Formal Notice of BES Group Action

Lonadit5

If BES don’t have sales staff that what Bluebirdman is saying is correct. It’s the brokers which are causing all the problems over the phone and the suppliers take the public damage because of them. It’s not BES’s or Opus’s fault or any other supplier for that matter that operate with brokers that do this.

naedanger

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]
As you are interested you should consider doing some quick digging by searching for "BES complaints" on google.

Of course all companies will have complaints but BES's regulator, Ofgem have stated, they "are aware of a high level of complaints made about BES and have also received a referral from Citizens Advice".

Nobody's answered the question yet as to why they continue to use 'dodgy' brokers.

I assume this question was aimed at BES. (If it was aimed at Opus you would be better posting on a thread about them rather than BES.)

BES have given a response in post number 16 of this thread to a similar question. Amongst other things they said "but it’s very difficult for us to do this [identify and address rogue broker behaviour] ...". But when ideas were suggested to help crack down on rogue broker behaviour, such as requiring brokers to record calls in full, BES's MD, [TEXT REMOVED BY FORUM TEAM], was reported to have said they would be unworkable. (Now what is unworkable about recording calls in full, I ask you?) For details see the following article

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1389457/Energy-brokers-face-clampdown-watchdog.html

Talking about unanswered questions, BES have not answered my previous questions, namely:

Your regulator, Ofgem, has stated "We are aware of a high level of complaints made about BES and have also received a referral from Citizens Advice." What types of matter have these complaints been about? Have any been over matters similar to those alleged in the post you were commenting on?

You also say you are surprised by the allegations. How many similar allegations about your business or its brokers have you heard?

SilentVisitor

There seems to be quite a lot of in-depth detail regarding BES here whilst at the same time, ignoring anything related to any other supplier.

Which makes me wonder whether there are a few competitors trying to cause trouble..... naughty

SilentVisitor

There is no interest. Just that this thread has no real point other than to criticise BES by using allegations and opinions.

Other users have brought up similar problems that have arisen with other suppliers yet, the same 2 or 3 users continue to ignore them. Even one of the 'anti-BES' posts were written by a user who, like many others, were created on the same day, yet this isn't noted.

I don't care about BES nor do I want to. Just find it funny and a little odd that's all. Given the nature of this thread, there's no purpose or direction to it and so I'm not sure why people keep commenting unless it's aimed at criticising BES on purpose.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

SilentVisitor wrote: »

I don't care about BES nor do I want to. Just find it funny and a little odd that's all. Given the nature of this thread, there's no purpose or direction to it and so I'm not sure why people keep commenting unless it's aimed at criticising BES on purpose.

Then why wade into a BES thread if you don't care? I don't care about modern art, so I don't go looking it up on the internet. You exhibit quite strange behaviour.

There are plenty of other threads if you want to criticise other suppliers. This one is to highlight the practice of a firm that is currently under investigation by OFGEM for it's alleged bad practice.

FWIW, my money is you're based somewhere in the Northwest, and if I had to choose, the Fylde coast

GAnco1

According to OFGEM's website, BES are one of many suppliers currently being investigated for range of different reasons, the latest of which being a company called Utilita.

Now I understand this is a thread aimed at BES, but it's hard to ignore that it's common for suppliers to be investigated, many of which are currently the Big 6. You only have to turn the TV on to know this. OFGEM seem to be rolling their sleeves up at the minute!!!

neil-uk

SilentVisitor wrote: »

There is no interest. Just that this thread has no real point other than to criticise BES by using allegations and opinions.

Really? Perhaps you could take a look at;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?382819-Bes-Commercial-Electricity-telesales-pressure-selling-issue-**-I-WON**

and

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?436804-Bes-victim

and

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?437193-Another-BES-victim

and

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?436407-Re-Another-BES-Victim-!

and

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/bes-commercial-energy-mis-sold-energy-contract-amp-prices-c620887.html?page=7

Never have I seen so many complaints from so many people regarding one company. Neither the Big 6 nor any other energy companies have anything like the shear amount of public complaints BES do.

I think another user on this site alleged these posts made by myself and others had a lack of proof or evidence?

Well, it is beyond dispute that there are multiple users across multiple websites (many of which are identified by the BES user account as individuals), that all make extremely serious allegations, which regards almost a carbon copy of issues, the complaints of which have been described in near identical situations (new tenancy).

So how many complaints do you need about this company before it becomes proof and not just allegations?

Now I understand this is a thread aimed at BES, but it's hard to ignore that it's common for suppliers to be investigated, many of which are currently the Big 6

Yes, but these complaints/allegations are near irrelevant in terms of the numbers and seriousness of allegations which Ofgem are looking at with regards to BES; omitting evidence, misleading customers, supply transfer blocking, over-charging and so forth. This is just one SMALL company with all these allegations against them.

You may expect the Big 6 who have millions of customers to have larger complaints in numbers and variety - but BES have around 30,000 (maybe an over-estimate) and are owned (and until recently fronted) by one bloke, and has seemingly a high number of complaints in comparison to their apparent size.

Meanwhile, the official BES rep still avoids answering Naedanger's direct questions.....

GAnco1

BES is a small energy supplier. All suppliers have a ton of complaints against them, but others have the resources to cover them up i.e. the big 6. You see it all over the news about the big 6 causing problems, yet one Google search and it reveals nothing. They clearly spend £££ cleaning this stuff up.

You say it's not as major, but:

Utilita is being investigated over transfer blocking too.

British Gas, E.ON and npower are all being investigated over advanced meter roll-out performance and all individually in regards to their compliance with its obligations.

Scottish Power for Standards of Conduct of its gas and electricity supply licence and compliance with SLCs.

Economy Energy for compliance with its obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences.

and even EDF Energy have had to pay £3 million following Ofgem investigation into the company's complaints handling arrangements.

Just because all of these companies can hide their negative stories, doesn't mean they're not doing it..

neil-uk

Yes, but as I posted before, these complaints are DIFFERENT types of complaints collectively across the multiple companies you mention.

BES have ALL of the mentioned complaints (bar the Meter Roll out) against them - that is a massive difference.

The fact you have had to list so many energy companies to cover the areas of a single investigation by Ofgem of BES speaks for itself!

neil-uk

I just would like to add quickly that a link I added a few days ago publicly admitting a like between broker Commercial Reduction Services and [TEXT REMOVED BY FORUM TEAM]/BES on Post #15 no longer works.

Fear not as I've taken a screenshot of the website - I just need to work out how to upload it here!

It is of course questionable as to why evidence such as this has been removed since I published it on here, as the website is neither down nor had a change of face!