BES Utilities review: mis-sold energy contract & prices 296

please get in touch with your M P and get them to rise this MATTER in parliament lots of small businesses will go under if left to B E S

Hello, I am also a victim. It is sickening- We am waiting for the ombudsman's report but dont hold out much hope. I cant understand how it is legal to only provide a part recording of the phone call! They told me they had spoken to my mums current supplier at the time, and that our rates were this and that, and that BES rates are much cheaper at £xx! Later that day the current supplier said no one can access that info & that our rates where infact- HALF of the BES rates quoted (which where apperently much cheaper than current!) Then after supplier declining their attempts to take our supply, on the 4th or 5th attempt in one month, they attached a 'change of tenency' form? and when a supplier receives this they believe its new people in, and release the supply! So they got the electric supply in the end. They are still hounding with calls and trying to trick anyone who answers the phone into making a recording to get our gas! The documents BES sent in an email, where a lease agreement in completely different peoples names, for a property in a place we have never heard of! They are either trying to pass these off as ours, or they have attached something by accident...(confidentiality?) Does anyone have any info on this? I am interested in joining this campaign to stop them. Anonhelp 321- Please can you help us bring this to an end? I'm sure a statement from you will really help? Or do you have any info about the few that have successfully beat them and ended contract? I will email those who have left their email addresses on this page within the next week...We need to stop them! Its shocking! Good luck in the meantime everyone.

Sorry to hear another one of these, honestly there are on average 600 per week. I will send you a message with my email address and hopefully I can be of help to you.

BES have brought my business to its knees. Lies, misinformation, no information at all, inflated estimated bills and failure to provide a promised smart meter (my meter is inside someone else's unit). I'm now relieved that I don't have a smart meter having read this and the forum on moneysavingexpert but I'm still a cripplingly large amount of money out of pocket.
I would love to support any group action being taken. Feel free to contact me at fotofilia@hotmail.co.uk

We are in the bes scamming club and our company is folding due to them. No matter how many letters to bes, MPs, ombudsman, even BII Legal supper for pubs...no one can help. Do bes have some sort of hold over everyone of power? Our meter belongs to British gas so we are still unsure how they have the monopoly on this?
So angry. If anyone has any answers let us know. We have three weeks :-(

I have also worked for BES and Commercial Energy, ring customer services on [protected] and ask which broker sent the contract over to BES they will say that they dont have that information but they do, they work on a system called CRM and on the last page is the brokers details they wont give you a tel no but try [protected] commercial energy and commercial power [protected], as this is were your contract will have been passed from . If you have requested a copy of the verbal agreement this is all you will receive ask them to send an email to the manager of CUSTOMER SERVICES and get him to email compliance for the up front recording ie were they are telling you rates etc they CAN DO THIS, IT'S A DISGUSTING COM[ANY TO WORK FOR, it's not CusTOMER sERVICES ITS company service

Last wk we moved into new salon premises in which BES are the energy supplier which I found out the wk before as they hounded us with phone calls to get us to enter a contract or we would be on emergency tariff I told them I would be in contact with them once we was in the new premises I then rang them last week to give meter reading & begin the transfer on to e.on.I was told I had to prove I was the new tenant by sending over various documentation incl tenancy agreement & liability insurance they told me the premises was due for disconnection as previous tenant owes money but as long as we changed over tenancy this wouldn't happen.They also asked for the meter serial number that did not correspond with the meter but did not answer my question to why it didn't correspond.Friday I rang back after not hearing back for them to tell me I needed to send more documents to prove who I was which in the end they told me everything was fine & I can go on to shop around for another supplier which I told them I had already done so & e.on wil be intouch.

