http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/energy-prices/british-gas-price-rise-energy-bills-sse-17102013/?utm_campaign=171013_campaigns_energy_prices_non_supporters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email_campaigns&cmp=171013_campaigns_energy_prices_non_supporters http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/energy-prices/know-the-issue/ http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/energy-prices/

My mum is the EDF Energy named account holder, EDF supply both the gas and electric to our home. Earlier this year my mum suffered a near fatal road accident which left her needing 24 hour care which she now receives in a care unit. At the time of the accident I was away in University, my younger sisters went to stay with relatives so the house was empty for a period of several months. When it became obvious that mum was not going to be returning home, I quit Uni and came home to look after my younger sisters. Mums insurance payments covered paying off the mortgage so all I needed to cover was bills. Most bills were previously paid by mum via direct debit and I have joint responsibility for her bank account with the Public Guardship office as at the time of the accident I was only just 18. I got a job, only part time but enough to get by. The only outstanding matter was the utility gas/electric supplied by EDF Energy which was paid every quarter over the counter at the bank (mum is a great believer in only paying for what she owed). As the house was empty for almost a year EDF had continued to send bills and demands for payment. I contacted them to explain what happened and they said I could have a pre payment meter installed to pay each account back at £5pw so for dual fuel £40pm. Initially I accepted this and took a date and they never showed up. In the mean time an accountant friend of my mums stated I should have a account in my own name and that EDF could not ask me to pay a debt that doesnt belong to me as the EDF contract is with my mum and not me and I never signed anything to act as guarantor Is this right? They want £1500, I've checked the meter readings and it does seem to tally with theirs. Now all the letters are addressed to The Occupier/My mums name the latest of which is saying they are going to court on 15 October to apply for a warrant to have the supply cut off within 28 days of that date... I'm completely at my wits end over what to do? I'd appreciate any guidance as no matter what I say to EDF, the letters keep coming.. Thanks

I have searched CAG and googled and the feeling seems to be that there is no point in complaining about them as nothing gets done (1 person even went as far to say that the head is a rector so is only interested in talking aboit God!!??!!). So my question - do I bother to complain or just let it go and fume?? Thanks

Hi there, Does anyone know who is the actual head of the energy ombudsman for England? I need to complain about the ineptness of one of their investigation officers. Many thanks

Just trying to get a sense of whether I'm paying too much or not... I'm paying £135 per month direct debit. I'm a single man living alone in a one -bedroom flat. I have gas central heating and a gas cooker. No TV or hi-fi, but my computer is on all day. As a single man, I don't do a lot of cooking:), so the oven doesn't get used much. I have a washing machine too. The property is rented, so I can't change suppliers: they're set by the landlord. The supplier for both gas and electricity is e.on. I've just been reading about a family of 6 who say their combined energy bill is around £80 per month. How can my bills be £50 more than theirs? OK, maybe they don't all have computers and hi-fi's, but they must cook, and wash? So, how does my bill compare with other people's? What do you pay? Is mine about average, too little, or too much?

Hi there, My first post so please be gentle! The usual story, lost my job, got into debt with several companies, of which they are all mostly cleared now. I still however owe Green Energy over £800, incurred during the winter for heating and from previous missed bills . I have massively decreased my electricity usage since getting into trouble to around £30 per month, and started paying them back £60 per month. However, they wanted me to setup a Direct Debit for this which at the time I said was fine and to send me the forms. However since then I had several large unexpected bills that automatically went out via direct debit, and pushed me back in debt and caused me overdraft charges. As a precaution and to prevent a repeat, I canceled all direct debits and now pay manually and informed Green Energy that I would pay manually before the end of each month after they started chasing me for DD forms. They are aware I am on extremely low income, and I informed them that I could not guarantee when cash would be available in the bank for automatic payments, and could not risk further overdraft payments making me fall even further in debt. The reply I got back from them basically threatens me, and they are trying to force me into automatic payments. My question was, is it legal for a utility company force you to use a DD even knowing that it could cause you even more debt? Can they refuse a payment plan by me not paying by DD? I understand they are just trying to make it easier for themselves to collect payment, but it really will cause me hardships if I go into overdraft again as I can barely keep up with current outgoings. Below is a copy / paste from the relevant parts of the email: ------------------------ "I did make the agreement of £60 per month on the understanding that you keep your usage under £30 per month and that you make your payments by direct debit. As you do not wish to pay by direct debit I am afraid the agreement we made is not possible. Your current arrears is £834.36. If you can make a lump sum payment of £400 by the end of August then I can accept monthly payments of £60 per month via any payment method if your usage remains low. If you cannot commit to this a direct debit will have to be set up by Friday 30th August and I will require a manual payment of £60 by then to cover August’s usage. The direct debit can be on 15th or 25th of each month with effect from September. If you fail to act on either of the above the full balance will immediately become due. ------------------------------------------------- Thanks

