can bes take over a residential property electric supply as they only do commercial electricity I need to no as been miss sold a contract please help the last few days have been hell bes utilities phoned me saying they were acting on behalf of my hopefully soon to be landlord no lease signed I have ended up in a contract some how I have been bullied and feel forced into this contract really not sure wat to do as I don't have a lease yet or permission to change the electricity supplier still they say I cant get out of it they say they are going to take over the electric suppy on the 25th and there is nothing I can do they also said the supplier at the moment cant reject the take over apparently I have no choice but to go with them all I want to do is get out of this contract. also the address on the contract is a residential house helllllppppppp

Hi everyone I've been contacted to by a company trying to get me to sign up to bes energy. Now initially due to rushing about trying to get the shop ready for opening. I've gone through the process of starting the verbal contract. I'm normally quite a savvy person and can sniff out these [problem]s a mile off. But due to me just wanting them to get off the phone I've missed this one. The woman got have way through the verbal contract at which point I thought something wasn't quite right and questioned her on the fact that if I terminated I'd be left with a 6 month charge. At this stage I told her that I wish to go no further with the agreement after another attempt to get me to finish up the agreement she hung up. Now I'm sat here worry if I've got my self into something I can't back out of or because I never formally closed the agreement will it not be upheld. Does anyone have an insight to this? Any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks for reading Half*

Taken from the BES Utilities website: This is positive news, what do we think?

So, despite all of the bleating, the hype, the threats, the smooth posting on these forums and elsewhere, BES utilities have been found to be in breach of several obligations of required industry standards. This will come to no surprise to a large number of people who had dealings with this shabby company and in particular it will come as no surprise to the victims who have suffered from the unjust bullying that they have received at the hands of BES utilities and which in some cases have even destroyed their businesses and their hopes and ambitions. I see that as usual, not only as a regulator taken his time in sorting this out, but the resulting sanction amounts to a mere slap on the wrist and produces no real motivation that any utilities company to do any better. Part of the reason for the limited sanction is that apparently BES utilities cooperated and also admitted the breaches – even though, there were only denials elsewhere. Of course, it makes business sense that when you've been caught out that it is best to put your hands up as quickly as possible and it seems as if this is what BES utilities have done to the regulator despite being in denial to their customers and elsewhere. It has now been left to BES utilities to approach their own customers with proposals of redress. Will they go about this in an honest and decent way? I'm sure that we will find out eventually on this forum and we invite all victims of BES utilities to come here and tell us whether they have received an approach and whether they are satisfied with the way that it is being handled. For people who are looking around for somebody to manage their energy supply, frankly we suggest that you avoid BES utilities for at least two or three years until they have established a track record of straightforward straight-dealing. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-bes-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-standard-licence-conditions-7a-7b-7-14-and-21b-and-consumer-complaints-handling-standards-regulations-chsr-2008 BES utilities have previously come onto this forum in denial and also to assure us of their best intentions regarding their customers. I wonder if they have the bottle to come onto this forum now and to apologise and to explain to their victims what the next step is.

As many sufferers of the BES practice and the investigation by Ofgem, they published a report yesterday.(18/ 12/ 2015) http://tinyurl.com/qcabj4j

