BES refusing to allow me to switch supplier

[iaindan]

i gave notice to switch, November 2019, do not renew my contract i stated, they acknowledged this and confirmed contract ends on 28/9/2020, and free to change. My new supplier attempted switch, just before contract end, Request denied, for no evident reason.   

 

I rang to find out why, apparently, Id agreed to a new contract, (that was never going to happen, as long as i live) no further details and was promised a recording of the conversation, put a complaint in, and asked to speak to a manager, managers in a meeting, i was told after waiting on hold for nearly an hour.

waited 10 days for a reply, rang again and asked to speak to a manager,(yep, managers in a meeting) after 45 minutes on hold, I escalated my complaint.

A further 10 days passed, still no contact from BES UTILITES regarding my complaint,(Managers in meeting) AGAIN. This must be the only company that have managers in meetings from start time to finish time, save some money get shut they are not productive, no use at all. this kept happening every time i rang.

I have complained to CAB, they have taken it up with BES, I have been able to get a copy of the contract, after getting to speak to a manager, on December, 4 months after my first complaint and 4 months of waiting for PROMISED call returns, it would appear, someone has signed the contract, other than me, and I have proof and its the only thing they understand, as they are unable to act legally and responsible

 

We have taken our case to the ombudsman who made a decision in favour of BES, we appealed but the ombudsman upheld his decision and we received £85 for poor customer service by BES

 

we feel this is a breach of GDPR and would appreciate any help you can give as we have exhausted all other routes ie the police ,citizens advise ,information commissioners office

[BankFodder]

Send them an SAR tomorrow morning. Come back and check this thread for a fuller reply tomorrow

 

Post up the response from the ombudsman as well

[BankFodder]

Sorry but we need a document this size posted up in pdf format please

[iaindan]

J w.pdf

[BankFodder]

I've had a read through of this document. It certainly is very complicated and very convoluted.

I'm afraid that you haven't helped himself by alleging fraudulent behaviour. Organisations – including ombudsman services – don't like this kind of thing and you have to satisfy a very high standard of proof – and you certainly haven't done that.
Unfortunately, these kinds of allegations immediately make people wary about coming down on your side.
Although you have ever posted here before, you've been here since 2006 and is a shame that you didn't come to us first because we would advise you to avoid making allegations of fraud without absolutely conclusive paper evidence – and all you have at the moment is speculation.

Have you sent an SAR to BES or to the subsidiary company?

[iaindan]

i do have paper evidence of fraud,

also we have now sold and are no longer in the premises, and why would the broker use a vpn to send a contract that i would not have signed, as we'd accepted an offer for our business the week before.

Scan.pdf

[BankFodder]

I'm afraid that I'm completely confused about all of this.

I had gathered that if you sold the business then the contract automatically terminated. Is that not correct?

 

[iaindan]

Apologies for the confusion, this problem has been going on for the last 9 months, when my new supplier was unable to take my supply from bes, who had accepted a contract i knew nothing about until september 2020, i instructed bes not to renew the contract back in november 2019, and bes claim i renewed in 03\2020.

I did not agree a new contract and I did not sign a new contract, the signature on the contract is not mine and th ip address is not mine.

[BankFodder]

That doesn't address the question that I have just put to you at all.

In the document which you first posted which included the decision of the ombudsman, it stated very clearly that apparently the contract would terminate automatically if you sold the business.
You have just told us that you did sell the business.

I asked you whether that meant that the contract terminated. You haven't answered

[iaindan]

The contract has terminated so that the new owners have a choice of whether to stay or leave BES

However for us it means that we have charges placed on our account higher than our original tarriff as we cancelled our directdebit when the contract issue arose and we continued to pay BES the original

tarriff charges

BES have now put an account manager in  place to ensure that they are paid the full amount, we however feel that as we did not sign a new contract should not have to pay these increased charges

Just to clarify at no point did we sign or want to sign a new contract as we had accepted an offer to sell our business, at the beginning of march 2020, just before the pandemic lockdown, which sadly fell through.we completed the sale of our business at the end of april 2021 to another purchaser.

Bes have failed in there duty of care to ensure the contract that was put in place without my knowledge, and have racked up a massive debt i do not accept is mine, due to their negligence and inability to resolve my complaints against their very poor  customer service.

 

[BankFodder]

Sorry, but I still don't understand. If anybody else can come along and explain it to me I'd be grateful.

The contract is terminated – so you do not have a contract with BES any longer. Is that correct?

Despite this, you apparently still owe BES a debt. Is this correct?

How much is the alleged debt for?

I think it would be helpful if you set out a bullet pointed timeline of everything that happened because we haven't actually had your story in a nice clear – minimal narrative – way.

[Ethel Street]

What remedy are you seeking?

 

If you have now sold your business and the contract has terminated then the question of transferring to another supplier is now irrelevant isn't it?

 

Or is your complaint that from September 2020 until you sold your business you paid more to BES than you would have paid to another supplier if you had been able to switch suppliers in September 2020? If so what is your estimate how much more you paid to BES in that period than you would have paid to the other supplier you wanted to switch to?