Ofgem Investigation into BES and its compliance with its obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences (Standard Licence Conditions 7A, 7B, 7, 14 and 21B) Publication Date: 30th October 2014 Company being Investigated: BES Commercial Electricity Ltd (electricity supplier) and Business Energy Solutions Ltd (gas supplier) Ofgem are investigating whether BES (encompassing both licensees) is complying with the requirements of conditions 7A, 7B, 7, 14 and 21B of their gas and electricity supply licences. We are aware of a high level of complaints made about BES and have also received a referral from Citizens Advice. For more link is here: 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

All my devices drop connection one of my laptops is a lot worse than others. I did sys restore (refresh) but no effect , i've ran scans to clean up any nasties - but still same prob. The prob was there from day 1 - and i thought it was just an initial prob that would go away. It is under warranty and tech support lazily say i should do a format -yeah thanks mate just trash my system - very helpful:-x. didn't tell them it was there from Day 1 as they will use excuse "you should have told us earlier blah blah , now you made prob worse blah blah " So is it an ISP prob(VMedia) or the laptop? it is the only device i have running win8 Anything else i should /can do ? What i don't like is that tech support seems to be only doing the very basic ABC123 - and nothing else -it is obvious they do not want to come out to field repair

hi all, quick question, I got a letter asking me to attend said interview, from what I gathered over the phone its about when I was on jca and doing a part time college course (I think I didn't put my student loan down as income) this was almost 2 years ago and im not stressing about it. Anyway my question - I attend the interview (at my local council building as it was a Saturday) but the place was locked, no lights on 9i took photos) and nobody there so what should I do? as I don't want to get punished for non attendance cheers guys

It's generally accepted that a CCA doesn't have to be provided when creditors provide information under a SAR, but I've never quite got why that is. A friend recently sent a SAR to Barclaycard, who sent plenty of information up to exactly 10 years old. The one thing that they provided which was older was a copy of a signed application for a card. My friend had other cards with BC too but there were no CCAs or applications for them. Are we right to accept that a CCA doesn't have to be provided in response to a SAR, or are we being hoodwinked?

I've been receiving letters from Lowell Portfolio, all addressed to my married name, for about three years. They relate to a credit card that I stopped paying in February 2009 when I moved and couldn't get the address changed because I couldn't provide ID in that name (I reverted to my maiden name in about 2002 after I separated from my husband but couldn't get the name changed on this account). They claim to have taken over the account and, although I didn't receive any letter to this effect from the credit card company or a default notice, these would probably have been sent to my previous address anyway. I ignored the letters but they keep coming. Every time I move house they stop for a while and then start up again. My concern now is that the last letter I had is over a month ago which is an unusually long time (although I have continued to receive their recorded phone calls every couple of weeks). The letter stated that they were considering applying for a CCJ and I am worried that they will go ahead with it. Are they likely to do that? Can they apply for a CCJ for a person that no longer exists or would they have to contact me under my current name first? They have presumably been tracing me under my current name as I haven't had any accounts in my married name since that one. There are no accounts in my married name registered at any of the addresses they have contacted me at. Should I challenge the debt and thereby acknowledge being the same person or continue to ignore it? I really don't know what to do for the best. Thanks.

I was interested to read on the Parking Pranksters website that POPLA has decided that addresses outside England and Wales are acceptable as serviceable under the Protection of Freedoms act. I fear this may upset the BPA and the PPC's who have always stated that serviceable addresses for the vehicle driver must be in the area covered by POFA. One wonders if a new can of worms has just exploded as I do recall posting some time ago during the introduction of POFA mentioning the number of people who travel from Outer Mongolia borrow a car and shop at Lidl's.