BES Customers Gas and Electricity I will try and be as brief as possible with my long winded case. In March of 2013 we purchased a cafe and on takeover decided to stay with the then suppliers "Utility Warehouse". Within 5 days of taking over I took a call from someone who said they were reviewing our gas and electricity prices, I asked if he was from utility warehouse and he replied yes I thought no more of it and duly answered all his questions and stupidly gave all our details ( he knew the previous owners details ). After a run down of costs and not being aware that the deal I already had was better somehow I agreed to a new contract and I thought it was with Utility warehouse. About 3 or 4 days later Barry from Commercial Energy called me again and said we needed to go over a few things, I duly obliged at the end of the call I thought hey I've been duped, I called BES once I'd received an email from them and they explained what I had agreed to. I asked who the agent was and I was told they didn't know. I called again a few days later after a call from Utility warehouse and the young man I spoke to gave me the details but told me he wasn't meant to and I would have trouble getting the contract scrubbed. My husband I were very stressed with the start of a new venture but did try to get out of it to no avail. It was a case of hey ho we will just have to get on with it. When I received the first bill I realised we were tied into a contract until 2017 once again I called them . I was told tough. The bills started coming in and were considerably higher than the previous owners which was strange as we had changed all of the major cooking equipment to gas so no high usage electric griddle etc. I called BES and queried this and they said there could be a fault on the meter and we would have to pay to have it checked. We were not in a position financially to pay anyone to do anything so we just let things continue. By July of 2014 we were getting bills of over £500 per month I cancelled the direct debit because it would have bounced and thought I will pay the bills as and when they come in ( huge mistake the extra costs have just about seen us skint) . In October of last year I started paying them £60.00 a week by standing order as this is roughly what the bills should be. We have ended up paying thousands and eventually put the electricity back on direct debit to try and save ourselves money. It was in Feb the bill went back onto direct debit and we continued to pay the £60 per week to try and clear the debt. We also had a smart meter installed ( which never sent a reading until 3 weeks ago) On our next bill they billed us for 13 days on direct debit at the lower rate and 17 days at the higher rate but they said we had used far more electricity in the off direct debit days, I queried this as I know they couldn't get a reading from our smart meter and I was told its impossible that we have the same usage on a daily basis so I had to pay it. We became so obsessed with the usage we took readings every hour we were open and I emailed them the info. We are open 7 days a week but keep the same opening hours and on monitoring the usage is usually mirrored from week to week. I had a visit one day and we paid BES £1000 over the phone courtesy of my parents and then a week later another £1000. We have continued paying the bills and they did ask for £200 per week on top of our bill at first we managed this but in fairness we've nearly lost our home down to this i had to bring the payments up to date. We have never stopped paying the £60 a week on top of our bill. We have been hounded with up to 10 calls a day on the cafe phone and my mobile, text messages and emails. I eventually asked the staff to say I wasn't in and in fact for a couple of months I was busy with outside catering to try and boost our funds so wasn't available they were called liars they have been given the state of play regarding our bills ( breech of data protection) . We have a great team working for us and even they became afraid to answer the phone, their latest tactic is drop calling and many of the calls are directed through a local exchange to try and trick you into answering. Just when we thought the bill was about clear 3 blokes arrived about 3 weeks ago and informed us they'd come to switch the electricity off and they had a warrant from the local magistrates. We should have been in court on the 5/09/2014, apparently they sent us a letter informing us of the date and time, I can honestly say we wouldn't have missed it for the world if we'd known. Luckily the bailiff was half decent and even he was flabbergasted because disconnection was granted on the grounds we had not paid anything and they'd had no contact with us. Luckily the bailiff was willing to look at all the email we had sent and was annoyed he'd been told that we'd not been paying ( We have bank statements to prove otherwise) We eventually gave him £600 and agreed to pay the remaining amount which we were lead to believe was about £400 ( we have never been given a break down from the court, BES or the bailiff) we have since paid another £180 and another bill and when I asked yesterday for the balance its back to £1400 est. The day they came to disconnect G4S had to change the sim on the meter because they couldn't remotely disconnect or get a reading!!!! For over a year I have asked for recordings of the initial phone calls this has been ignored repeatedly, we eventually received a recording last weekend and funnily enough its for the second conversation with a little bit of clever editing. I have asked for the first recording and I was told they don't have it. The recording I have leaves no doubt that there was a previous phone call so someone has to be able to produce it. I have kept all emails, text messages etc etc. Today we received another letter regarding the gas account demanding £1500, we are refusing to pay this on the grounds our gas bill used to be £80 to £100 per month and could probably accept up to £150 per month we are currently paying £278 per month with no clue as to how they work this out. I have compiled a whole dossier on this corrupt company and all the other companies run by Andy Pilley friends and former employees.

