Help please!

Sunshine_required

My husband runs a small local business and has just leased premises. We got the keys yesterday and I phoned Hydro Electric to arrange connection of electricty to be told I need to phone "Opus" to arrange re-activation of our connection, Hydro gave me the number to call 0845 330 2655.

I then called Opus to be told we need to pay them £408.51 to re-activate our connection plus a refundable deposit of £3000.00, which is refunded once the connection is passed to our supplier. Who I can only arrange once we're re-activated.

So basically we pay £408.51.
Then we pay £3000.00 and once the connection has been transferred to our chosen supplier we will get the £3000 back minus cost of any electric used in the meantime (takes about 3-4 weeks apparantly).

Can anyone tell me if this is right enough? Or if someone else can re-activate us cheaper? We are a small company who could be doing without missing £3000 from the bank account albeit for a few weeks and the premises will be used as a store for tools/materials so little electricity will be used really.

Sunshine_required

Hey folks,

Just wanted to update this and ask for advice as to whether I have covered everything.

Apparently Opus Energy are well within their rights to charge us a £3,000 security deposit even though the "bad history" is with previous tenants and not ourselves - they're not even doing a credit check on us!

So I have asked them to put in writing the £3,000 is a refundable deposit and no "extra" costs will be deducted (ie. cancellation fees, administation fees etc). I have also asked for them to tell us in writing that once the electricity is re-energised we will not be bound into a contract and free to switch suppliers immediately (I read in another post Opus require 90 days notice if your switching, although I am aware it takes about 28 days).

Is there anything else I should ask for in writing? I believe they are notorius for not having tapes of all phone calls.

TIA