Hello there My minibus developed a fault during the summer of last year where initially the engine light would come on and at the same time it would cut out once the fuel level got down to around half way. The fault then developed into the bus going into limp mode nearly all the time. Took it to my local garage, which is a Bosch Injection Specialist, which is the bus's injection system, and they diagnosed the Diesel High Pressure Fuel Pump, which they replaced and £600 later cured the limp mode problem. It didn't however cure the cutting out at half a tank problem. The bus went back and they said there was dirt in the system, which they cleaned and charged about £120 to do. For around a month it cured the problem. Unfortunately it started cutting out again. I called them and they said that if it needed further cleaning it would be chargeable, and not covered under warranty. Now, unless I'm being totally naive, when a HP Fuel Pump is changed, shouldn't the fuel system be cleaned as a matter of course? Even if that is not the case, shouldn't the bus be sorted under warranty as the cleaning undertaken wasn't sufficient and therefore wasn't done properly? I wrote to them, special delivery: Dear Garage My business partner, xxxxx, was in touch again recently as our bus is back in and out of limp mode again. This was the original fault, which you will remember was initially deemed to be the HP Fuel Pump, which you replaced in October 2013. This corrected the fault of the bus running nearly consistently in 'limp home mode', but did not correct the other part of the original fault of the bus pulling the same fault code and cutting the engine once it got to around half a tank. The bus was returned in early December to rectify this and I believe some dirt was found in the fuel system (??) which was cleaned and initially seemed to rectify the problems. This, unfortunately, did not last long and within a matter of a few weeks, the bus was cutting out again. When xxxxxx called, he was apparently advised that if the fuel system needed further cleaning there would be additional charges. I have to say that I don't believe this should be the case. We paid £660 for the first repair, and circa £150 for the second (I don't have the invoice to hand, so please correct me on this!), yet the second repair probably should have been covered by the first job's warranty as the original fault was never rectified. To pay to have the bus back in a third time, with the same fault, really isn't on. I don't doubt your honesty and integrity and know you have always worked hard to get to the bottom of the problem. I look forward to your response on this matter and trust it will receive your urgent attention. Kind Regards Their response emailed to me: Further to recent receipt of you letter dated 28th April. Firstly please accept our apologies for the delay in responding and we are sorry to hear that you are having problems with your vehicle. After careful appraisal of the works that we have carried out to your vehicle XX54 XXX, we respectfully respond as follows. We are happy to reschedule an appointment to access the fault with your vehicle - Your colleague had previously scheduled an appointment for the week commencing Monday 17th February, unfortunately that time has now passed. Work carried out on 11/10/13 replacing the HP fuel pump was necessary after careful diagnostics, testing and a successful repair. Unfortunately repairs carried out on 13/12/2013 were due to contamination/ dirt particles in fuel tank hindering operation of fuel pick up flap causing symptoms experienced and not a problem with the fitted HP pump (i.e not covered under warranty). We pride ourselves in working in a fair and honest manner. We standby our terms and conditions and warranty offered covering our repairs (as indicated on our invoice), however our warranty does not extend to additional parts/diagnostic/repairs that may be required, even if the symptoms experienced may be similar. It is right and proper to clarify our position prior to starting work on your vehicle and that additional charges may apply as works may not be covered by our warranty (as discussed with xxxxx) Fuel contamination/dirt particles in fuel system/tank are not covered under our warranty. (we obviously have no control on this and therefore it would be unreasonable to expect us to give a warranty on this) I hope this helps to clarify our position , Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us. Kind Regards Can anyone advise whether we have a leg to stand on? Many Thanks