Hi All, Just wanted to share my experience with everyone. I'm hoping that someone somewhere will pick up my story and this may aid ofgem and other authorities to put pressure on certain (you know who) energy companies to conduct business in a much more ethical manner. Recieved a call from a young lady pretending to my current supplier (eon) telling me they had sent a few renewal letters to which i havent replied. I had been away for 2 weeks so thought maybe the staff havent updated me and agreed a contract over the phone which turns out to be with BES through a closely linked broker of theirs. I think everyone is probably aware of how they opperate so this post is more about what impact it had on me and my family.... Wife suffered from depression and was diagnoised with cancer a few years prior. Im sure the stress of loosing our business after just 8 months had a huge part to play in her death 1 year later. Like I explained my business had to shut down, in the process i lost my home as we couldnt afford the mortgage. My 2 daughters eventually had to move back home in a small rented accommodation as i could no longer support them in their studies at uni. This has not just had and impact on me but its had an snowball affect on the whole family who have nothing left, everything has been taken away from us. I just hope some of the people involved with this company and some of the dirty tactics would just stop and think about the impact they are having on peoples lifes. Although i got bes off my back now and am trying to rebuild my life. I have a friend today who is currently in the same situation and i hope this story will help him and many others who are in the same situation. Cj M

Ofgem Investigation into BES and its compliance with its obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences (Standard Licence Conditions 7A, 7B, 7, 14 and 21B) Publication Date: 30th October 2014 Company being Investigated: BES Commercial Electricity Ltd (electricity supplier) and Business Energy Solutions Ltd (gas supplier) Ofgem are investigating whether BES (encompassing both licensees) is complying with the requirements of conditions 7A, 7B, 7, 14 and 21B of their gas and electricity supply licences. We are aware of a high level of complaints made about BES and have also received a referral from Citizens Advice. For more link is here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-bes-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-standard-licence-conditions-7a-7b-7-14-and-21b

Ok here goes I just took over a business from previous supplier ... The previous supplier was with Bes.. . Bes told me to send in change of tenancy forms etc lease . .. Before that i got in contract with opus however two months still no contract transfer to.opus.. finally after two months they have given the transfer request to.opus.. Because of that 2300 they charged me for two months omg this company is nuts i asked them why did you deley the contract they said did not get the proper paperwork . .. Lies i faxed them emailed them and took them two Months. .. I was out of contract rates fine but is this fair to exploit small business owners i am soo stressed . .. I don't know what to.do.. . I cant even sleep at night because of this.. . I have giving up on fast food business.. . I please help me.. Tried talking to bes they said they will take me to court yes sure all hassle you caused me. I feel sorry for other people who went with this stupid company Please shut this company down. . Unethical. Company

BES closed my business Back in 2011 having decided to invest in a small bar restaurant to the tune of £120k from money i got from a life insurance following the death of my wife, i was conned by BES and its associated companies (who BES denies any affiliation with) proven by some considerable investigation linking names to leases on premises occupied by such companies. I was monied and had good credit. After the second invoice of nearly £700, (british gas was £289 at this time) I knew I had a problem, thats when i had to find out what the state of play was with this company, one word sums it up,, say it with people I changed the legal entity of the business, BES ignored this, they continued to bill me, they then took me to court under the ltd company status, (doing this, they legally acknowledged the cOt= change of tenancy) BES then obtained a warrant to disconnect the original business, not the ltd company, the warrant was granted and the power was cut, my business was over that day. Can you all see what BES did wrong here?, its easy to see, if any of you had this happen , you are in a strong position to action against them, along with other breaches they committed against me of course. To date they have filed for bankruptcy against me for none payment of invoices, umm. let me see now I am a father to three young kids, I have no income anymore (thank you BES) No assets and Im on benefits with no money, BES incurred many of my debts by their action and have the audacity to send me bankrupt. I am now putting my case together with legal help to sue for damages and like i mentioned I need just ten more victims of BES to initiate a class action, we can stop BES if we pull together.

