Then a few mins later…. And for the last two weeks time and time again – call after call, under various convincing company names, all saying the saaaaaaaaaaaaaame stuff.

 

Something smelled fishy, and it wasn’t a gas leak.

 

After some digging, and after reading up on the MSE website i realised that i had been done by a salesman and was potentially tied into a contract with a company that could [problem] me out of money for the duration of my contract term.

 

Wounded.

 

So if you move into a new commercial property, and someone calls you from;

 

Central Network Meter Registrations

The Meter Registration Service

BES Energy

Duici Saving Ltd

Tell them to FOXTROT OSCAR and do the following;

http://0lly.uk/2013/09/26/[problem]-bes-energy-central-network-meter-registrations-the-meter-registration-service/

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/bes-commercial-energy-mis-sold-energy-contract-amp-prices-c620887.html

http://www.sourcewire.com/news/70101/the-energy-advice-line-calls-for-watchdog-to-help-businesses#.VEwWDfnF98E

http://www.justanswer.com/uk-law/7bcrs-duped-making-recorded-verbal-agreement.html

this is sadly a far too frequent scenario we see.

 

 

there are numerous threads here

about what these despicable reps get up to on the phone to spoof people into signing up with BES

to get the commission & the business

then say tough 5yrs our prices else we'll bleed you dry.

 

sorry but this company should be ashamed of themselves

 

you cant wallpaper over every crack on every forum

 

 

dx

dx100uk

I have an email from a Damien Traynor and he states

"I have no contact details for brokers which I imagine Commercial Energy is and if your requesting recordings you will need to do this with the customer service team at BES.

I’m pretty certain the only recordings they will hold is the contract recordings, there is no legislation that brokers or suppliers need to keep point of sale recordings to my knowledge. ( I have the original email from Mr Traynor to back this up) sorry if I am breaching any rules on here.

Damien Traynor also stated he didn't work for BES as did Darren Mccandless. They may not work for BES but they both know Andy Pilley very well and Lee Qualter who is the director of the Broker known to me as Commercial energy. Darren Mcandless one of the pre disconnection agents even holidays with Mr Pilley. I have a photo with Darren Mccandless, Andy Pilley, Darren Martindale and Lee Qualter all standing together. There are also photos on the internet of Damien Traynor with the odd one here and there. This is an extremely close knit group so no wonder they are hard to penetrate.

Our case was also passed to a CDS a company started last year that is registered to the same address in London as many of the other companies mentioned in previous threads.

I have kept every email and text message I would suggest to anyone who is having problems with this company to do the same.

that could be the best move you ever made.

Hi Brainless,

Do you use less than 100,000KWH hours per year? It may be interesting to read Ofgem's Electricity Supply Standard Licence Conditions, which suppliers are required to adhere to in order to retain their license.

Section 7B.4 The Standards of Conduct are that:

(a) the licensee behaves and carries out any actions in a Fair, honest, transparent,appropriate and professional manner;

 

(b) the licensee provides information (whether in Writing or orally) to each MicroBusiness Consumer which:

(i) is complete, accurate and not misleading (in terms of the information provided or omitted);

(ii) is communicated (and, if provided in Writing, drafted) in plain and intelligible language;

(iii) relates to products or services which are appropriate to the Micro Business Consumer to whom it is directed; and

(iv) 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);

 

© the licensee:

(i) makes it easy for a Micro Business Consumer to contact the licensee,

(ii) acts promptly to put things right when the licensee makes a mistake, and

(iii) otherwise ensures that customer service arrangements and processes are fit for purpose and transparent.

 

7B.5 The licensee must take all reasonable steps to achieve the Standards of Conduct and ensure that it interprets and applies the Standards of Conduct in a manner consistent with the Customer Objective.

 

While the companies in question may not have the recordings, if this becomes a criminal matter, the CPS will very easily be able to get those recordings from the telecom company.

I think it fair comment to suggest something sounds fishy in the way the Warrant was obtained. Do you have a copy?

BES Customers Gas and Electricity

 

I will try and be as brief as possible with my long winded case.