I have dual fuel with EDF, and right now I have a massive problem with them which is spiralling out of control because of the sheer and utter incompetence of this company. It all began after Xmas this year, when I received a huge bill for around £700, even though I had been making regular payments by direct debit. I cancelled the DD because the bill stated that they were going to be taking out the full amount....money I did not owe them and which I did not have in my bank account anyway! I phoned up EDF who assured me it was an error and my account was in credit. So I thought no more of that and carried on making regular payments via online banking (I did not reinstate the DD, and I'm glad I didn't now. Forward on to April and I received another massive bill - queried it again, get told its an error blah blah blah. Thinking back, I should have asked them to put it in writing. So....when I got another massive bill for around £800 in July - and again with none of my payments being taken into account, I had enough and decided to go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and that's when things took a turn for the worse. Fair play to the CAB, they are being marvellous, but there is only so much they can do as they are manned by volunteers and have limited opening hours. The advisor from CAB phoned EDF on my behalf and requested a full statement on my account, taking into consideration meter readings and payments made. He also pointed out a number of discrepancies in the meter readings, and EDF actually asked me to read my meter every day for a week and send them the readings, which I did. But....instead of sending me a statement as requested by CAB, the blundering idiots at EDF sent me a 'bill' for the past year for around £1,700 plus a load of incorrect meter readings and none of my payments included - of which I have proof via bank statements. Chap at CAB advises me it's time to make a formal complaint. That was 2 weeks ago. On Monday I had a call from a company calling themselves Grosvenor Services calling on behalf of EDF about my debt of £1,700. I was absolutely fuming and told the woman that I did not owe this money and I was seeking advice from CAB about this disputed amount. Said extremely rude woman did not appear to listen to a word I said because she kept insisting it was a live debt and I needed to make a payment.....I had to put the phone down in despair. This evening, I see someone park a black car outside my house and walk up my drive. A hand written envelope with my name and address gets shoved in my letterbox. It's from Grosvenor Services.....threatening to cut off my gas and electric and get a warrant so that they can gain access to my property and recover the money!!!!!!! I am really really fed up of this whole thing. A few weeks ago I suffered a major breakdown and ended up having an emergency psychiatrist appointment. It has even got to the point where I have contemplated suicide a few times (and the thought has fleetingly crossed my mind today). The idiots at EDF are well aware that I am registered disabled because of mental health issues. But I can't let them do this to me or my family. That's the only thought that keeps me going because I'm getting sick and tired of this fight. Oh well, it's time to start the legal action ball rolling....