We have recently taken over a commercial property who were supplied electricity through BES. After lots of hard work we've finally managed to change the electric supplier to EDF. Much better contract and much less money. BES want to charge us for the period between taking over the tenancy and today. The rates they have stipulated are a £1.50 standing charge per day, and a rate of 22p per KWA usage. Are the above rates fixed? Is there any way we can object and get a lower tariff? Seems harsh that we never entered a contract with BES, yet they are able to charge us these ridiculous rates, because the previous tenants dealt with them. Any help much appreciated.

Because I know that BES utilities is very keep to show how customer-facing and transparent they are, it would be very helpful if they would explain what is meant by a "deemed" contract and what the source if this phenomenon is. Thank you.

My mum has a small business, a shop. Recently she contacted her energy supplier (one of the big names) and negotiated a (hopefully cheaper) new contract. Within a day or two (Tin Foil Hat time) someone contacted her about cheaper electricity and a few days after that she received a letter from BES Commercial Electricity Ltd. It's possible they had been hassling and cold calling her for a while. This letter claims she entered a verbal agreement on the phone. She called to question this and the 'customer services' dept told her they will be taking over the supply, the changeover is in process and will cost £400 to stop from happening now. The tone of the letter is quite threatening, as was the phone call with the customer services department, especially for my mum who is now nearly 70 . So I’ve Googled BES and can’t find a lot of nice things said about them online. Which is what led me to this forum. It would appear this is all standard practice for them. My understanding is distance selling regulations aren’t applicable to business, even if they were the standard 7 days is over. Unfortunately my mum doesn’t remember exactly when or what was said during the call (she’s had a few health issues, an operation, complications then fell over and broke her arm so has had a lot on her mind). I think I’ll just write them a (recorded) letter telling them their services are not required, if they believe a verbal contract has been entered then to provide evidence and a full recording / transcript of this verbal contract. I’ve told her NOT to hand out bank details, and call her current supplier and tell them she wants them to remain her supplier. Are we doing the right thing? Can they just grab the supply? I've read so many nightmares on the internet today just want to make sure I am going about this in the right way.

