BES Utilities

[TheManElvis]

Hi all

 

Have been a customer with BES since September, now thats not a long time ago really so you'd think not a lot could have gone wrong ...right? Wrong! Biggest scam company I have ever seen. If I ran my business they way this one is run, I'd have 0 customers!

 

Usual story, broker calls out of the blue (Who works on behalf of BES) when we opened up our offices in September.....Lo and Behold we get signed up with BES!

Since that day, my life has been nothing but stress!

 

Quite happily paid them £132.50 per month, thought that was quite reasonable..

.. Then the big one lands...£908 because of a meter reading I submitted as an opening read...

 

they estimated the bill from that and didn't even bother to get the closing read from the other energy supplier (BG Lite)

- so they way under estimated the reading to bring mine as excessively high usage and thus landing the big bill

- this is STILL under dispute I might add. Now I know times are difficult at the moment but this is taking the pee.

 

I cancelled my direct debit as you do as I could not afford for £900+ to go out of my account

I got charged out of contracts tariff for one month and a higher standing charge (non of this reflected in my online portal by the way, as in, there is no bill for this). Not that i can find. So for that month, i am owing £199. 

 

To my surprise I get a letter from Opus, or rather my sub tenant does for a charge of £250 for her gas.

She's with British Gas so this sounds iffy,

 

upon inspection and a phone call to Opus (The previous supplier) they tell me they have been running the account and that they have had an account on the meter since we moved in, and BES have been billing me for the wrong meter,

they are billing me for my tenants meter, which...is disconnected in the building.

 

I thought Ill give BES a call and see what they say and they say that I told them in September that my tenants meter was the one that I was using, right fair enough I may have told them that in the midst of confusing times and moving into the building I may have gotten them mixed up. However since then, BES have emailed me asking for photo confirmation of the Meter that 'I' use with a clear serial number. Done, October 21st that was sent.

 

they are only now after me calling them putting things in motion to bill the correct meter - so why was this not flagged in October when they emailed for confirmation?  I asked this on the phone with a manager to which they said well its your fault for confirming the wrong meter over the phone in September.... but you've had confirmation via you metering department since then??

 

I am not quite sure what they are doing and the £900 odd pound bill is still in 'dispute' - which they say I must pay by the way, numerous calls a day to the point I said I was going to sue for Harassment. 

 

I feel a bit 'conned' really, they certainly are not the cheapest in my area which the broker (Who called me out of the blue, and works on behalf of BES) purported. 

 

With the amount in dispute, and the £199 I owe them for when I cancelled my direct debit, plus this months bill at £508 - I am on the brink of not being able to pay my rent on my building.

 

Did I mention they banged me into a 36 month contract and there is a £3,500 fee to exit that contract?

Oh yeah I owe Opus £250 as well due to me thinking, stupidly that BES where billing me for that meter. Which I only found out about on Friday and we have threatening letters today of disconnection,

 

I have spoken to them and they have put the account on hold until they hear from BES......which I doubt they will.

BES still have not spoken to previous electric company regarding a closing reading, still estimated which means I still owe £824 pound of that 'estimated opening bill'. I paid £100 pound of that bill as a gesture of good will on my part to reassure BES that once they had sorted the issues I would paid what I owe if I owed it, and to stop the 7 calls a day harassment calls. 

 

Jokers.

I'd so dearly love to take legal action. 

[BankFodder]

First of all, it will help us a great deal if you would space your story properly and also punctuate it properly. In the middle of the large block it gets rather garbled and it's really quite difficult to work out what you are saying. This will tend to put people off helping you. Also on a smaller screen a solid block of text is very difficult to read.

I'm still trying to understand exactly what's happened here and it would be helpful if you would repost your story using a bullet pointed chronology without too much narrative and too much commentary please.

It's a shame that you respond to a cold call like this. Particularly from companies like BES. You clearly didn't do any research before you decided to throw your lot in with them – big fail. I suggest that you start looking around the Internet and you'll understand what a mistake you made.

However we can help you – but we'd like to understand the story please

[TheManElvis]

Sorry, my autism gets the better of me sometimes.

 

I shall ask my wife to help me re-write my post.

 

yep, it was certainly a mistake to take the cold call and accept with BES, but, I do have a business to run and thought I was saving some time! Big mistake.

 

re-written post coming soon.

 

 

[BankFodder]

Thanks.

Yes if you could put it up in a bullet pointed chronology then it will be easy to understand.

The objective is to understand the contract and the BES failings so that we can challenge the contract and say that they have breached it sufficiently for you to treat it as terminated.

Of course we may not be able to do this – but let's have a look

[dx100uk]

i have made post one somewhat clearer for you

 

dx

 

[BankFodder]

Just now, dx100uk said:

i have made post one somewhat clearer for you

 

dx

 

You're all heart 

[TheManElvis]

I am sorry I am not that good at making myself clear - Autism gets in the way i think and I get carried away. I am going to sit with my wife later and rewrit this if you would still like me to?

[BankFodder]

• So you received a cold call from a broker.
• You have now learned that the broker works for BES. – Did he present himself as an independent? Did he say that he would find you the best service, giving the impression that he was going to look through a range of suppliers?
• They failed to take a closing reading from the previous supplier
• this meant that your new bill was fairly open ended because they assumed a closing reading – is this correct?
• So you received a very large bill that based on an estimated closing reading and also an estimated forecast reading and you are disputing this bill.
• Because of this you cancelled the direct debit because you are worried about the amount of money leaving your account.
• BES then decided that you had left your contract and they charge you a higher rate and a higher standing charge.
   

 

Now I don't understand how Opus comes into it. Were they your previous supplier? Because you referred to BG Lite as your previous supplier.
I don't understand this:
 

Quote

- so they way under estimated the reading to bring mine as excessively high usage and thus landing the big bill

 

You then discover that BES are actually charging you based on your ex tenants meter which in fact is disconnected so that it is not producing any readings at all???
You then started dealing directly with BES on the telephone to try and resolve the problem – but I expect that you haven't recorded your call so you have no evidence of what was said (read our customer services guide – and Pay Attention to It!)
Now I've lost the thread completely – I don't understand how you suddenly only owe them £199.

And I think it would be helpful now if you went over it and explained it more carefully – less narrative and in a bullet pointed chronology.

 

However my immediate advice is to stop dealing with BES on the telephone or at all until we understand the situation.

At the very least, the fact that BES charging you on the wrong meter and also that they failed to take proper readings at the beginning of the contract – and all of that within a very short space of three months – which represents the entire contract. So far, suggest to me that they have fundamentally breached their contract and that this will give you a basis for saying that they have terminated the contract by their breach.

Of course they won't come quietly on this and you will have to litigate that we will help you if you want.

However, I'd really like to understand the whole story first.

Read our customer services guide and implement the advice there in future.

[BankFodder]

By the way, what is the position for changing suppliers with a business energy contract?

Can they block you until your bills are fully satisfied? Or do you have the right to change your supplier regardless as in a consumer contract?

[TheManElvis]

Hi, in the middle of re-writing my post for you.

 

I am not sure, BES have told me in no uncertain terms I cannot get out of my 36 month contract, they have quoted me over £2k to leave. 

 

 

[BankFodder]

I understand that contractually you aren't allowed to leave but can they actually block you in some way?

[TheManElvis]

From what I am reading on the Google Reviews page, even though they quote you a figure to get out of the contract, if you go to another supplier BES will stop the new supplier taking over the meters - how they do it I do not know.

But that is what I am seeing in reviews/comments...and there is a lot of them!

[BankFodder]

Summary????