Hi guys, I'm posting on behalf of my houseshare. Basically, we've just had a massive bill for the gas and electricity that was almost the same as our winter bill (only about £20/£30 difference). Obviously we're confused as to how that happened because we haven't been using our electric heaters or central heating for the whole duration of the latest bill. I've called npower, they insist that it's correct because we sent in the past week. However, we're still confused how we have managed to use that much when there are fewer of us than there were in the winter. Please advise. It could be nothing, but there's no harm in asking. There are a few things that has changed in between getting the 2 bills. We had our meter for electricity changed in March. The pressure in our boiler keeps falling, so there may be a problem. Lastly they've changed the charges. I've attached our bills. We'd appreciate it if you could take a look. Thanks in advance. Zoe[ATTACH=CONFIG]45352[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]45353[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]45354[/ATTACH]

The energy regulator has branded a proposal by EDF to introduce single unit pricing for gas and electricity as "not as simple as it sounds". Instead, Ofgem is to simplify the energy market in the forthcoming Energy Bill by requiring companies to limit the number of tariffs on offer to four for each of gas and electricity. EDF Energy calls for 'petrol station forecourt' pricing One of the UK's biggest energy suppliers has called for single-unit pricing for gas and electricity to help consumers compare tariffs as easily as they currently shop around for petrol. EDF Energy said it would introduce the system if all other suppliers did too. The energy regulator Ofgem said the proposed scheme would not be as easy to implement as it might appear. This was because of the number of payment options and special "dual fuel" packages that currently existed. A plan by Ofgem to simplify the energy market will be included in the forthcoming Energy Bill. It will require companies to limit the number of tariffs on offer to four for each of gas and electricity. But EDF said that plan was still too complicated. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22916656

Hi everyone, I was wondering whether you could help me with something that has been troubling me recently. I moved into a new flat in January 2011 and immediately wanted to change energy providers as we were with Spark, and I had been warned against them by my landlord. The flat was shared between 3 relative strangers who split the bills - however I dealt with the energy company. I called them and requested a final bill shortly after moving in. After many phone calls they sent us one weeks later - to the sum total of £0.00. We didn't take any action. About 10 months later, on the day that I was moving out, I opened another letter from them. It was another 'final bill' for a total of around £500. I asked my flatmates to take care of this, as I was leaving. About 6 months later - Spring 2012, I started receiving phone calls and text messages from someone alleging to represent a credit company. I was reluctant to take the calls, as I didn't recognise the number and they called within working hours. The text messages looked spammy - they were vague, mentioned credit rating and asked me to call them on a premium rate number. I thought little of them, until I picked up a call and they asked for my previous address and mentioned Spark Energy. I shrugged off whoever was calling me at this point - I was at work. I didn't progress with the phone call, and they didn't call me back after two conversations with them. I appreciate that this is all from a long time ago - but the reason that I am currently concerned with the matter and thinking about it again is because I would like to apply for a mortgage in the near future. I've always had a very good credit rating aside from this - 6 years of living independently with all bills paid on time, and no credit card. As I no longer live as the residence, and have had no correspondence from Spark since Spring 2012 - I don't know where to start. My questions are: How or should I find out if I owe anything? How do I found out if it affects my credit rating? I've searched the forums for other occurrences of complaints with Spark - it seems I'm not alone - has anyone else experienced the same problem as me? Any help is greatly appreciated - thank you.

