Energy Broker

victoriam329

I’m wondering if you can give me some advice regarding my partners business. We live in Northern Ireland, he runs a pizza take away. He got an electric bill for £4000 for 2 months. He is with SSE Airtricity, he rang SSE and questioned the price. He went through a broker and signed a two year contract about 4 months ago. It turns out that the rate he is paying is 52p per unit and the standard rolling rate set by SSE is 50p. He has obviously been missold? SSE couldn’t understand this and they are looking into this as they’ve never heard of this before. When he signed with the broker he contacted him within 14 days and tried to get out the contract but the broker refused saying he couldn’t help him and to contact SSE. However, at that time everyone was trying to contact SSE and he never got through. We’re very busy as we have 2 children under 3 and 1 on the way. This is obviously making our family life very stressful as I’ve had to come out of work to look after the children and he is the bread winner and it’s a lot of money. Do you think he can do anything about the broker? Or do you think he can get out of the contract? 

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Victoria 

CSI_Yorkshire

Prices via brokers are often different from prices obtained by going direct.  Nothing unusual there.

Fixed contract prices are also usually different from the "standard rolling rate".  Nothing unusual there.

Having to contact the supplier directly about problems, even when setting up the contract via a broker?  That's pretty normal too. A broker can't see the internal systems of the supplier, so can't really do anything in many circumstances.

The contract terms & conditions will tell you how/if he can get out.

Slightly strange that SSE don't seem to know what's going on though - this is a relatively common arrangement.

Do the meter readings agree with the bill?  If so, changing from 52p to 50p only changes the £4000 bill by about £150 - if that's enough margin to kill the business, I don't think the electricity price is the biggest problem.

brook_heather

He signed a two year fix - the rolling rate will go up and down as and when SSE change their standard rates so it may go lower or higher than that fixed rate.

QrizB

victoriam329 said:

He went through a broker and signed a two year contract about 4 months ago.

I don't wish to seem rude, but February 2023 (when prices were widely expected to fall later in the year) was an odd time to sign up to a two year fixed rate deal.

victoriam329 said:

 He has obviously been missold?...Do you think he can do anything about the broker? Or do you think he can get out of the contract?

I don't know the specifics of NI law but, in general, businesses don't benefit from most of the consumer protections. Business owners are expected to be able to do their own checks before entering into contracts.

victoriam329 said:

SSE couldn’t understand this and they are looking into this as they’ve never heard of this before.

What specifically could SSE not understand, and what had they never heard of? Businesses enter into energy contracts via brokers as a matter of routine.

Do the meter readings agree with the bill?  If so, changing from 52p to 50p only changes the £4000 bill by about £150 - if that's enough margin to kill the business, I don't think the electricity price is the biggest problem.

I agree with the previous poster. A 4% difference in energy costs should not be the difference between business success and failure.