However Monday morning BES have gained access to my salon cut off the electricity meter with No warning or permission but left a letter on my desk addressed to the previous business saying they have called for payment & have gained access to my property under the rights of entry act gas & electricity boards 1954 & now have to pay £900 to be reconnected & can take up to 10days to be reconnected & they had right to take the meter because it was fraudulent meter I'm now on day 2 of not being able to open my salon loosing money surely they have breached the act by failing to give me notice be grateful for any advice

Hi,
House Of Hair
Did you inform the Change of tenancy team at BES that you had taken over the premises, or was it just a sales agent that had called you?
If you had informed them that you were the new tenant then they would have opened a C.O.T form, did you send in the relevant documents ie tenancy agreement etc as they have to verify that it is a genuine change of tenancy, if so they have no right in disconnecting the meter, if the documents were not sent in then they can go for disconnection . Was a letter but through the door prior to the disconnection visit P.D.V pre disconnection visit asking for you to contact the supplier ?
If they had the details then they should have waited for the C.O.T to be verified and held back on the disconnection

Yes I spoke & sent off all relevant information to the change of tenancy team iv received a letter today dating from Friday that the change of tenancy was changed which they did tell me over the phone on Friday that it was all sorted & no I've had no letter to say it was going to be disconnected

Ok, then they had no right to disconnect the meter was it the electricity meter they disconnected or the gas meter ?
Call BES tomorrow and request a copy of the telephone conversation which you had on Friday all calls are recorded, were they stated that everything was ok and that you were free to shop around the market and choose your own preferred supplier

Hi Sorry that last msg was bit unclear yes I dealt with the c.o.t team not a sales advisor & sent over all relevant copies of documentation to prove I'm a new tenant which on Friday was confirmed over the telephone by the c.o.t team. I have never received any letter or notification they were planning on entering the property to remove the meter.I believe they have breached the act of entry and is looking into seeking compensation for our loss of earnings as we have been told it can take up to 10working days to be reconnected in which Our landlord has paid £900 to BES to do so.

Are you able to send me your mob no or an email address, i have only just joined on here i don't know if you can private message me with your number...
No money is to be paid to BES the debt is with the previous occupier and not yours, you have a tenancy agreement stating when you took over the premises, if you were told on the phone that everything had been verified and completed they should never have disconnected the meter, you are in with your rights to obtain a copy of the telephone recording to were the cot advisor told you this and they should re connect the meter for free and put a claim in against them for loss of earnings if no joy ( you also have a letter stating that the cot has gone through on the friday into your name so no disconnection should have taken place) they should have updated the PDV agent to stop any disconnection its there error and to be honest your not the first person this has happened too, please private message me with a contact number and i will be happy to assist you in any way i can

I've got proof because I've received a letter today dating Friday that the change of tenancy has been done!

Sorry it is electricity meter no gas at the premises

i have private messaged you please call me i can help

Hi Guys,

We have had BES issues big style!

Basically, we completed on a property around 12pm on 4th June, and from
9am on the 5th June, my phone rang non stop from a variety of
landline numbers. The calls were in the region of one per hour.

Where the hell did they get my details?! I bought a property in my
personal name, and started to get calls harassing my Limited Company.

All I can assume is they did a Director search, or found my company/place of employment on Facebook.

Eventually, I picked up, and was told this person was from a company
called Commercial Energy, and he was a Meter Registrar for my
electricity. He told me he needed the registration of my meter, because
I was paying emergency rates and he wanted me to sign a 5-year
contract...?!

I explained I hadn't even had the keys yet - and I would contact a
suitable energy company when I had the time (and keys)! Not content
with this the caller (an Alex Barlow) went into a high pressure sell,
and I told him I wasn't interested. He said he would call back.

Bear in mind here, my company is on the telephone preference service,
as I am personally. There is a legal argument that, which of course the
legal adviser at BES tried; the TPS is canceled out by virtue of a
'relationship' - but I had nothing to do with the company, it was an
unsolicited sales call and I expressly told them I wasn't interested;
and due to the high pressure sell NEVER to call me again!

A few days later he called again, fed up I told him to email me prices,
and that he was under no circumstances to telephone me again. On
receipt of the email I also replied (copying in 2 sets of Lawyers) and
reiterated my request... Guess what, two days later the phone rang
AGAIN, it was him!

Curiously, the email from the sales person was signed BES Utilities - not the Commercial Energy the guy told me he was from!

Luckily, I had a great guy at EON who took care of the actual energy side.

This post may seem an overreaction - but I urge you once you've read
this email to do a Google search of BES Utilities and see what comes
up. The sales person was rude, aggressive, high-pressured - and in fact
lied several times.

