Secret Commissions No Win No Fee

SallyUK

Hello Everyone
Has anyone been contacted by any No Win No Fee solicitors who claim that they can get you money back. Apparently if you used a broker to sign up to your utility company, that broker should have divulged what commission they would get if you signed up with the energy supplier? If they didn't, you could be owed some money? 
Has anyone done this?

t0rt0ise

It's a thing going on for business accounts isn't it?

matt_drummer

What are they claiming compensation for?

What have customers lost that requires compensation?

dunstonh

Apparently if you used a broker to sign up to your utility company, that broker should have divulged what commission they would get if you signed up with the energy supplier?

This is a theoretical possibility that hasn't been tested.  It doesn't apply to consumers but could apply to business tarrifs.

It is based on a similar approach used with broker arranged loans from decades ago.  However, in those cases, the legal argument could call on the consumer credit act as the area of law requiring it.   That does not apply to utility bills.

On the other hand, Ofgem only introduced a disclosure rule last year.    The claims companies are arguing the broker owes you a duty of utmost good faith. That means avoiding conflict of interest.  They are trying to link commission factored into pricing as a conflict of interest.

Has anyone done this?

Unlikely seeing as it hasn't been tested in court yet

matt_drummer

And that deserves a pay out?

For the customer and the vultures!

It's like the `my diesel claim'

Who ever bought a diesel car and thought it was really clean and environmentally friendly and is now shocked to find out that it wasn't and is entitled to compensation?

If anybody signs up to an energy contract, what does it matter how much commission the broker got?

They knew what they were paying for their energy and who they were paying it to.

And people wonder why stuff has gone up so much!

ariarnia

matt_drummer said:

If anybody signs up to an energy contract, what does it matter how much commission the broker got?

They knew what they were paying for their energy and who they were paying it to.

what they dont no is if there was a better deal for them that the broker didn't recomend becayse they wouldn't of got a kick back.

imo a broker should be clear if i'm paying a fee for the brokers services and/or if there paid by commission. and if they consider/recomend to me from all the options or only the ones that pay commission. maybe they dont have to say the amount, but there should be transparancy about what the basis for the product recomendation is. 

its a trust based relationship. if i no the broker is on commission then i'd treat them like a salesman not a broker and do my own comparisons. 

matt_drummer

ariarnia said:

its a trust based relationship. if i no the broker is on commission then i'd treat them like a salesman not a broker and do my own comparisons. 

And so would I, who needs a broker to find an energy supplier?

If I go to a broker for something it is plainly obvious that they are not working for nothing, if I am not paying them then somebody else is, and it will be the supplier they sign me up to, its not rocket science!

But they knew what they were paying and to who, and most people have the internet, none of it is hidden.

We have become like America, everything that goes wrong on our lives is somebody else's fault and we deserve compensating.

Do we really deserve to be compensated for not doing our own research these days?



It's a disappointing state of affairs.

ariarnia

matt_drummer said:

ariarnia said:

its a trust based relationship. if i no the broker is on commission then i'd treat them like a salesman not a broker and do my own comparisons. 

And so would I, who needs a broker to find an energy supplier?

we almost all use brokers. just as residential customers there called comparison sites. and those sites have to say somewhere that they get money via affiliate links/referal fees (or if they say there independent and make money via ads then they have to be telling the truth)

and brokers can access deals that arent available on the open market and can keep track of all the differnt deals without someone in the office having to spend the entire day calling around... both things that can have value for a business. 

If I go to a broker for something it is plainly obvious that they are not working for nothing, if I am not paying them then somebody else is, and it will be the supplier they sign me up to, its not rocket science!

who said a business isnt paying the broker?

again as a residential customer but when we first got our morgage we used a broker and we paid them (about 200 iirc for the initial advice and 500 doing the full recomendation and application). they also told us up front that the specific morgage they were recomending would net them a payment of about 1000. they also told us why they recommended that product against our list of priorities and told us that we could take the details and compare them against the online comparison sites before deciding what to do. when we did it was cheaper than the non broker deals we could get applying to the lender directly so we went for it. 

thats what i mean by trust. if there honest about getting a commision then theres no problem its a win win. its when they hide why there recomending a product that theres a problem. 

matt_drummer

ariarnia said:

we almost all use brokers. just as residential customers there called comparison sites. and those sites have to say somewhere that they get money via affiliate links/referal fees (or if they say there independent and make money via ads then they have to be telling the truth)

and brokers can access deals that arent available on the open market and can keep track of all the differnt deals without someone in the office having to spend the entire day calling around... both things that can have value for a business. 

If I go to a broker for something it is plainly obvious that they are not working for nothing, if I am not paying them then somebody else is, and it will be the supplier they sign me up to, its not rocket science!

who said a business isnt paying the broker?

I don't use comparison sites, or should I say, I never buy through them, 

Don't comparison sites just list the quotes in order from cheapest to most expensive?

I think we are discussing a residential customer here, not a business customer?

What damage has the customer suffered from not knowing how much commission is paid on each of those quotes?

Isn't that the claim, that a customer doesn't know how much the broker got paid so they are entitled to compensation?

I don't think anybody said a business isn't paying the broker, it's obvious they are being paid, how much they get paid would be irrelevant to me.



Compensation should be for poor advice from an expert, just because they got paid and the customer didn't know how much they got paid shouldn't be an automatic entitlement to a claim in my opinion.

ariarnia

matt_drummer said:

ariarnia said:

we almost all use brokers. just as residential customers there called comparison sites. and those sites have to say somewhere that they get money via affiliate links/referal fees (or if they say there independent and make money via ads then they have to be telling the truth)

and brokers can access deals that arent available on the open market and can keep track of all the differnt deals without someone in the office having to spend the entire day calling around... both things that can have value for a business. 

If I go to a broker for something it is plainly obvious that they are not working for nothing, if I am not paying them then somebody else is, and it will be the supplier they sign me up to, its not rocket science!

who said a business isnt paying the broker?

I don't use comparison sites, or should I say, I never buy through them, 

that's your choice. we've found they consistently give us the best deals (especially when we can also get cash back)


Don't comparison sites just list the quotes in order from cheapest to most expensive?

not all comparison sites have the same deals. some dont have all companies but also negotiate there own deals with the company which can be better than the ones you can get on the open market. and you can filter/search based on what you want (especially with more complicated products like morgages and insurance). 


I think we are discussing a residential customer here, not a business customer?

i;m not. it was clarified in the first reply that the thing the OP is talking about is for business accounts. 


What damage has the customer suffered from not knowing how much commission is paid on each of those quotes?

the question isnt how much, the question is IF. if the product recomended was recomended under misleading circumstances because the broker hasn't disclosed that they are recomending the product with the best kick back for them not he one that best meets the buyers needs. or if the commission is 1000 is the product the direct price + 1000 to cover the comission.  

Isn't that the claim, that a customer doesn't know how much the broker got paid so they are entitled to compensation?

i think the claim is the broker didn't disclose conflict of interest and therefore gave misleading advice/recomendations by not acting in the best interest of the customer. 

Compensation should be for poor advice from an expert, just because they got paid and the customer didn't know how much they got paid shouldn't be an automatic entitlement to a claim in my opinion.

i dont think anyone said it would be an automatic enitlement. just that there is a theoretical entilement but its not actually been tested in court yet. 

t0rt0ise

When a company uses a broker, the broker usually gets paid part of the tariff that the company pays. So the company needs to know how much extra they are paying per kWh which goes to the broker. Then they can shop around and find a cheaper broker.