BUSINESS ENERGY SOLUTIONS contract sign-up process - BE VERY AWARE!!

[Surfer01]

I will check with my sources however I am sure that BES and Commercial Power are affliated as they use to be two or three years ago. BES was an agency just like Commercial Power.

[richiek]

I got another call from commercial registrations today asking for the person who is responsible for the energy so something is going on. He also said that commercial registrations and commercial energy are one and the same but commercial registrations is based in Manchester while commercial energy is registered in London as far as I know so maybe commercial power are going under the guise of commercial energy which is probably illegal.

 

The UIA are now fighting on my behalf but just in case I am preparing a tenancy agreement as a fall back.

Edited August 24, 2015 by BankFodder
..

[utility-broker]

hi,

 

im a utility broker (independant) we hear a lot of stories like yours at our company about BES!! did you sort a solution??

[richiek]

BES and their offspring Commercial Registrations are totla [problematic] and lie through their teeth to get you to agree. They are well known to the Ombudsman. You are following the correct course of action. Pity it can't make the national newspapers but maybe Watchdog would be very interested. Personally I would like to see them brought down.

 

You have had your wish Surfer as regards to it making a national newspaper. It was in the Mail last Sunday. You can view the article online by going to dailymail.co.uk and search fir the article entitled, 'power price rogues.' In the article which was printed in the paper last week there was more pictures including one of the MD of BES, Commercial Energy and all his other offspring companies.

 

Total disgrace.

[Surfer01]

Brilliant! Here is the link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1325148/Power-price-rogues-cost-shop.html

[richiek]

I think they're doing a follow up piece on it which may be in tomorrow's mail but I'm not 100% certain to be honest!

[BES Commercial Gas/Elec]

I’ve recently been made aware of some adverse comment on this forum from apparently dissatisfied customers of our company. I am very keen to try to resolve all genuine issues any of our customers may have as we pride ourselves on what I firmly believe to be our very high standards of customer care by comparison with the bigger suppliers in our industry.

If any of the posters on this forum would like to contact me personally therefore with sufficient details to help me investigate their concerns fully, I will ensure that any complaints are handled quickly and efficiently.

My email address is [email protected]

Kind Regards

Phil Brown

General Manager

BES Commercial Gas and BES Commercial Electricity

[Saviour]

Transfer a tenancy to someone else so you break the contract and then the new tenant chooses a new gas supplier because they are a deemed rate (out of contract customer) go for the big companies such as British gas or e.on. Speak to the sales advisers they all know what BES Gas are like absolutely . They will make life difficult to transfer from them but keep persistent and not panick when the make threatening calls or letters to stop transfer. They will also tell lies say that they still your gas supplier when they no longer are just to get more money out of you. There staff are incompetant so and sos can't tell if meter is metric or imperial or do any simple calculations, as they never give you accurate bills from meter reads. They make monthly gas charges out if their backsides.

 

Get help from the new big company staff hey are well trained and know what they taking about.

 

I'm surprised ofgem don't take BES Gas licence of them!

Edited August 24, 2015 by BankFodder
..

[Grundles]

You will probably need permission from your landlord to sub let, check your lease before you do so!

 

Also, I accidently managed to change a Landlords supply into a tenants name because it was a unit name on the national grid, when I realised my mistake and changed it back it was on out of contract rates again....! You could try that but be wary as they know it is in dispute, they have been clever once they could try it again!!

[Grundles]

Sorry, should have noticed there were four pages not one :-/

[HelenMole]

After reading through this thread I was livid to see that the tricks used on me are used over and over again and so many other people have fallen for it too. Much of what other people said happened to me... lots of urgent calls from the minute i moved into my new office, claims my meter wasnt registered and i was on an emergency rate, garauntee that BES would be cheapest blah blah blah. All strung across several phone calls where they only recorded the bits that made it sound like I'd agreed to things.

 

Cutting a long story short, tied in to a three year contact with bills that were stupid, i found Rod. The lovely lovely Rod who helped me fight the little monkeys and eventually get out of my contract. Here are his details - rod at u-i-a dot org

Rodney Sinden

Operations Director

Mob 07713 247393

Utilities Intermediaries Association

Although it is a limited company, it runs as a not-for-profit organisation

 

Rock on Rod and i hope that he can help you too and we can bring BES, Commercial Energy or whatever name they decide to use today to their knees! Please give Rod my regards and tell him that Helen from Cornwall says hello.

 

Good luck fellow BES fighters!

Helen

[Conniff]

It will take a collective to stop this company . One report to ofcom won't do anything, or should I say, in reality, Ofcom isn't interested.