Hey all, This is my first post although I have used the site before (lurking in the shadows) for advice on a lot of different things and now I have a query that I can't find an answer to without asking it myself! I moved into a property back in the end of September 2012 & unfortunately I've been having a lot of trouble with Spark energy. I have contacted them on many occasions as I was trying to receive a final bill in order so that I could switch to another supplier. I've now finally managed to receive a bill from them, however the problem I have is the fact it seems they have changed my tariff retrospectively. I was in receipt of a letter dated at the end of March that stated I was currently on the best tariff, however to retain this tariff & complete account setup I would have to provide either a security deposit of £150 within 7 days or provide my DD details or I would be switched onto a worse tariff (the standard plus). I didn't do this as I have been trying to leave them (I was wary in case it meant me having to chase them for money after I had left). However I have now received a bill which states that for my usage between September up until today, my account was on the worse tariff which makes a difference to the bill of about £800 (which incidentally is around half the bill's cost). I've no problem paying for what I have used, however I was just wondering if anyone could advise as to the situation and the legality of the tariff being retrospectively changed to the worse one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I run a small cafe business and we have our energy with Opus (or as I like to call them Oplus). We were paying our gas and electric fine until they messed up our electric invoices and duplicated the amount, obviously we weren't happy and asked that they change them. After a long time they eventually issued new invoices but included a charge for late payment, so this meant we contacted them again to get it removed. This also took time. Whilst all this has been going on our invoices have built and we cannot pay it all in one lump sum, so we asked if we could pay in instalments, whilst they have agreed they have yet to make an agreement about how this is paid. The invoices themselves are also very confused and muddled which we are yet to confirm are 100% accurate. All of the above is fine and it appeared to be getting sorted, however we have been getting harassed and bullied by their credit control department, demanding money. We even had a letter hand delivered saying they would be applying for a warrant of execution. (this letter was actually delivered to a business over the road, and they saw the letter which is obviously embarrassing for us) Now we are more than happy to pay the amount owed over a period of months however I cannot tolerate the agressive and abusive behaviour we are receiving from them at the moment. Any thoughts on how to proceed? I am concerned that a warrant of execution will be granted without us having a chance to explain that there is a genuine dispute in place. Thanks

We are facing an energy bill crisis. Families are suffering huge financial hardship, and one in four households can’t afford to heat their homes. Cold homes are damaging the health of our most vulnerable citizens, including children and older people. But there is a fair and permanent solution. We can have warm homes and reduce our fuel bills. We call on the Government to use the money it gets from our carbon taxes to make our homes super-energy efficient – driving down our energy bills forever. Sign our petition today! http://www.energybillrevolution.org/

Hi guys I've been struggling to keep up with payments on my energy supplies recently and today decided to check my account to monitor my bills. I've noticed that for the period of Nov - Feb in 2012/13 they have charged me £750!!! I live in a 1 bedroom house, by myself - I have 1 heater on regularly. I flicked back through the bills and for the same period of Nov-Feb in 2011/12 they charged me roughly £300 - I noticed the tariffs have changed - what are my rights with this? It seems insane they can more than double your bill with a tariff change?!!? Advice is very much appreciated.

Hi, I'll try keep this short but would really appreciate advice where I stand! I was living in a 3 bedroom house for around 6 months with 2 others, Person A and Person B. Person A set up the electricity bills with EDF in his name with all Direct Debit info. EDF knew nothing about me or other tenant and Person A didn't really know any info about me aside my name. I moved out after 6 months of paying my share of bills to person A as did Person B. I moved out due to disagreements with Person A etc so thought it'd be best if I moved out. This was in January and all bills were paid up till then. Fast forward to today, I get a letter forwarded to me from Person B (Who is still friendly with me) it's an EDF bill with my name on saying I owe 200 pounds for last 3 months of electricity/gas. Bill says from January to march and I've got to pay by April 03. What Person A has obviously done is just claim he's moved out and closed his account with EDF then told them my name and said oh he's still living there and they seem to have just automatically set up an account with my name on and no information about me?! how is that even possible? surely if you can just do that I could do it myself just ring energy company make up a name and say yeah they are still living there I was a housemate I've moved out so put the bills in their name and just continue to live there and use the energy ignoring bills addressed to this Joe blogs I made up? My question basically is will I be liable for this? I don't see how it can stand up, they have no information about me, I never set up an account with them all they have is my name and that's it no date of birth anything. I remember being forwarded a letter from Person B in January addressed to me that just said good news we're still supplying your house you just need to ring us and give us meter readings your name and a few details to set up your new account. The letter had my name on and an account number on it but I didn't set up anything and didn't think anything of it. Obviously person A didn't set up the account or follow up on that letter as he never saw it. If you can just go changing names without consent of people or setting up new accounts what is to stop me ringing up about this letter and claiming I'm him changing the name on bill to his. So where do I stand here? If it's confusing at all please let me know and I can try edit my post! Edit: Or he just changed the bill into my name randomly and I was not informed of anything like that happening.