 

In March of 2013 we purchased a cafe and on takeover decided to stay with the then suppliers "Utility Warehouse".

 

 

Within 5 days of taking over

I took a call from someone who said they were reviewing our gas and electricity prices,

I asked if he was from utility warehouse and he replied yes

I thought no more of it and duly answered all his questions and stupidly gave all our details ( he knew the previous owners details ).

 

After a run down of costs and not being aware that the deal I already had was better

somehow I agreed to a new contract and I thought it was with Utility warehouse.

 

About 3 or 4 days later Barry from Commercial Energy called me again and said we needed to go over a few things, I duly obliged

at the end of the call I thought hey I've been duped,

 

 

I called BES once I'd received an email from them and they explained what I had agreed to.

I asked who the agent was and I was told they didn't know.

I called again a few days later after a call from Utility warehouse and the young man

I spoke to gave me the details but told me he wasn't meant to and I would have trouble getting the contract scrubbed.

 

 

My husband I were very stressed with the start of a new venture but did try to get out of it to no avail.

It was a case of hey ho we will just have to get on with it.

 

When I received the first bill I realised we were tied into a contract until 2017 once again I called them .

 

 

I was told tough.

The bills started coming in and were considerably higher than the previous owners

which was strange as we had changed all of the major cooking equipment to gas

so no high usage electric griddle etc.

 

 

I called BES and queried this and they said there could be a fault on the meter

and we would have to pay to have it checked.

 

 

We were not in a position financially to pay anyone to do anything so we just let things continue.

 

 

By July of 2014 we were getting bills of over £500 per month

I cancelled the direct debit because it would have bounced

and thought I will pay the bills as and when they come in

( huge mistake the extra costs have just about seen us skint) .

 

 

In October of last year I started paying them £60.00 a week by standing order as this is roughly what the bills should be.

We have ended up paying thousands and eventually put the electricity back on direct debit to try and save ourselves money.

 

It was in Feb the bill went back onto direct debit and we continued to pay the £60 per week to try and clear the debt.

We also had a smart meter installed ( which never sent a reading until 3 weeks ago)

 

 

On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate

but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days,

I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter

and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it.

 

We became so obsessed with the usage

we took readings every hour we were open

and I emailed them the info.

 

 

We are open 7 days a week but keep the same opening hours and on monitoring the usage is usually mirrored from week to week.

 

I had a visit one day and we paid BES £1000 over the phone courtesy of my parents

and then a week later another £1000.

 

 

We have continued paying the bills and they did ask for £200 per week on top of our bill

at first we managed this but in fairness we've nearly lost our home down to this i had to bring the payments up to date.

We have never stopped paying the £60 a week on top of our bill.

 

We have been hounded with up to 10 calls a day on the cafe phone and my mobile, text messages and emails.

I eventually asked the staff to say I wasn't in and in fact for a couple of months I was busy with outside catering to try

and boost our funds so wasn't available

 

 

they were called liars they have been given the state of play regarding our bills ( breech of data protection) .

 

 

We have a great team working for us and even they became afraid to answer the phone,

their latest tactic is drop calling and many of the calls are directed through a local exchange to try and trick you into answering.

 

Just when we thought the bill was about clear 3 blokes arrived about 3 weeks ago

and informed us they'd come to switch the electricity off

and they had a warrant from the local magistrates.

 

 

We should have been in court on the 5/09/2014,

apparently they sent us a letter informing us of the date and time,

I can honestly say we wouldn't have missed it for the world if we'd known.

 

Luckily the bailiff was half decent and even he was flabbergasted because disconnection was granted on the grounds

we had not paid anything and they'd had no contact with us.

 

 

Luckily the bailiff was willing to look at all the email we had sent and was annoyed

he'd been told that we'd not been paying ( We have bank statements to prove otherwise)

 

We eventually gave him £600 and agreed to pay the remaining amount which we were lead to believe was about £400

( we have never been given a break down from the court, BES or the bailiff)

we have since paid another £180 and another bill and when I asked yesterday for the balance its back to £1400 est.