Hi All ! I'm hoping you will be able to help and give me some advice please. My husband has recently opened up a new business. As part of the process I have been helping him as much as I can, even though we have 3 young children. He opened the shop in September 2013 and by the middle of Sept he was inundated with phone calls from BES Utilities. My husband's English isn't very good so the last call he received he gave them my number for me to speak to them. When I took the call it was my understanding that they had already spoken to my husband and he had agreed to something with them. They went through the whole process of giving me the numbers etc and that my hubby's business would have a standing charge of 0p etc with Npower and would be charged X amount for usage. I did explain that he would be using very little gas, but the rep was very persistant and eventually I agreed to a contract, however this was based on the information they provided at the time. I now know that that was a very watered down version of the information and I believe that I was deliberately mis-led with the information provided at the time, so that I would agree to a contract. At the time they asked for my name and asked for bank details to set up the direct debit, I provided them with my husband's business account details. I spoke to my husband later in the evening and he was furious that I provided his bank details without his permission and that HE didn't agree to anything and wouldn't do so. And on reflection I agreed that I was wrong, however felt that as a business they should have asked if I had the account holder's permission which they didn't !! I contacted BES Utilities to cancel the contract and was told that I couldn't and that there wasn't a "Cooling off" period. I contact Trading Standards for advice and was told the same thing. However I did register my enquiry with them and they were helpful in that they have said that the business is solely in my husband's name, I don't have any authorisation to make any sort of financial based decisions and that I should contact them to tell them so. I have read the previous threads, re this company and followed some advice. I have contracted the previous supplier British Gas and asked them to start a Erroneous Transfer, but they have said that because the supply has already moved over to BES as the supplier that they can't start it, but that I should ask BES to. My husband in the meantime has written to them stating that he is the sole owner of the Mico-business, no-one has any authority to act on behalf of the business and that he would like the contract to be declared void and a Erroneous Transfer to begin. He has also asked for ALL recordings in which he has agreed to the contract relating to his business. He did send an email on the 1st November but he still hasn't received a reply. On the 20.11.2013 he sent them a letter 1st Class 'Signed For'. He has checked the Royal Mail website and it has been delivered to BES - someone called Buckingham has signed for it. Whether this is a genuine name or not I don't know !! In the meantime I have received a letter from NPower welcoming me to them as a business and informing me that I have agreed to a verbal contract. As yet I haven't contacted Npower. But having researched the Data Protection Act I shall be contracting them to amend their records accordingly in that I don't own the business. I have also researched the Data Protection Act with regard to recording phone calls. Under the DPA, BES MUST tell you that they are recording your telephone conversation, which they didn't inform me at the time, however when my husband rang them to try and cancel the contract, they said they had my recording in which I agreed to the contract. Also they are in breach of the DPA because they took the bank details, without the account holder's details. Which my husband mentioned in his letter. We also researched the Contract Terms Act 1977, and quoted some terms within the legislation. We also researched contractual law and in his letter the following points were made:- *** In England, a contract whether verbal or written, MUST follow some basic principles in order to be formed: - There must be an offer by a party to enter into a contract on certain specific terms. The offer must be accepted – with no variation of terms of the offer and then communicated. - If there is a variation, then this becomes a counter offer, which itself must be accepted. - There must be consideration, so something in exchange for what is being offered. - There must be an intention to create legal relations. Without intention there cannot be a contract. My husband has stated that there was no intention for him to form a contract relating to his business !!! I have received numerous phone calls from BES asking me to ring them. This is no doubt to do with the fact they have sent a bill for £293 for 2 week usage of GAS !! Thankfully my husband cancelled the DD, so they no longer have any bank details to take the money from. In the last week alone I have received about 7 phone calls and 3/4 voicemails asking me to ring them. I have avoided all phone calls to numbers that I don't recognise and added BES as a contact to me phone and added the 4 different phone numbers they have tried ringing me on. This is so that I know which numbers they are using. !! I shall be emailing UIA, the Data Protection Commissioners Office and Office of Fair Trading to see of they can help with any caselaw which may help me. I have also emailed BES asking them for a unedited copy of the telephone conversation, and a person's name as the single point of contact for my complaint via email. To date I have not received any reply. My understanding is that BES have 40 days to supply a copy of the telephone conversation.. So I shall see !! I would like to think that I am a pretty level headed person, but this has really got me, because normally I would have checked the company before committing my hubby to anything. As a new business my hubby is struggling to find his feet anyway and this issue isn't helping. So any further help, guidance and case law and authorities/organisations which may help would be most useful. I am also seriously considering getting legal advise, because I think they have breached the terms of a verbal contract anyway. Thanks guys.