Shocking stories of bullying following their incompetence in correct billing. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2232395/EDF-bullies-threatened-debt-collectors.html

Please respond with any advice available, please no judgement. I moved into an new flat (as a tenant) on July 27th, 2011. I immediately called British Gas to put the bill in my name, however British Gas told me that the previous tenants had decided to switch to a different electricity company. I asked whether i could stay with them, however British Gas said that it was too late to stop the switch. I then asked them, whether or not they knew which electricity will now be supplying us, and they stated it would be N Power. So starting from the 8th of August 2011 I would be supplied by N Power. I tried to call them several times in the following couple of days, but i never got a response back. I then contacted British Gas to switch back to them, but they said i had to wait a month before i could do so. So I was only able to switch back to British Gas on September 8th 2011. British Gas took care of all the details, and had no problems. However, I never ended up having a bill for the electricity used during the period starting the August 8th 2011 and ending september 8th 2011, as N Power never contacted me back, and after a while i gave up. Now FAST FORWARD to February 23rd 2013, and Sparks energy sends me a bill claiming that i owe THEM £255 + interest for not having paid sooner!! I searched online for any help, and sent them a letter stating that due the Code of Practice for Accurate Back Billing, since they are at fault for not billing me sooner, and that the bill is not applicable because the energy supplied was consumed more than 1 year previous to the bill being issued. Sparks energy then responded stating, that they had received my letter, and that they have looked over the account and they can advise the final bill was sent out on 20th of March 2012. (However, I never received it, as I suppose it was put in the name of the previous tenant.) They finished by saying "unfortunately Sparks Energy are not part of the back billing code so the bill does stand, I do apologise that there has been a delay in the final bill issued out due to this my manage has offered a 10% discount of the balance on the bill. I have yet to respond back. Please let me know if there is any other way i can fight this bill, I just don't have that sort money laying around. Thanks for the help!!

First I must say its good to see that I am not the only one in this situation. So here it goes... My dad (the business owner) cannot speak English and therefore I tend to deal with most things but obviously I don't know everything about his business. He receives a call from someone on the 8th Feb 2013, passes my number to them so they can speak to me, and they call me (at 20:30). They tell me that they are calling from Npower (who from what I knew was the energy supplier), that the director of the business has recently changed (which is true, my dad took over a couple of months ago), and that we are being charged 30% higher because there is no contract with a supplier. they tell me in order to not be charged this amount that we should renew the contract. They ask me if I am authorised to speak and I tell them that I tend to deal with most things because my father cannot speak English. They proceed to renew the contract (and notice, I still think I am dealing with NPower when in fact I am not), and ask me questions as to when my dad took over. I tell them I need to speak to him first because I don't know any of the information they want from me. They force me to give them any date, so I don't get off the phone and speak to my dad. I repeat that I need to speak to him, and again they find a way to keep me on the call. He then says that he needs any bank details so he can proceed to renew it. He takes my card details (and assures me that this is not to take any payment, its just to show that we have a valid English bank account), and tells me that he will call me back in 2 minutes because "he needs to switch desks". So he calls me back, and reads out the terms and conditions (at 200 mph speed), so that I can't understand anything. I accept it, and thats the end of it. My dad receives a letter from a company called 'Opus energy' (addressed to me, not my dad)on the 14th Feb 2013 thanking us for switching to them and confirming the direct debit details. I ring them up and ask them what the hell this means, and I get told that I have verbally agreed to a legally binding contract with them through a broker called 'Energy Direct' (I think that was the name). I explain the situation to her, confirms that its a valid contract, but if I wish to cancel then I need to wait for 5 working days for someone to get in contact me with because they need to investigate the issue. I rang NPower straight after, and they said that we are already in a contract with them until 2014, and that Opus shouldn't have been able to do this. She assures me that she will object (I can't remember the energy term she used), but basically it means that they shouldn't have been able to do this because we were already in a valid contract with them. She assures me that I shouldn't worry, and that if and when they ring, I should tell them thats in the hands of our current supplier and they will get in touch. Sigh of relief.... I receive a call this morning (Saturday, 16th Feb) from Opus, they tell me that they've investigates the issue, and listened to the recording, and concluded that there is a legally binding contract because I verbally agreed to it . Apparently I was told that I am dealing with Opus 4 times, and I told them that I was authorized to speak. I kept explaining the situation but she kept repeating herself like a parrot and by the by she was the RUDEST person I have ever dealt with in my life! I said I already have a contract with another supplier, she said they didn't object to it, and now Npower will send an objection but that Opus will reject it. She said that she'll send the verbal recording to me. But from some of the reviews I read the whole "I'll call you back, I am switching to another desk" was part of it! They only recorded the agreement and not the whole conversation in which they misrepresented the facts and their identity! I absolutely hate myself for falling into this trap, but as I can see they organise it in such a way that its virtually impossible not to. Is there anything that we can do? I will call NPower on Monday morning, the Ombudsman too. But can anyone advise me anything else? My dad does not want to deal with this company!