Hey guys, I'm really frustrated with this long dispute I've had with my electricity supplier and would really really appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance for any help! For some background, the property was purchased about a year and a few months ago, and the electricity company were contacted first 2-3 months after purchase. Electricity was being used during that time, but minimally, although I would say it would be fair to charge that time under a deemed contract. At the time, I was not aware of the existence of deemed contracts and perhaps was naive in assuming that I would be charged at a normal rate. When I spoke to them, I specifically asked for terms of the contract, unit prices, monthly statements, and for the contract to be changed from whatever was being charged at business rates (the former owners ran the property as a business) to a new, domestic, contract. I contacted them many times with the same requests to no avail. They finally phoned me over a year after purchase with a massive bill, charging me with a large standing charge (79p a day), which I was extremely unhappy with, especially as the property has been empty most of the time and electricity has been used very minimally. In summary: 1) Despite contacting them several occasions since purchase to request terms and conditions of our contract as well as a bill, this was never provided, nor was there any communication regarding the cost of electricity at all (again this was also specifically requested). 2) The business tariff proposed has a high standing charge. We expressly informed them that we did not wish to carry on with any business rates that the prior occupiers of the house were using (they were business owners, and the house is now domestic). Additionally, had we been informed of there being any standing charge (as we should have been from our requests for pricing information) we certainly would have either changed tariff or supplier as not much electricity is used at the property. The company, I believe was very wrong in not sending me this information or bills. 3) As yet I have still not received a statement with the amount of electricity that was used as was repeatedly requested over the last year. They have now replied to me claiming that a number of bills were sent to the property (blatantly a lie, no such bills were received, on top of this when I spoke to them before this on the phone after repeated questioning the man told me "A (single) letter was sent 9 months after the property was purchased" (This I also believe to be untrue). They have also agreed to potentially change it to domestic rates, but there is still a very high standing charge as it is still a deemed contract. If they had been open about this and sent me information regarding this when I requested it this problem would not have happened as I would have immediately changed supplier. Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do from here? I am planning to take this to the ombudsman. Thanks again, this is really stressing me out and I cannot afford the charges they are proposing, especially with so little electricity used!

Hi guys, Wanted some advice on a major issue I've had with my Focus RS MK2 whereby it overheated recently due to a broken water pump (confirmed by the Ford dealership) after inspecting the engine, they have advised that the cylinder heads and engine block are warped which is more than likely going to require a new engine/rebuild. The car is currently under warranty but I have a nasty feeling that Ford will push back and say this was due to driver neglegence even though I pulled over within 50 metres of seeing the warning light. A bit of background history on this car, since buying it back in August I've had numerous problems with the car, a week after buying it I encountered a grinding noise coming from the bottom of the car, after taking it back to the dealership they found a buckled alloy wheel and a bent driveshaft. The car had a full M.O.T before I picked it up so surely this classes as not road worthy and should have never been sold to me in that state? Both of those parts were replaced but the grinding noise still continues to this day, they've even replaced the brake discs and pads, but are still unable to locate the problem. I've asked for a refund a few times, but the dealership have always pushed back saying they need a chance to rectify the problem, their latest stance on the grinding noise was that they could not locate the source of the problem so were unlikely to be able to fix it, they even tried telling me that high performance cars can be make different noises to normal cars, trust me this is not a normal noise and is not a result of the ride being different. The reason I've outlined the above is because I think that they will refuse to replace the engine, leaving me with a nasty bill and still finance to pay on the car, if it gets to that point, do you think I have a case regarding the previous issues and the fact it was sold to me in a non road worthy state? Cheers for any advice. Not a happy bunny at the moment

Hi there I am trying to find out the insurance under writers for Barclaycard in the 1980's and 1990's. I think it was a company called Consolidated Financial Insurance Group Ltd but I have been unable to find out anything else about them such as who the parent company was? Does anybody have an idea or could you direct me to a register of under writers for the various financial institutions? Barclaycard are being very unhelpful in supplying information about my PPI policy and this is a possible further avenue for investigation. Many Thanks.