Hello all, I opened a restaurant in April and in March I arranged to have 2 phone lines and broadband with BT. In April I switched my energy supply to BES energy as their rates were about half of what British Gas wanted. Shortly after this I got a call from BES telecom and this is where it all went wrong. They wanted me to switch both of my lines and my broadband to them as they were cheaper. I told them that I was in contract with BT and if I moved I would receive a bill with cancellation charges which would remove the whole point of me moving as I wouldn't save any money. I was assured by the salesperson that as the contract with BT was so young I would not get any cancellation charges. I asked him to repeat this and he assured me it was the case, saying if he was wrong I could just stay at BT and there would be no harm done. Imagine my surprise when I then received a letter from BT with cancellation charges of around £700! I called BT and explained the situation for them to tell me that the only way I could not pay the charges with BT was for me to keep BT as my supplier. BT told me that one of my lines had moved to BES but nothing else had. BT would now move that line back to BT. I called BES and told them I was no longer moving to them and they tried to talk me out of it but I just told them and put down the phone as they wouldn't stop going on. Move on a few weeks and I'm still getting reminders from BT about not paying the £700 bill. I called them and explained the situation and they told me it was their mistake and that the charges would be dropped. This same scenario has happened 7 times with BT. My line gets restricted, I call them to complain and explain the situation, they say they will get the charges cleared off and reinstate my line, then it happens again approx 10 days later. Last week it happened again so I called BT and spent 90 minutes on the phone with them. They told me that the reason the charges weren't being removed from my account is because the line they were supposed to get back from BES was still with BES and therefore I had cancelled it! I explained that they were supposed to move the line back and they admitted they had forgotten. Looking at my bank account I now see that I have been paying BES £23.99 per month for this line. I told BT to move it back once and for all and they told me it would happen within 14 days. Now here is where it gets interesting. I just received a call from BES who told me that there had been an application to remove one of my lines back to BT. I said yes that is correct. He then informed me that there would be a £600 cancellation charge for this which would need paying within 14 days. I explained the whole situation and that I only moved as I was assured by their salesperson that I wouldn't receive any cancellation charges from BT. He then asked me what proof I have of his salesperson saying this. Of course I don't have proof. He then went on to tell me that their '3rd party sales people' were not regulated and that no matter what was said, I had to pay the £600. I told him that I was mis-sold and he said 'prove it'. I said 'so basically your sales people can say whatever they like to get someone to sign up and they can lie to people and you allow this?' He just kept repeating 'its up to them what they say' So, I believe I have been mis-sold and I'm in a bit of a predicament. Not only has all of this been a major hassle and cost me hours on the phone, it looks like it might end up costing me £600 too. I'm a new business and we are struggling, I can't afford to pay this bill. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I'm a first time user on here, so please bear with me... I am hoping someone might be able to help regarding a matter that a very good friend and client of mine has found herself in. She had the usual telesales hostage taking call that I have read loads about on here where she was tricked and mis-sold into agreeing to a contract without actually realising what was happening. She specifically asked "what if she changed her mind? and were there any cancellation fees?" and she was told "no problem cancelling if she changed her mind and no fees!!!" she also agreed to a 3 year contract as she only has a 3 year lease... later that day, she recieved an email with the t's & c's which now somehow have attracted a £400 cancellation fee and that she is in a 4 year contract!!! (1 year longer than she is in the property)???...??? What I am hoping to find out is... As I was with her when it happenned & as I took the call and suffered the first 5 minutes of the sales pitch before I told them they needed to speak to her, do I qualify as a credible wittness as far as an ombudsman case is concerned? I heard the whole conversation including her asking about cancellation fees and agreeing to a 3 year contract. Also, on 2 occasions she said to the telesales rep that she was talking too fast and couldnt understand what she was saying, And that she had a very hoarse/raspy voice and she wasnt sounding very clear. She is in the process of their complaints procedure (stage 2) which seems to me to be a stalling tactic on their part, and has now got a recording of the 'alleged agreement' which she asked for to be unedited. However, when she listened to it, it sounds well dodgy, you cant understand a word of what the telesales rep is saying, also, at 1 point, you can clearly hear me in the background reading out the postcode of the business to her. and, at the end of the recording, there is a succession of repeats of my friend saying the word 'yes' (6 times, one after the other, must have been left over from their editing process). also, at no point in the recording do they ask if it is a micro business, as it clearly is, only turning over a few hundred pounds a month!!! If that wasnt dodgy enough, when we finished listening to the recording, a new recording started playing from a completely different company that they were hounding, we sat there horrified to hear this poor bloke reading out all of his personal details, incuding bank sort code and account number, full name and address etc. Luckily, this guy is very safe with us as we are very honest people but we are now wondering who could possibly be sitting there with her details??? This surely must contravene the data protection act? she tried to get eon to keep hold of the account before it went 'live' but they sneaked in and took it anyway, eon requested an eroneous transfer but it didnt work Based on what I have said, can anyone advise please as all of this has made her quite ill and I cant just sit by and watch all of her hard work and hard earned cash go to these revolting gutter rats! All the best Jamie