Hi we have ended our business due to the bullying and stress from opus energy! We moved from a small unit to a larger unit from British Gas why oh why my husband changed it to opus energy i do not know! The only extra lighting we had was 4 fluesent bulbs they charged us £2,000 more than british gas and we hadn't even put up the other spotlights! They were charging us more than the garages who fix cars and all we sell are handbags and shoes!!! We went to the energy ombudsman and they advised us to write all our readings down at the start of the day to the end which we have done for over a year. 11-22 units depending if we had heaters on opus were charging us 50-70 sometimes 100-200 units in a night when noone was in the shop!!! Ombudsman told them to check our meter which was proved to be faulty so the ombudsman then told them to fit a new meter in and revise our bill to our readings. They haven't done this and they haven't replied to the ombudsman! They then sent people out in black suits who knocked on the doors of our fellow business neighbours to ask where we were when we were shut one day, everyone on the industrial estate then thought we had visits from bailiffs as they come in a black car with black suits they aren't they are field agents, but our reputation is scarred as they did this when customers were in the shop, needless to say the impack on our fellow business neighbours and customers wasn't great! The stress caused my husband and I to argue and we have now closed the business .When we were moving out they visited again and asked for payment which the bill keeps going up each week. We said we will pay for the electricity used but not what we haven't and that opus need to do what the ombudsman have asked them to do. He said they will find us at home!!! How are they allowed to get away with this bullying and why do they not do what the ombudsman have asked them to do. ..i'm worried they will come to our house now and start here! Any advice please?

Hey all, Quick question, I am moving home on Saturday and am a bit worried about my final bill through EDF. I'm on dual fuel with them I believe (I say that as since I switched to their blue price promise April 2014 I haven't been able to submit my electricity reads online and can't see anything about electricity on my last bill. I'm in a home where things are mainly electricity based (have used about 1000 units of gas in a year and almost 7000 units of electricity). I've paid my monthly amount as usual but have trouble understanding any bills (last one I got was for June 12 and I'm in credit since then). I've spoken to their cs reps a couple of times about being unable to submit my reads but they've just told me to just give a final read on the day I move out. Well as that day approaches A rough calculation of what the last estimated read shows and what I am in credit tells me I'll owe them about £400 on moving day. In itself that's ok but I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to pay it in one go. I could do with paying it over 3 or 4 months to be honest. Should this be possible? I don't want them taking £400 from my account by dd and would prefer to come to an arrangement with them. Likewise I wouldn't want the fact I could only pay £100 a month to negatively effect my credit file. I'd just like a bit of advice as to how energy companies treat people paying their final bill when moving home. Thanks.

