Clear Business not very clear!

jakepaige1

I am a mobile hairdresser and during the month of September 2020 i had to chance to open a salon. I started putting things in place and got the keys to the shop and started fitting it out last week. I got a phone call from someone at clear business telling me that they were the existing supplier of electric and water to the property that i have began renting already, They said that they were the existing supplier and that i had to put my name to their account to begin with and i could always switch later so i gave the my name, shop address and bank details thinking it was for one bill and one bill only. I had plans to switch the supply to "yuenergy" for the business but i find out a few days later that the phone call with clear business was actually taken as me agreeing to a 3 year deal on energy with no cooling off period! 
I am days away from opening my shop and no supplier can get into my shop as clear business are rejecting their advances. 
Ive spoken to clear business on the phone and tried to explain that i already had "yuenergy" on the go but clear business decide to block them 
How can I get out of this? Why is there no cooling off period. I don't want to deal with clear business, they have misled me, lied to me, they couldn't run a bath if they tried so a 3 year contract with these muppets isn't very exciting thought. any help of past experiences would be extremely helpful.
thanks

MWT

This is a site for residential energy questions, not business, so experience will be limited.

However, what you describe is a common business problem, but the suppliers are usually more devious in that there is a lot of rapid-fire talking and explaining in the bare minimum terms that you are entering into a contract with them for a fixed period, so are you sure that there was none of that mentioned even briefly?

There are some consultancies out there who will fight for you to get the contract cancelled and then get a better deal for you, a little google should let you find a few, but always keep in mind that you are a business, consumer protection laws don't cover you and you are expected to be diligent in making contracts and certainly don't ever agree to anything over the phone without reading the terms first...

jakepaige1

Thanks for your reply. I cant guarantee she didn't go over terms because as you described the phone call was very rapid, so rapid I fact I didn't realise it was an agreement 😔 I cant beleive I'm stuck in this mess with what seemed to be a friendly phone call. I realise this forum doesn't cover business and I apologise for this I jsut don't know where else to turn to. The company said they would send voice recordings but they havnt. I've also seen cases online from other clients saying recordings were tampered with after requesting them? 

[Deleted User]

I would submit a subject access request and ask for a copy of the call recording to see what exactly was said.

I think they’ll have to respond within a month, see the ICO .org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-to-get-copies-of-your-data/preparing-and-submitting-your-subject-access-request/ website for more info. 

Sorry I’m not able to post links on the forum yet.

MWT

Sadly it is very common for a new business to be targeted like this

There are energy brokers out there who will work for you to help in these cases and while I cannot recommend anyone in particular from personal experience if you google for this sort of thing you'll find links like this one:

https://perfect-clarity.com/energy-scam-targeting-businesses/