I made a complaint to their 'Customer Services' team... I asked they
looked into my points, and also to either investigate and issue
compensation for my inconvenience - or issue me a letter of deadlock so
that I could ask the Ombudsman to investigate and make a decision.

They were prepared to do neither. Which is suspicious. Their claim was
that they didn't have any evidence that the calls were continuous -
but did have a recording of the calls from the mysterious Alex Barlow
that they concluded were not a high pressure sell; this is despite me
asking him verbally never to call me again! In other words the
evidence when they were in the wrong they didn't have - and the
evidence when they thought they could intimidate themselves into being
in the 'right' they suddenly did have.

It is also worth noting that BES only part-record the calls during
their contracts, and stop the recording when stopping reading the terms
out... "Surely this is illegal, misleading and tampering with
evidence" I asked a top Lawyer - to which the reply was "well we don't
know what a Judge would conclude, because BES always settle their
cases before they to court, and issue confidentiality clauses"
suspicious, huh?

Amusingly, I had even listed the numbers, times and dates to the legal
team in my complaint - who replied and told me they had "no
relevance"...and in the same paragraph asked me for
times/dates/numbers of these calls. So we're definitely dealing with
bullies here, but people who are by no means the sharpest pencils in
the box.

BES Utilities have come under numerous investigations by the BBC,
Ofgem, UIA, Daily Mail and Ombudsman - and every time claim they are
the victims, and aggressively peruse the aforementioned claiming
harassment, personal grievance etc. They even asked Ofcomm to delete
recorded evidence by an insider of their dodgy deals. By the number of
articles out there they have beyond reasonable doubt crippled shops,
hotels, restaurants and small business by their aggressive sales
nature, and over-priced energy. I have been reminded by their legal
team that of course, these have no legal grounds - however we are all
intelligent enough to draw our own conclusions to around 10 websites
and around 250 bad reviews - plus all the media coverage...and
their preference to always settle out of court.

Once happily in our new contract with EON, we received a call from a disconnection agent.

I didn't really know what one was - but I later have found out they are
responsible for any bailiff action to forcefully cut the supply off!

Quote how they planned on doing that with a firm contract with EON I don't know.

Anyway, before composing my complaint to BES, I called the mobile number
of this 'Mr Lawson'. He got EXTREMELY cagey (sounded like he was
[censored]ing it), wouldn't give anything apart from his name and mobile, and
said to contact BES for more information.

Guess what? The legal advisers at BES told me that they couldn't comment and that I would have to ask Mr Lawson directly.

I told BES I would be making people aware of what they are like - and
they have advised me that this could bring a deformation case against
me, which is amusing as they would have no case; everything I have said
here is entirely factual - and has been by no means exaggerated.

The companies to watch out for and whom may address themselves as;
Commercial Energy, Commercial Power, BES Utilities, BES Electricity, BES
Gas, Meter Registrations - and numerous others.

What annoys me most is that when you're moving/buying in business it is a
MASSIVE upset of everything, and these guys play on that. I read
several of the other threads on this forum, which luckily I had a close
escape; but I am saddened and really upset to read of the various people
who have had their businesses ruined by this company.

Anyone reading this who've just had the phone calls start - please log
them all, times dates etc. Send them to the TPS, Trading Standards,
Ombudsman - and stop this company crippling any more businesses!

I too have had my electricity taken by BES despite being in 2 year fixed contract. I have also changed my business name yet they continuously block EONs attempts to take by my electricity. I have also had countless numbers of phone calls by Commerical Reduction Services who are working on behalf of BES and who keep trying to get my gas contract. Every time I have to put down the phone. I've had 3 calls in less than 24 hours (and will no doubt get more.) I have even had to call EON to put a note on my gas account to tell them that we do NOT want to move. How is this even legal? How can they continue to harass people like this? It's getting so bad I don't even want to answer my phone. How are you supposed to run a business like this?

I'm sorry that you are experiencing some problems with BES . If you could you send the details of your complaint to forums@besutilities.co.uk, I will be glad to get this looked into straight away for you.
Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

I've made a complaint to BES & never had a reply so took my complaint to the trading standards!