While at Uni I rented a flat for 6 months, the provider who was in the flat was Spark Energy, I never got around to getting my own provider and stuck with them. I called and asked them a few times to put in a prepaid meter but they never did, while waiting on these meters they never asked for payment, but I didnt want to set up a direct debit until they gave me a meter. They did post bills which i called them about, they were using estimates, I'm pretty sure just what the previous occupants were using. The previous occupants was a couple and their child whereas it was just me in the flat. For six months the estimated bill was £510. I lost my first meter reading when I moved in, and never got the second as my lease ended when I was home for christmas and my friend moved my things for me, forgetting to take a reading. I asked the landlord for it but we had a dispute regarding my deposit which he took for "cleaning" and "redecorating" and he hasnt replied. It works out at £85 a month for electricity alone which seems ridiculous to me. They've passed my debt to Buchanan Clark and Wells who are now hounding me for it, its now at £586 (which must be their admin fee). Also Freidricksons International has been sending me texts too, would they also have it? Any advice on how to proceed on this matter would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Recently received a renewal notice for the electricity supply for my small business from SSE. This stated that I would need to pay 19 weeks supply charges up front, and may also have to pay increased unit cost charges. SSE claimed that the reasons for this was due to my failing a credit check, but when I contacted them on the phone they were unable to outline the reasons for my failing, or to explain why I had passed the 3 previous checks with no problems (all since reference checks started). This seemed to like SSE clawing extra profits out of hard bitten small business customers, and in my case the fact they had been providing me with electricity for 13 years, with no issues related to payments, did I felt have some bearing on the situation. Over the course of a couple of days I spoke to several SSE droids about this situation, with one of them claiming that charging deposits, and increased unit costs did not result in higher profits! A customer of mine works in an executive position in one of the smaller energy companies, and I discussed this with him. It would seem companies such as SSE are dumping higher risk small business customers, by far more stringent credit checks, which mean customers either pay the deposits required, and in some cases unit cost increases of up to 30% higher. The reason for the use of this strategy, is down to the fact they cannot lawfully refuse to supply a customer, so are encouraging them to go elsewhere using the method outlined above. I wonder have any other forum members running small businesses got one of these notices? Seems to me that the greed of these people is astonishing, and bearing in mind the current economic situation, and the enormous profits the energy co's posted last year, that the press might be interested in what seems to me an obvious way of sidestepping the law, to ensure even higher profits?

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.

I hope that anyone who needs this, finds it... After reading through various threads I was livid to see that the tricks used on me by BES 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 Mob 07713 247393 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

Hi guys Hope you can offer me some advice as my parents have got into a bit of a pickle with these guys my mum signed up with them about a year ago after agreeing a £75 duel fuel tarriff with them to cover both electric and gas. Everything was going along fine for the first 7/8 months months or so the amount was taken out by dd no problems and then my folks received a letter out of the blue stating they were over £1k in arrears. My mum phoned them and was told that the £75 monthly payments were only going against the gas and not the electric hence the rather large bill. My mum obviously complained as this was not what she was sold and she received a letter of apology along with a £40 "goodwill gesture" credit. They then agreed the payments going forward would be £90 per month and that this would include payment against the arrears. Again things were fine for 3/4 months the payments came out as agreed then 1 month an amount of £150 came out. My mum never done anything about this and the following month an amount of over £300 came out. My mum then did notice this and immediately cancelled the dd and reclaimed the money. She phoned EDF and they claimed she is using a lot more electricity (heating in the winter). They then arranged another plan of £140 per month and mum phoned once a month to pay by card. She paid this for a couple of months and has now switched suppliers but the change doesnt come into effect until the end of next month Edf still supplying until end of jan. She has not paid this months bill and is a couple of weeks late making the payment this month. She has tried to make the payment but EDF are demanding an amount of over £600 to clear arrears in full which she doesnt have. This morning she has received a notice of legal action which states if she does not make payment in full by 20/12 they will visit the property to collect payment in full. It goes on to say if they are unable to gain entry they will apply for a warrant (under gas and electricity boards act 1954) to disconnect the energy supply. As I say she cant pay the £600 in full and is really worrying now. Would they cut off the supply of a disabled woman)?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. EDIT: The £600 is made up of £190 gas, £300 electric and and dont know what the remaining balance is i presume charges