Hi I was on a short while ago about a PCN picked up in Whitby and 'enforced' by CEL. The last letter said it was being passed from DR+ back to CEL with advice to commence court proceedings. Just had letter today on CEL headed saying part of debt has been assigned to Debt Enforcement and Action Limited in Baker Street, London (£113.75). CEL "will no longer be involved in this part of the debt and payments must be made to DEAL" (?) "The balance of £16.25 has been retained by CEL as part of ongoing agreement relating to monies that may fall due to The Co-operative and we reserve our rights accordingly." Is this legal speak or complete crap? Do I need to be bothered? I am thinking not, but wanted to check with those who know more. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Hi all, I'm after some advise to a problem that I'm dealing with. In Nov 2013 I bought a car from Citroen Garage (13 plate). When the sales person came over to talk and asked if I needed any help so as any normal people would, I said yes and would like to know more about this DS4 that I was looking at. He took me through all the good details as all sales persons do, then asked me what car I'm trading in. I had a 2011 Ford Cmax Titanium which was an good car and had all the luxuries that any person would need. I told him that one thing that I definately needed was a DAB Radio. I know to many out there it's not such a big thing to have but I travel a lot up to Scotland (up to the isles) and frequently up to North Wales and traveling through mountain areas you get no radio signal and that's where the DAB comes in. He informed me that it was a DAB so I was happy to hear that. My Cmax had hands free and other gadgets that the DS4 didn't but I was not that much fussed on it as I never used the hands free for the whole time I had it. Now after all that waffle my main concern is this.................. It has no DAB. I went back to the garage and spoke to the sales person and his manager and they said that it's his word against mine. He said that he looked at the list of details that the car comes with and he said that it doesn't say that there's DAB on it, but how many customers out there buy a car from a garage with the sales person having a clip board with all the car details on there?? I mentioned that selling a car (or any product to that matter) under False Pretence not only is wrong but is illegal. When I mentioned this his manager said that he will need to speak to his higher manager and will get back to me. I'm now back in Afghaistan and had to leave all this for my wife to deal with. The best option they came up with was for us to buy a BRAND NEW CAR that will have a DAB in it!!! I don't want a new car. Because it's now my wife dealing with this matter they're not helpfull at all and are just fobbing her off. Can I take this matter to Trading Standers Agency for False Pretence? I don't want this car anymore now and would be happy to take my old car back. Which they still have on their forecourt. Any advise will be extramely greatfull. Aide

Hi Any advice please. We recently looked to remortgage our house to get a better rate. We paid £300 for a survey. We had two options depending on how high the house was valued. The average price of houses sold on our street in the last 6 months is £170 k. If our house was valued at £165k we would get the best mortgage rate, if it came in as low as £155k we would get a slightly worse rate but still a better rate than our current one. Based on current sales on our street and the fact that, among other things, we have the largest plot on the whole street we felt this was a safe option and we paid the £300 survey fee. The surveyor valued the house at £143!!!!!! This meant we were left with no mortgage and were £300 worse off. We went back with a list of houses to prove what they are going for but they have sill not budged. The majority of comments the surveyor has given to back up his valuation are mainly personal opinion. eg preferable decor in other properties, approach to the drive is on an angle. He even turned our huge garden in to a negative by saying next doors was small and neat!! He also said that we needed to get a wooden floor specialist in because there was a small nick in the floor in the kitchen.....our kitchen floor is LAMINATE!! Can anyone offer any help or suggestions?? I have now gone to the financial ombudsman and they have taken the complaint on. The mortgage company now have 8 weeks to reply. I have since had my house valued by 2 estate agents and it has been valued at £165k and £160k. I know surveyors generally value less than an estate agent but £143 is a joke. Please help.... Thanks Vicki:-(

I'm looking for some advice if possible, 8 days ago I received a letter from Leeds City Council with an Attachment of Earnings order against my name for the value of £220 (remainder of this years council tax) the problem is as follows: 1) I'm a single person so I claim the discount, I was told the amount due is £68, for the last 4 months at least (looking at statements) the council have received £70 from me a month. 2) I have written in 2 complaints, 1 8 days ago to the council tax recovery email and 1 4 days ago, as well as going on the online chat to the main council tax email address. Both of which have been ignored. Now it's almost xmas, which means I'm going to be looking at nearly 6 weeks gap between pay dates so I could really due WITHOUT this taken from my next wage. Can anybody give me practical advise as to what to do now? I'm going to try and ring them tomorrow but I fear they will just fob me off as usual.