 

The day they came to disconnect G4S had to change the sim on the meter because they couldn't remotely disconnect or get a reading!!!!

 

For over a year I have asked for recordings of the initial phone calls this has been ignored repeatedly,

we eventually received a recording last weekend and funnily enough its for the second conversation with a little bit of clever editing.

 

 

I have asked for the first recording and I was told they don't have it.

 

The recording I have leaves no doubt that there was a previous phone call so someone has to be able to produce it.

I have kept all emails, text messages etc etc.

 

Today we received another letter regarding the gas account demanding £1500,

we are refusing to pay this on the grounds our gas bill used to be £80 to £100 per month

and could probably accept up to £150 per month we are currently paying £278 per month with no clue as to how they work this out.

 

I have compiled a whole dossier on this corrupt company and all the other companies run by Andy Pilley friends and former employees.

Hi,

We're sorry to hear you have a complaint about your BES account - We'd like to look into this if you could please send your details to [email protected]. Unfortunately we can't locate your account based on your profile details, so please get in touch so we can investigate this for you ASAP.

Thank you.

dx100uk

 

I have an email from a Damien Traynor and he states

 

"I have no contact details for brokers which I imagine Commercial Energy is and if your requesting recordings you will need to do this with the customer service team at BES.

 

I’m pretty certain the only recordings they will hold is the contract recordings, there is no legislation that brokers or suppliers need to keep point of sale recordings to my knowledge. ( I have the original email from Mr Traynor to back this up) sorry if I am breaching any rules on here.

 

Damien Traynor also stated he didn't work for BES as did Darren Mccandless. They may not work for BES but they both know Andy Pilley very well and Lee Qualter who is the director of the Broker known to me as Commercial energy. Darren Mcandless one of the pre disconnection agents even holidays with Mr Pilley. I have a photo with Darren Mccandless, Andy Pilley, Darren Martindale and Lee Qualter all standing together. There are also photos on the internet of Damien Traynor with the odd one here and there. This is an extremely close knit group so no wonder they are hard to penetrate.

Our case was also passed to a CDS a company started last year that is registered to the same address in London as many of the other companies mentioned in previous threads.

I have kept every email and text message I would suggest to anyone who is having problems with this company to do the same.

The BES Customer Services Team monitors online forums to try to resolve customer queries and complaints, however I wanted to reply personally to this thread to dispel any potential misunderstanding about my relationships with the people named in your post. It’s no secret, nor should it be, that I and my family remain friends with people I have known and worked with for many years. It’s also no secret that I’ve been prepared to offer support and guidance to friends who have, after working with me, taken the brave decision to open their own companies working within the energy industry. This information is all available in the public domain, including on the official websites of the companies concerned.

BES Utilities takes the issue of treating customers fairly, as well as corporate and social responsibility, very seriously. You can find more information about this on our website, www.besutilities.co.uk. We’re here to help customers who have a query or complaint about the service they’ve received from BES and you can send any concerns to our dedicated team at: [email protected]. As you can appreciate, it’s difficult for us to assist customers if they post online but don’t talk to us directly, as we need to verify account details, etc.

Regards,

Andy Pilley – Managing Director, BES Utilities

Post #4 has some shocking links, lets hope that the BES rep can help the OP.

Mr Pilley I think that you offer support to your friends is commendable and

I say that with all sincerity, what I find difficult to stomach is

for over 15 months I have been trying to obtain the contact details of the broker who's agent touted our business

and your representatives have denied me this information.

It has taken me hours of trawling the internet to discover that they do indeed know the broker.

You can argue that my personal conversation with Darren Mccandless is hearsay

but the vagueness of the email received from Damien Traynor is indeed deceptive.

Thank you for your reply its a shame it takes a forum to get a response.

Thanks for responding to my post I will have a look at your forum later on.

Gosh you must have had lots of businesses in court on the 5th of September if you are unable to locate our details.

I have today looked at our paperwork at there are some time inaccuracies in my above post .

