Inenco Direct - anyone heard of them? need to beware?

chocolateteabag

First post on MSE but a long time lurker.


I help manage a small preschool and we were contacted by Inenco Direct offering to help us to "ensure our energy suppliers didn't automatically roll over our contract onto higher rates".


I requested they send me an email as was standing in the middle of a session with small people running riot (I'm a parent not one of the staff - just happened to be there when they rang).


The email they have sent is a Letter of Authority to:

• Request and receive current and historical account information for all my sites including: - Consumption history, meter numbers & contract end dates. All essential to enable Inenco Direct to act on your behalf.
• Issue Termination Notice with regard to existing supply contracts on my behalf. This will prevent you going on to Rollover rates.
• Request prices and negotiate with suppliers on your behalf.
• Request and receive billing information.

Am I missing something obvious? (am mother of a small non sleeping monster so highly likely) Is this a con? Surely I can shop around for energy deals myself, my provider can't lock me into a rollover rate once I reach the end of a contract period?


I guess I am looking for confirmation of my suspicions - I have googled and searched on here and other forums but can't find any mention of them.

footyguy

chocolateteabag wrote: »

...
I have googled and searched on here and other forums but can't find any mention of them.

This probably tells you everything you need to know about them

Do you want to hand over full control to a third party? :cool:


Edit:
BTW putting their name into google comes up with "About 13,100 results", the second of which appears to be their website

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

chocolateteabag wrote: »

First post on MSE but a long time lurker.


I help manage a small preschool and we were contacted by Inenco Direct offering to help us to "ensure our energy suppliers didn't automatically roll over our contract onto higher rates".


I requested they send me an email as was standing in the middle of a session with small people running riot (I'm a parent not one of the staff - just happened to be there when they rang).


The email they have sent is a Letter of Authority to:

• Request and receive current and historical account information for all my sites including: - Consumption history, meter numbers & contract end dates. All essential to enable Inenco Direct to act on your behalf.
• Issue Termination Notice with regard to existing supply contracts on my behalf. This will prevent you going on to Rollover rates.
• Request prices and negotiate with suppliers on your behalf.
• Request and receive billing information.

Am I missing something obvious? (am mother of a small non sleeping monster so highly likely) Is this a con? Surely I can shop around for energy deals myself, my provider can't lock me into a rollover rate once I reach the end of a contract period?


I guess I am looking for confirmation of my suspicions - I have googled and searched on here and other forums but can't find any mention of them.

Welcome to the forum :beer:

You're entering the murky world of business energy - suppliers can indeed roll you over to exorbitant tariffs if you do nothing. British Gas Business stopped this practice, I believe some of the other big players have followed suit, but I'm sure there are plenty out there that still do.

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/smarter-working/energy-made-simple/contracts-and-billing/ending-auto-rollover-plans

Over to Inenco.....

Inenco are a broker. The world of energy brokers is almost entirely unregulated, there are cowboys out there that will trick you into signing contracts on high rates for suppliers they are allegedly in cahoots with. See the BES post on this forum for more details on that.

The good news is Inenco are one of the largest and most reputable brokers out there. They basically will shop around suppliers and get you a decent rate, all for a fee of course.

You can do this yourself, contact various suppliers and get quotes, the problem with business energy compared to domestic is there are no "off the shelf" prices - you can't go and look at their rates online for instance. When getting a business quote, you'll basically end up in contact with a salesman, who will whack on top of the minimum spot rate he has to sell, the best margin he thinks he can get away with. If you're a hard negotiator, you can get probably get a better deal than a broker will, but in many cases a broker will be able to negotiate something better.

Sorry for the long winded reply, and bon chance!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

footyguy wrote: »

This probably tells you everything you need to know about them

Do you want to hand over full control to a third party? :cool:


Edit:
BTW putting their name into google comes up with "About 13,100 results", the second of which appears to be their website

So which is it? FYI Inenco are a perfectly reputable company.

footyguy

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

So which is it? FYI Inenco are a perfectly reputable company.

I think that question would be better addressed to the OP.

My initial respoinse was based on the information they provided

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

footyguy wrote: »

I think that question would be better addressed to the OP.

My initial respoinse was based on the information they provided

Reverse ferret alert

chocolateteabag

Thank you for your replies - very helpful indeed!


I will look through their document again and check on what their fees are.


It's a teeny preschool and our electricity bill isn't huge but worth checking if they can actually save us any money.


BTW - I had found their website - but with nothing mentioned about them on the forums I look at I just worried they were dodgy. (I imagine small charity businesses like ours are a target for cold callers as we may not always have business savvy heads on)

macman

Always check the minimum term before anything else, unless you want to be tied into a long contract.

Hoof_Hearted

Please don't sign up with them. I work for an energy consultancy and we do some energy purchasing. Some of these companies will shop around the suppliers and get the best deal for them. They add commission to the tariff which means you are paying over the odds for every kWh you use. We don't charge a commission as purchasing is a very small part of our business.

My advice is to email the suppliers yourself and get the best price. Just like domestic energy, you can get a fixed-price deal for a year or two.

Hoof_Hearted

Just to add, most business contracts have a termination period, normally one month (I think NPower is 3 months). Find out when your current contract ends and send a termination notice to stop rolling over onto poor rates. Essential to put the dates in your diary. In theory, you can send a termination letter as soon as you sign a new contract, stating that you don't want to renew when the contact ends. It doesn't stop you renewing with the same company if they offer the best prices. It can take a few weeks (gas takes longer) to change contracts so you need to start the process six weeks before the current contract ends. Unlike domestic, you can specify the contract start date.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Please don't sign up with them. I work for an energy consultancy and we do some energy purchasing. Some of these companies will shop around the suppliers and get the best deal for them. They add commission to the tariff which means you are paying over the odds for every kWh you use. We don't charge a commission as purchasing is a very small part of our business.

My advice is to email the suppliers yourself and get the best price. Just like domestic energy, you can get a fixed-price deal for a year or two.

I agree that customers can get the best deals by going direct (assuming they have some negotiation skills). I did mention in post #2 that Inenco will charge for their service.

It doesn't necessarily make using them poor value - some very large corporations with very savvy purchasing departments use brokers.

As an aside, if your consultancy don't charge commission when you broker contracts, why bother doing it at all?