Not sure whether this the right board (perhaps someone will redirect if not) I've been making payments in accordance with the terms of a court order and the debt will be cleared in 13 years. The (new) DCA says my arrangement is due for review and wants me to complete income and expenditure together with an outline of my circumstances and where I expect to be in 12 months! Should I do this? I thought once a court order had been set only the court could vary it and then only if one side made a suitable application. I recall the CCCS telling me that as an unsecured debt the DCA wasn't entitled to such info as they are now requesting. Is that correct? What should I do? Thanks

Greeting to everyone... I am currently looking for some advice regarding an upcoming interview under caution which my girlfriend has. She thinks he has overpaid in HB, she made a stupid mistake and she wants to come clean and admit everything she did and start paying back the money which she owes. However she has been advised not to communicate with the council by his solicitor. Will she be likely be arrested straight away for admitting her offences? and if so..how can stop end HB payments and rearrange to repay the overpayments? Thanks in advance.

hiya. i have received a letter from the council saying i need to attend an interview under caution but it does not identify what it is for. i put a claim in for housing benefit in april about a previous address and didn't here anything about it for months. i moved out of that house in july back to my parents house which i informed them about. but now i have moved into a different house and put a new claim in they have sent me this letter for both this address and my previous one. hope this makes sense and i hope someone can help me. thanks in advance Christie

Looking for some advice I recieved a letter today inviting me to an interview under caution, stating that while i was in reciept of housing/council tax benefit they believe i had undeclared income. At first i couldnt think what this was because i have started at university this year and have declared this and my benefits have been adjusted accordingly. However I attended college last year and into this year, it was a stressful time for me as i had alot going on in my personal life also. I did not declare to council that i had this change in circumstance and was in reciept of a bursary however i did not think i had to do this as i had heard from a few college friends i only had to do this for advanced level courses such as degrees. Now after sitting on the internet all day on google i have got myself in such a panic, what if i have commited benefit fraud unknowingly. I have a two year old child and feel like my career may be at risk now. Any advice welcomed.

Can any cagger help me please? I have not been employed since July 2012 and received ESA of £71.00 per week from July 2012 until November 2012 and it went up to £100.00 per week but in July this year it stopped completely. No more money for ESA. I also received from July 2012 a small pension of £157.00 per month no more. I used to work for a company that sacked me in July 2012 for being sick and I paid my PAYE through them in my wages. I have now been hit with a TAX demand for Underpaid Tax of £975.00. I do not earn any money and do not work and I only receive a pension of £157.00 a month. The Tax man claims I earnt £10,021 between April 2012 and April 2013. I paid TAX when I received my last wage packet every penny of it and have always paid TAX with my previous company. My problem is I am scared because I have no money other than my pension so something has gone wrong but not with me as I genuinely believed my previous company paid enough TAX for me. Please help me someone before I slit my wrists with worry as I cannot pay anything as I have nothing and receive no benefits because my ESA stopped in July this year because it was contribution based.

Hi, I have no idea what section this would come under. I'm really hoping someone can give me some advice with this. My husband and myself are registered with a private dentist - that also sees our children (both under 16 and in full time education) On our last check up the dentist said my daughter needed specialist treatment and there were absesses forming along the top of her front teeth and she needed to see a endodontist (? think that's the name he said). He said this work was not carried out by NHS and the only way we could have it was private - and pay! We were presented with a written £400 bill. This was increased to £500 on the first appointment I have since looked up the treatment he said she needed and it is basic root canal work- which is done routinely on the NHS. My question is should he have referred us to the NHS dentist for this work to be carried out due to her age? Any help or advice on this would be really welcome

Ok so brought a car exactly 3 months from garage, its a used car and i paid about the market value (certainly no lower) During the 1st 4 weeks i was noticing i was putting about a litre of oil in every week and the heat shield fell off (minor but still) and the air con and blower packed up completely. It was not leaking oil it was burning it. Contacted the garage who agreed to take it back and 'have a look' they did and 'fixed' the car. fast forward to now and the car is suddenly using a litre of oil a week again, basically i think they temporarily hid/fixed the problem rather than a proper fix, I think its burning so much because of the piston rings and all they did was clean the breather pipes out. So i got it, it went wrong, they had it back, fixed it (apparently) and now again its broken again. As said ive had for exactly 3 months, can i still reject under SOGA