"On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate

but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days,

I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter

and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it. "

The above statement is slightly innacurate as this dispute relates to our April bill not the February bill as stated

and it was 9 days at the higher off direct debit rate .

Thanks for responding to my post I will have a look at your forum later on. Gosh you must have had lots of businesses in court on the 5th of September if you are unable to locate our details. I have today looked at our paperwork at there are some time inaccuracies in my above post .

 

"On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate

but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days,

I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter

and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it. "

 

The above statement is slightly innacurate as this dispute relates to our April bill not the February bill as stated and it was 9 days at the higher off direct debit rate .

Thanks for this but we need your details so we can look into this for you. Please would you get in touch via our email box: [email protected] and someone will be in touch ASAP.

Thanks for responding to my post I will have a look at your forum later on. Gosh you must have had lots of businesses in court on the 5th of September if you are unable to locate our details. I have today looked at our paperwork at there are some time inaccuracies in my above post .

 

"On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate

but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days,

I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter

and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it. "

 

The above statement is slightly innacurate as this dispute relates to our April bill not the February bill as stated and it was 9 days at the higher off direct debit rate .

Hi,

Thank you for getting in touch with us - My colleagues have confirmed they have received your email and are looking into the concerns raised.

We hope this can be resolved for you as soon as possible.

Thank you, its a shame it has taken so long and a forum before anyone actually wants to listen.

I notice today that Ofgem are investigating BES.

I am unable to copy and paste the link to my post as I haven't posted 10 or greater. But for all of you who are interested visit the Ofgem home page and search under investigations.

I contacted the BES legal team earlier in the week and you can see on posts from BES that they tried to direct me to their forum. I have repeatedly asked for information that is relevant to our case, alas its very slow process!!

I notice today that Ofgem are investigating BES.

I am unable to copy and paste the link to my post as I haven't posted 10 or greater. But for all of you who are interested visit the Ofgem home page and search under investigations.

 

I contacted the BES legal team earlier in the week and you can see on posts from BES that they tried to direct me to their forum. I have repeatedly asked for information that is relevant to our case, alas its very slow process!!

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

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

Thank you for this.

Maybe in the meantime you could knock off threatening people and businesses who post their complaints on various sites around the internet.

I think that rather than continuing your "clean-up" of BES references around the internet, you should now hold-off until the result of the present investigation into your business and the way that it operates.

If BES is exonerated then you will have a good basis for asking the removal of people's comments. At the moment, what you are doing invites criticism and suspicion. Not very pretty and not very clever.

You might be better off hire public relations experts rather than lawyers.

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

How can you take this so lightly, the BIG 6 as you call them are being investigated for different matters. One way to strengthen for your future growth would be to communicate clearly and fairly and maybe answer questions that are asked from the outset.

The BES Customer Services Team monitors online forums to try to resolve customer queries and complaints, however I wanted to reply personally to this thread to dispel any potential misunderstanding about my relationships with the people named in your post. It’s no secret, nor should it be, that I and my family remain friends with people I have known and worked with for many years. It’s also no secret that I’ve been prepared to offer support and guidance to friends who have, after working with me, taken the brave decision to open their own companies working within the energy industry. This information is all available in the public domain, including on the official websites of the companies concerned.

 

BES Utilities takes the issue of treating customers fairly, as well as corporate and social responsibility, very seriously. You can find more information about this on our website, www.besutilities.co.uk. We’re here to help customers who have a query or complaint about the service they’ve received from BES and you can send any concerns to our dedicated team at: [email protected]. As you can appreciate, it’s difficult for us to assist customers if they post online but don’t talk to us directly, as we need to verify account details, etc.

 

Regards,

Andy Pilley – Managing Director, BES Utilities

I know this thread is over a year old but would the BES rep or Andy Pilley like to comment on the above statement

bearing in mind that it was BES giving the scripts to its brokers and trying to avoid its responsibilities.

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-and-consumer-complaints-handling-standards-regulations-chsr-2008

You knew what the company was doing and have admitted as much to Ofgem

so I must ask, were you lying to us, misinformed or just too bloody minded to see that what you were doing was unlawful at best.