With formal notice from Ofgem in relation to an investigation of BES, it is considered reasonable to make the following information public; It is with some satisfaction I can finally reveal that a major London law firm has now agreed to look into BES with the intention of starting a group action. At this stage, anyone reading this that has received a 'gagging order' in theory will still be able to bring their case to the group action as evidence - any attempt to stop you doing that will be taken very seriously, and is almost certainly perverting the course of justice, so please do contact the group action in confidence. I am unable to divulge who this law firm is at the moment, as there are a couple of loose ends and the QC wants to see the cases in more detail (and needs a few more to look at). However, rest assured that the person I have looking at BES is one of the best QC's in the UK. He is vastly experienced with over 30 years experience in litigation both representing and taking actions against banks, investment companies and even the Government over contracts worth billions of pounds. He is the man for the job! The lawyer is also concerned about any letters anyone may have received from a law firm acting on behalf of BES threatening defamation. This is clearly defended by True Comment, Honest Opinion, Public Interest and Fair Comment, which under the circumstances are entirely reasonable. Some concern has also been cited in relation to the apparent time scales in the letter in question, and in fact whether the law firm had been correctly instructed. The group action is bring organised by someone else, but I can advise you it will seek to; 1) Investigate and if possible prove an unlawful connection between BES and brokers . 2) Investigate and if possible prove that contracts had been miss sold via bullying, intimidation, harassment and unwanted pressured sales calls. 3) Investigate and if possible prove that the contracts in question should be voided and the Contractees awarded damages. 4) Investigate and if possible prove that a number of telephone calls have been edited to serve the purposes of winning a judicial process. 5) Investigate and if possible prove that BES and companies herein have colluded and conspired to decept a court of law in order to obtain warrants for bailiff action and/or supply disconnection. 6) Using the evidence provided show our findings to a judge before a court of law with the intention of proving that BES and companies herein have acted unlawfully, wrongly and unreasonably - and to award the victims damages. The QC has kindly offered to look at cases free of charge, with the intention to mount a case once he has in the region of 10 cases - which I think will be somewhat of an underestimate of what he will receive. Once the Ofgem investigation is complete, the QC will be leaning on them for evidence to support the claims set out above. If you feel that you would like your case to be looked at, please email besclassaction@gmail.com with your details, they will be passed on and you will receive a reply in the upcoming weeks. The review process will be free of charge, and you will be notified if the QC is prepared to take on your case.

Just been had by BES, wish i researched them before hand. I've been had by these BES also. Is there a way of getting out of the contract quickly ? Hi, Been tricked into a 5yr contract with BES by a broker, 'Concept Industries'. Called BES to be released from said contract, but can't. Any help is appreciated for a quick solution. Thanks KB

Hello guys I'd be very grateful if someone could give me some direction. Yes, I've done the reading and I'm another sensible, level headed intelligent human being who has been duped into believing the lies these people spout. I'm very very cross with myself for falling into the trap and having sleepless nights over it - same old story I've read about. They have sent me the welcome pack with all the information in about the £400 cancellation fee (which wasn't mentioned in the telephone calls). My case however I think may be fairly easy to resolve - they have ALL my details correct apart from the company name which is one letter out and isn't actually a company at all and isn't registered with companies house. I have told them this during telephone conversations and that they shouldn't waste their time taking their case any further - they have however now 'completed' my registration process and tell me they will invoice me monthly for my gas once I have supplied them with an initial meter reading. What do I do - I'm thinking maybe some sort of formal communication telling them that the company they think they are dealing with doesn't operate from that address that I am nothing to do with said company and that my gas is supplied by someone else. Help please?? Thanks in advance

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

It would seem I have fallen victim to BES Business Energy Solutions and Commercial Registration also... although I never even spoke to anyone... my wife did and she was only in helping out for the day! My full story is here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...27#post3947627