Hi House of hair,
We're sorry to hear you may have ongoing issues with your complaint as we understood this was now resolved.
If you'd like to send the details of any further problems to forums@besutilities.co.uk, we'll be glad to look into this for you.
Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

I've tried to speak to BES customer service today as iv never received a reply to my complaint sent by email on 18th August!when I was speaking on the phone a noise was drowning out my voice & when she spoke the noise disappeared!still not getting anywhere & arguing the matter (see previous posts) she then put the phone down on me I'm now speaking with ombudsmen already had to go trading standards hoping to get back my loss of earnings!Please BE WARNED this company is intending to change their name!

I can't believe all this I'm reading - iv just taken over a premises where the meter has been removed but there is a key meter in place.

Have been asked by bes who own the supply to send lease and photo id?

Is this normal as the lease is in the company name...

Is there any supplier who will take on a premises without a meter and how?

I'd be happy to look into this if you'd like to send any details to forum@besutilities.co.uk.

Regards,

Official Representative - BES Utilities

Interesting to see BES representative has joined the forums.

As mentioned previously, our complaints were replied to aggressively and defensively. I wouldn't bother contacting them, they have no intention of being helpful beyond telling you (semi-politely) where to go.

I wanted two pieces of info from BES:

1) Where the hell did they get my number from.

2) To send me the recordings of the conversations they claim to have.

Funnily enough no reply was made, and they even got my post on another forum deleted.

BES know the game is up - hence why they are getting hot on these forums.

Forget going to BES, take it straight to the Ombudsman, Trading Standards and Ofgem. BES may claim you've not jumped through the hoops for the complaints procedure - but sod that.

Even if you get somewhere with BES, which is unlikely - I would suggest contacting the above anyway just so they are aware of how dodgy BES are.

As far as my case goes - it's being investigated by the Ombudsman, which has cost BES £500 to start with. haha!

Here is a personal challenge to the 'Official Representative - BES Utilities'. Why don't you post the personal home phone number and address of Andrew Pilley on this forum and then people can contact the owner of BES Utilities and Commercial Power directly so that he can take personal responsibility for the actions of both of his companies?

For those of you who don't know the Utilities & Telecoms Awards 2014 were held last night and BES Utilities were a finalist in the 'Treating Customers Fairly' award!
For some strange reason though BES were not selected as the overall winner of that category. Perhaps some of the judges had been reading the likes of Complaints Board and other similar forums before they reached their decision.
Still, they can always try again next year!

Let's just be clear on something, which may make things a little more obvious...

We know very clearly that BES will claim you are bound by contract; by evidence of the alleged recording they claim to have.

HOWEVER - they are EXTREMELY quick to settle out of court when they know
that they will need to use the aforementioned recording as
justification of attempting to hold you in contract.

They are also equally quick to ensure that part of your out-of-court settlement is confidentiality.

IF you part-record a call, as BES do, then you are in fact tampering with evidence.

IF BES go to court and use evidence tampered with, they are intending to
pervert the course of justice, which is a custodial sentence to say the
least.

For this reason, this is why beyond any reasonable doubt BES are
continually running scared of being taken to court - and thus why you
should forget about jumping through their pathetic complaints procedure
hoops.

If you believe you have been entered into a contract with BES
fraudulently or against your will, take it straight to a Judge, and see
how quickly BES magic a "gesture of good will" out of the bag. Or better still take it all the way to Trial and give us a good laugh at BES's expense!

Shelly, I agree.

But why doesn't the BES rep start by putting their own name and details first?

We have no idea who this is - just a random person claiming to be a rep and giving a random email address.

Very odd - if someone personally puts out to help you, you'd think they'd at least give a name a more personal email address?

Dear Neil-uk

If you would like to send your details to the official BES Utilities email address, forums@besutilities.co.uk, you will receive a personal response with direct contact details.

Regards,

Official Representative - BES Utilities

Dear Official Representative - BES Utilities...I see that you are still hiding behind an anonymous e-mail address and have failed to respond to my earlier challenge to post the address and number for Mr Pilley. Failing to respond to correspondence and e-mails seems to be a trait of BES and Commercial Power.
Why does the fact that you have failed to respond to the challenge not surprise me or any of the many people who have issues with BES?
Being as you are too scared to post Mr Pilley's address and phone number perhaps you could post the address and phone numbers for Ben Jones, the CEO at BES, or Joel Chapman, the head of compliance and regulation instead?