Last year was not good for me; I was suffering from depression and had a serious alcohol problem. This made it hard for me to hold down a job for more than a week or two at a time. I was living in London and made a claim for JSA and housing benefit. I was granted both. But I missed signing on a few times and the jsa stopped but the housing benefit continued to be paid into my account. Having never claimed before I wasn't sure on how the two were connected or that it was my responsibility to notify the local council of my change in circumstances. I finally ran out of money and moved back up to Scotland to stay with my family, I left my belongings in the flat but someone else started paying rent for my room, a friend of the people I was living with, despite the fact he didn't move in to the flat until Feb this year. Between the end of Sept, when I moved back to Scotland, and now, I lived in a number of places including a hostel, friends' couches, as a lodger, as a sub-letter and am only now getting back on my feet. I stopped receiving the housing benefit at the start of Feb this year and a month or two later received a letter at my family home in Scotland asking me to attend an 'interview under caution' - due to the fact I was no longer living in the area and work commitments I was unable to make it to the first appointment and subsequently failed to agree upon a date that would be suitable. Meanwhile, I had given them an address in London that they could send my mail to and I received another letter from the local council stating the exact amount that I had been overpaid and I called the overpayments team and agreed to set up a direct debit to start paying it back - the total was around £1,800. I thought that starting the direct debit would be enough to settle the matter. However, last week I was contacted again about having to go in to the council office for an 'interview under caution'. I'm currently back in Scotland. What I'm basically asking for advice on is what my options are: do I need to go? What will happen if I don't? And have I already made an admittance of committing fraud by starting the direct debit? I just want to avoid court or getting into legal trouble. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Right I'm being quite paranoid here and its mostly my own fault for being absent minded. Basically moved into flat in 2011 and partner moved in shortly aftwards getting her mail. I never changed from getting the singler person 25% discount but obvioulsy all her post etc comes here. I've had a letter about them doing a review so I rang them up and said they have amended it for this year but in a panic on the phone when he asked how long she'd been here I said just a few months. I'm now paranoid about an IUA and want to ring them up and say I got my dates wrong and pay the 2012 part and then continue paying the extra for this year - but I'm worried about that causing alarm vs saying nothing! I've got some legal advice who said not to worry too much and written the following At this stage, I probably would not be worried. You volunteered the information and therefore they are unlikely to pursue any criminal issue with regard to the previous wound payment unless what prompted you to bring this to their retention was something that they had done. If you are still concerned, simply ring them up and tell them when your partner moved in and tell them you want to pay back the discount, in proportion, for that period. They will send you an amended bill. It really is as simple as that. They will send you an amended bill and you will pay it. I think you probably have more chance of winning the lottery than being prosecuted for defrauding Council tax based upon what you have told me! I'm tempted to write them a letter and expalin ! any thoughts ???

Hi, A decade ago my friend was trying to buy a flat but couldn't get a mortgage on her own. I offered to be the other name on a joint mortgage so that she could buy it. We got a joint mortgage. She put up the entire deposit for the flat, paid for everything when it was being done up etc. We lived there together at first but soon she moved elsewhere and rented it to me and other tenants. I claimed several years of housing and council tax benefit as a tenant and not as an owner when earning almost nothing at all. Our agreement had been that, as I was putting in no money, etc, I would not be a part owner. I have received an Interview Under Caution letter as the council "have information that suggests I may have been part owner of the property which was not declared when claiming the Housing/council tax benefit." What should I do? Will my name on the mortgage mean that I'm f**ked even though neither of us view it as my property? Help. I'm very frightened.

I received a letter confirming that i have to attend the interview and advising that interview will be take place under caution (which I don't know what it means) also letter stated that ` we have arranged this interview because we believe there are grounds for suspecting that a criminal offence may have been committed ` The issue started back in July 2012 where some one claimed Social Funds using my name and details. Since then I have been in contact and I have provided them with all identification to proof that its not me. They sent me copy of the applications completed and they all had different signatures which of course did not match my signature. So finally around Feb 2013 they stated that they will stop chasing me as they believe it was not me . At that time of this ordeal i was on JSA and they were deducting money from my allowance which eventually they repaid me when they withdraw their case and i started my full-time job on 3rd of June with DWP. I am really nervous never been in such situation before as I have always been good with my credit history, Can anyone advise on what will happen on the day of the interview and what should I expect