Edited August 24, 2015 by BankFodder
..

[Surfer01]

It will take a collective to stop this company lying and cheating. One report to ofcom won't do anything, or should I say, in reality, Ofcom isn't interested.

 

Ofcom are not involved at all. Perhaps you are thinking of Ofgem? You are right in stating that they would not be interested as you have to go through the Energy Ombudsman first, but before you can do this you have to go through the suppliers complaints procedure, get a deadlock letter where neither party can agree.

The supplier has up to 8 weeks to resolve the complaint but a deadlock letter could be received before the 8 weeks are up. Once it goes to the Ombudsman and only if the supplier is registered with the Ombudsman will they consider taking any action. If it goes to the Ombudsman it will cost the supplier £500 whether they are right or wrong!

[TheCaller]

Okay, I actually currently work at Commercial Energy on the phones to the businesses that we sign. If anyone actually has any serious questions then I would be more than happy to answer however, if you are going to start being offensive in any way shape or form then I simply will not answer.

Regarding the original post, I am going to look at a few points that may be able to help you.

 

After having to go through a chat with his supervisor that I didn’t want who also pleaded their case

I told them in no uncertain terms that I didn’t want to take the contract and they agreed not to pursue it.

 

With this 'chat' that you had with the supervisor, was it the actual verbal contract? I have to add, and this is 100% correct. Although all of our calls are recorded only the actual verbal contract go over to BES and are saved on the system and we have no access to editing these recordings so you must have been aware that it was the actual verbal contract recording that you were doing.

 

He then started to backtrack and told me ‘they may not be the cheapest on the market but’ and gave me more tosh about how good they were.

 

The reason that it is said that they may not be the cheapest on the market because think about it, if you're going to be spending £2000 a month on electric, your rates are going to be lower than those that are only spending £100 a month if you see what I mean.

 

BES also claim that a company called Commercial Energy sold me the contract which is also a bit fishy

and when I called the customer service number at Commercial Energy and did some digging they admitted to working on behalf of BES.

 

Commercial Energy do work on behalf of BES however, we also work on behalf of other suppliers such as Npower and Eon so it is not just BES that get signed at Commercial Energy.

 

According to Consumer Direct they are already in breach of Offgem legislation by firstly,

not establishing that we are a micro business and secondly,

not making sure we had a hard copy of the terms and conditions within 10 days of the contract being agreed.

 

Firstly, in terms of being a micro business, if you were actually listening to the verbal recording that you did, it clearly states "if you are a micro business then you have to write to us declaring that you are a micro business and the definition of a micro business is outlined in our terms and conditions" so it is actually yourself at fault for that.

 

In terms of the hard copy of the terms and conditions then you will have had something in email declaring them and it is actually up to BES to send the hard copy of the terms and conditions so if you haven't received them, then it is BES you need to get in touch with.

 

If anyone else has any questions then I will be more than happy to answer them for you however, like I earlier said, I will not take any sort of abuse, I'm trying to help you and clear things up for you here.

[Hatebesenergy]

Hi all,

me and the wife recently (3 weeks ago) opened a small convenience shop

and unfortunately have been spoofed into an electricity contract with a small energy company.

 

Within an hour of opening the doors at 8am the shop phone was ringing every 10 minutes

with some cheeky swines from a company calling themselves commercial registrations.

 

Despite me telling them we didn’t need their help and to stop calling they kept on and on ringing

and telling us we needed to register with an energy supplier as we were on emergency rates and paying extortionate amounts.

 

After a couple of hours and 9 or 10 phone calls harassing us I reluctantly agreed to listen to what they had to offer just to get rid of them if nothing else.

 

They claimed to be a completely independent broker and quoted me some extremely high rates

and then turned round and said ‘but there is a cheaper option’

and went into a load of spiel about how this company (BES) were the cheapest in our area and the best option for a business like ours.

 

Against my better judgement I agreed in principle to this contract but when the guy said he needed my bank details for the direct debit

before he could push it through

 

I told him to call back in half an hour so I could dig them out.

 

After I put the phone down on him I called a couple of the major companies including Eon and British Gas

who knew all about Commercial Registrations and described them as a disgrace.

 

The guy from British Gas also described the rates I was quoted as daylight robbery and told me their own rates which were significantly cheaper.

 

When the guy from commercial phoned back I told him I wasn’t interested in a contract with BES as it was not the cheapest nd not best for us at all.

 

He then started to backtrack and told me ‘they may not be the cheapest on the market but’ and gave me more tosh about how good they were.

 

After having to go through a chat with his supervisor that I didn’t want who also pleaded their case

I told them in no uncertain terms that I didn’t want to take the contract and they agreed not to pursue it.

