Mis-selling of energy by bes energy

[Janice Cox]

i believe i have been tricked into a contract with bes electric.

 

my problem started when my daughter move into a new hair salon in chatham kent,

she had a call which we believed to be our existing energy supplier edf

and because she was busy with a client asked them to ring me at my home address.

 

although it was clear i thought i was talking to edf with our present meter reading

she made no attempt to introduce herself.

she quoted different energy prices and naturally i chose the cheapest,

when i finally realise who she was i tried to raise several issues to deter her from proceeding

but she dismissed my concerns saying there would be no problems.

 

before i knew it i had entered into a 4 year contract.

 

at first i wasn't concerned as they did quote the cheapest rates and i believed i would have a cooling off period,

but when the contract arrived there was serveral terms and conditions that i was not made aware of.

 

the prices they quoted were based on our monthly usage, as my daughter has just moved in we had no way of knowing what that would be.

there was also penalty fees.

 

i rang them immediately saying we did not want to proceed only to be told the contract was legally binding and it would cost £400 to cancel.

i couldn't except that a short telephone conversation could tie us up in this way.

 

the £400 was only for a short period of time it would then raise to 48times what they estimate our monthly usage to be.

 

another problem was they had the wrong meter number,

and started invoicing us for energy they were not supplying.

 

i rang edf at least four times to confirm they were still supplying our electric and what was more worrying was bes invoices were almost 400% higher than the ones from edf.

 

i then contacted the ombudsman they believe they had cleared up the problem of the incorrect meter,

but we have had no confirmation of this.

 

now bes have the correct meter they have taken over our supply.

 

the ombudsman has just ruled in their favour regarding the contract having listened to the recording,

i also have a copy of the recording but the first half is missing so it is being heard completely out of context.

 

I have tried explaining to bes that i was not the owner and didn't have her authority in arranging a new supplier

they have just sent a letter asking for solicitors letter, driving license, passport, and tenancy agreement all to be supplied within 14days.

i have replied to the ombudsman telling him how disappointed i am with his decision.

 

i have now just received a phone call saying the landlord has been approached and asked for details of the tenancy,

he had already been informed of what was going on and is as angry as we are.

 

surely there must be some way of stopping these people without incurring costly lawyers fees and court cases.

 

i know i am not alone i feel like shouting from the roof tops avoid this company like the plague.

 

My daughter has decided to close the business just to get rid of them.

[Conniff]

I've moved your thread to the Utilities section, there should be more help here.

 

How did you get the phone recording, was it by subject access request ?

 

This goes back a long time - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/2792559/Watchdog-criticises-firms-transfer-policies.html#

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1707096/Power-price-rogues-cost-me-my-shop.html

 

Shortly after, he realised other suppliers in fact offered lower rates. But by then it was too late - he was tied to a four-year contract costing up to 25% more than he might have paid elsewhere. He knew his business could not support those costs so he had to sell up.

 

This can be no different that PPI miselling, you have been lied to and tricked into signing up to a contract you had no say in and was not explained to you, so cannot be held to be legal.

 

Reading other threads it is practically impossible to now get a supply from someone else so you will find it hard to say 'sod off and take me to court'.

 

Have a read of the above links, one Hotel got an out of court settlement which means BES are afraid to go to court, so don't give up and accept this, keep digging and fighting.

If you are likely to be talking on the phone to them then I suggest you get a telephone conversation recorder, either via this site or Maplins sell them.

You do not have to inform them you are recording the call.

 

I will see what else I can find to assist.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Conniff

[Janice Cox]

i rang bes and they sent me a copy of the recording, when i discovered that half of the conversation was missing i thought it was a faulty copy, so they sent another one exactly the same. i have never denied agreeing verbally to to the contract but i did think it would have to be confirmed in writing. she was also speaking extremely fast so it was quite difficult for me to take in all the information and what concerns me is that you possibly cannot know all the terms and conditions during one phone call

[Conniff]

you possibly cannot know all the terms and conditions during one phone call

 

So mis-sold.

 

How can you possibly be held to a contract you haven't even seen.

[dx100uk]

you are not alone

 

there are lots of stories in this forum about

this company.

 

use our search type in BES [top right]

 

dx

[Janice Cox]

Just spoken to the energy advice line, they advised me to get in touch with bes for a full transcript of the conversation. bes informed me that they do not have full transcripts only the verbal agreement, i then asked where do i get one from, the suggest i try the broker, and after a couple of minutes they gave me the name of commercial energy limited, they had no phone or reference number i could quote and suggested i look it up on google, well i have just tried, but there are several sights and i dont know who i should contact and what department

[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

Utilities Intermediaries Association

 

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

Edited January 5, 2013 by HelenMole

[45002]

Apologies,post removed got mixed up.....

Edited January 5, 2013 by 45002

[Janice Cox]

I believe and hope that I have now solved my problem with BES, by transfereing my license to someone else, the thing was it wasnt my responsibility in the first place, i was taking the message for my daughter, and made it clear to them i was not sure who resposibility for the energy would be, that put numerous obsticles in the way, and as for the Ombudsman they were useless, i even sent them copies of all the differenct complaints, but they were only interested in the fact that I had agreed on the recorded telephone call to the contract, not taking into the account of the conversation leading up to the verbal contract, i have never been able to obtain a full transcript of the entire conversation, as i am not sure who to approach for it. Still I hope it as all been resolved, but with them you are never quite sure.

[Conniff]

If it was me I would have bought or hired a generator and told them to get stuffed.