BES Scam - said EDF unable supply sole traders & EDF asked them to supply me - LIARS!!

[MissyT]

Hello, I urgently need some help with BES utilities.

 

I have business premises and my current electric supplier - PFP Energy - was due to expire on Friday 23 July.

 

On Wednesday 21 July, I searched for quotes via compare the market for a new supplier and was told a broker would get in touch with me.

 

Bionic called me immediately and signed me up to EDF. Fixed rate for 2 years. I was happy with this.

 

On Friday 23 July I received multiple calls from a new broker - Power 4 Business - who told me that EDF were unable to become my supplier because they weren’t supporting sole traders. They said EDF had passed them my details to find an alternative.

 

I was very harassed and said I didn’t have time to go through another registration process as was in with clients all day. They said I had to get it sorted immediately or I was at risk of being cut off (I realise now I was naive to believe this).

 

In a panic, I authorised them to speak with a friend who helps me with the admin side of my business. They phoned her and agreed on a slightly more expensive tariff than EDF but said this was the best we could get. The new supplier was BES. My friend went ahead with this on my behalf, believing it was the best deal available.

 

On Saturday 24 July I received a Welcome email from EDF.

 

On Tuesday I phoned Buonic, the original broker to try to find out what had happened. They said that EDF had accepted me as a new account and everything had gone through as expected. On further investigation, they confirmed that my EDF supply switch had been cancelled by BES as my new supplier. At this point I realised I had been scammed.

 

I called BES to explain the situation and they couldn’t have cared less and have told me that I can’t cancel the contract, there is no cooling off period. I was on the phone for over an hour. Tried to escalate, managers were “all in meetings”. They stated they’d listened to the onboarding call and I had no grounds to cancel the contract.

 

In addition to the above, the “contract” with BES has been incorrectly set up in my friends name, not mine. 

I have emailed them to confirm in writing that I want this contract terminated with immediate effect, and copied in ofgem. I received an automatic response stating they’d reply within 14 days.

 

Can anyone advise what I should do next? I’ve read so much on the internet tonight about BES and I absolutely do not want to go with them based on their customer service reviews and the fact that they seem to frequently acquire business via brokers who have lied to the consumers and tricked them into signing up to their supply. No one seems to have successfully navigated past their poor customer service and harassing sales tactics. They are due to take over the supply on 12 August.

They’ve said they’ll send recordings of the calls, however I know that they only switched on the recording function selectively throughout the process. 

 

Any help would be gratefully received! Thank you.

[MissyT]

Will that work? From everything I’ve read, BES block you from changing supplier.

 

ps. Thank you for replying so quickly.

 

[MissyT]

EDF have said there is nothing they can do to help. They advised me to get in touch with the 2nd broker. 

[MissyT]

I’ve think I’ve managed to get this resolved. My existing supplier has objected to the supplier being switched. Energy Advice service recommended this course of action. Hoping that this puts an end to it and a valuable lesson has been learned.