 

However, 2 weeks later I got a letter from BES informing me they are taking over our electricity supply on 7th June and I am absolutely fuming.

 

I had agreed a contract with Eon later on the opening day and when I called Eon to ask what had happened

they informed me that BES had nipped in first and objected to their approach.

 

When I called BES to tell them I didn’t want their contract they informed me that they had a recording of me agreeing to the contract

and said the advisor even informed me that they weren’t the cheapest on the market

– which happened during the later call – but I still agreed to it.

 

Obviously the crafty toe rags had edited the calls together to make it sound convincing.

 

BES also claim that a company called Commercial Energy sold me the contract which is also a bit fishy

and when I called the customer service number at Commercial Energy and did some digging they admitted to working on behalf of BES.

 

Basically, these lying, cheating low life spoofers are going to cost me an extra £300+ per year in electricity charges

and in a small family business like ours that’s alot of money.

 

That’s £300 a year I should be spending on my family which instead is going to these sharks unless I can find a way out of it.

 

According to Consumer Direct they are already in breach of Offgem legislation by firstly,

not establishing that we are a micro business and secondly,

not making sure we had a hard copy of the terms and conditions within 10 days of the contract being agreed.

 

Apparently I need to raise these points with BES and ask for a deadlock letter to take to the Energy Ombudsman.

 

To be quite honest from what I’ve read I don’t have much faith in the fairness of the whole system

so need to find out if there’s another way round it all like technically selling the business

or even just changing the name as I’ve been told that in those circumstances any contracts are automatically ‘null and void.’

 

I’d be extremely grateful if anyone could shed any light on this issue or give me some other sound advice.

Regards,

 

Richie.

 

I have had a very similar experience having realized 3 months before contract started cancelled even informed current supplier to not let them take over they applied 3 time and managed to get transfer. very similar story have ask for recording and sent to ambusman

Edited September 17, 2013 by ims21

[Hatebesenergy]

Thanks for your help Surfer. Yes I contacted the original supplier EDF withing 24hrs of getting the letter from BES and they weren't very helpful TBH even after I had explained the situation. They advised me to contact BES and try to raise an erroneous transfer which I did but BES were having none of it as you would expect from the crafty slimeballs.

 

What do you make of commercial energy phoning me again yesterday claiming there was no electrcity contract in place on the premesis? That seems a bit strange to me.

 

It may just be quicker and easier to try the route of sub-letting the premesis to a friend or even my wife in her maiden name and previous address who would then be free to chose another supplier. Are there any potential pitfalls with this method though?

 

I am going through the same situation I am afraid this is there company model is to snare small businesses that have no legal dept and use contract law to bully them scaring them with large fine etc and generally wearing you down into submission they do not believe in giving good prices and service I think this company is trying to make a quick dollar all thgere staff are brainwashed I think the directors and upper management belong in prison and I had to much stress dealing with these people and have had to submit but have gone to the obusman

Edited September 17, 2013 by ims21

[Surfer01]

I am going through the same situation I am afraid this is there company model is to snare small businesses that have no legal dept and use contract law to bully them scaring them with large fine etc and generally wearing you down into submission they do not believe in giving good prices and service I think this company is trying to make a quick dollar all thgere staff are brainwashed I think the directors and upper management belong in prison and I had to much stress dealing with these people and have had to submit but have gone to the obusman

 

The only way out of the contract is a change of tenancy. No good putting it in your wife's name if the surname is the same. Is the account in the name of the business or in a personal name?

[riddhim1]

Hi,

I am sure, that lots of BES victims visit this website every day to find out what can they do to get out of BES contracts.

 

Dear all, we need to get 'United' (at least 10 victims), and launch a big fight against them.

 

I've hired a good solicitor and have done so many other things, eg written letters to MPs etc but getting no where.

Its a shame that everyone cares about consent and comfort calls and not about what went before that

, where you were taken into confidence by someone seemingly nice block and fell into the trap.

 

Consequences of staying in contract with them can be paying through your nose for next 4-5 years and a very stressful life.

 

So, my fellow victims, lets get together and expose them to the world.

 

If we get together, then not only we got good chance of getting out of the contracts but also claim money for the damages done to our businesses.

 

I will request forum mederator to support us by allowing me sharing my email id with other sufferers.

 

my email id is [REMOVED] Lets fight for the Justice.

[dx100uk]

start a secure yahoo group

 

dx

[dx100uk]

thread closed as various people keep trying to

make money out of people

 

by posting links

 

if you've seen the last few posts to this thread

 

please do NOT respond

or you'll get fleeced again.

 

dx