Dear BESUtilities,

I issued you numerous letters of complaints, which were replied to defensively.

I also asked your Legal Assistant, Jessica Bennett to provide me details of;
A) Where you obtained my phone number
B) Why you continued to contact me despite being told in no uncertain terms not to
C) For the actual recordings of the calls, in which she claims she had listened to and found no issue with any of them
D) For the actual recordings of the calls, whereby she claims a conversation that never happened occurred

None of these requests were even answered - so I have asked the Ombudsman to investigate, I also have reported you to Trading Standards and Ofgem - and should you fail to compensate our wasted time and resources, I will be suing you for damages.

The bottom line is that I did the right thing; I tried to seek resolution with your 'Customer Services' department, to receive replies by a Legal Adviser who was rude, defensive and confrontational.

You've had your chance, a Judge can do the rest...

Bes... Biggest ever scam.. Don't deal with energy search ltd or commercial utilities .. Or commercial power.. They are all brokers that only work for bes.. They say it's the cheapest available option and you to bes. There's no such thing as meter registrations. And Andy pilley and lee goldy are only months away from been shut down. Keep goin everyone.. All are voices are finely been heared by ombudsman

Shut BES and Andy pilley the con man down

We now have no money and are business has been completely shut down. Ive had to re mortgage my house which in time we will probably loose are house too.. Me and my wife are so upset about bes and comercail utilities ... At Darwin court blackpool.. Also know as commercial energy ... The address is unit 5-7 Darwin court blackpool, off faraday way.. Hopefully someone goes and gets back what me and my wife and many other reputable businesses all there money back ..

ENERGY SEARCH LTD ... Faraday way blackpool... Broker for BES COMERCIAL gas and electricity be carefore.. Never deal with these curule scam sales people

Such a same on the the good professional energy brokers out there like inenco direct or inenco I wish I had gone strait to them for the help and services. I will be doing next time

Hi Cafe 98 Ltd

If you have any issues you can e-mail us at forums@besutilities.co.uk, you
will receive a personal response with direct contact details.
We would like to help you anyway we can.

Regards,
Official Representative - BES Utilities

I do wonder if the Official Representative posting on this forum is new to the company (as BES are showing that they have taken on new recruits recently) but I am sure that you will soon realise in your training sessions that the way forward is to lie and con people. Someone who used to work for BES once posted on this forum that this is the case when he was taken into employment there. BES please don't pretend that you care about all of the people that BES and Commercial Power con and bully... because oh yes Commercial Power is also owned by the same man, the said Andrew Pilley! We forced Commercial Power to give us the name of the broker that mis-sold this contract to us and low and behold they gave us an address of a company that have never existed at the address and we have photographic proof of this. We wrote to Commercial Power asking them to explain themselves but we are still waiting for a response weeks later to our letter but I am sure that customer care is still their top priority as well as BES because they are both owned by the said Andrew Pilley.

BES don't you think that you have heard the last of us because I will make it my lifes work to help anyone that you con and bully!

Everyone here please take note the only way to close BES down is for a barrister to get involved and take them to queens bench as a class action' I too lost my business and the £120k I invested in it. If some of you are not sure how corrupt this firm is take it from me I'm still battling them three years on, and they will continue in this manner until everyone bands together.
So ask yourself, will we? Or will we just moan and see others suffer our fate

I can relate to all of the above after being duped into a contract with BES, I am in the middle of legal proceedings and will keep you all updated but on this occasion I wonder does anyone have an address and telephone number for the broker Commercial Energy I have been lead to believe they are a subsidiary company located in Filey. I have got my recording well the second one and BES tell me they don't have the first one but you can quite clearly tell its a second conversation. My argument is that the broker said they were from Utility warehouse my then supplier. We have paid BES thousands of pounds and I could give you page after page of info but it is very much like you've all posted but if I can find the broker I have a much better case and I think so will many of you.