Meter Registration Service ???!!!

lil_li

Hiya

I took over a business in March this year and got no and of calls from these people saying everything from i have no electricty to i am on rates that could be 50% higher. Well i didnt fall for all there talk. Eventually they stopped after about a month and various people answering the phone to them and saying not interested.

However, i moved premises at the beginning of November and since then i have had no end of calls from these people again. I am now getting rather fed up, one woman who rang i told i was not interested and hung up, she immediately rang me back called me a stupid b***h and hung up. They use very agressive methods to try and get you to listen.

I have a contract with a supplier of my choice.

I am still getting about 5 calls everyday and i am throughly fed up.

Please never fall for there bully tactics.

millieharley

Sparklesgifts wrote: »

Hi,

My partner and I have just set up a small gift shop a few weeks ago and I really wish that we had seen this thread before. We only had a landline put into the business premises last week and since then we have been harrassed every day through the week by people calling and telling us that we need to register our meter with them. My partner took one of the first calls and it turned out that this was from a "government body" who said that they needed to register the meter and sort us out a contract "today" as we where paying emergency rates. AT NO point through the call did the caller advise that there is no cooling off period and that they where calling as a broker on behalf of Opus. The guy on the phone said that he had checked the rates and that Opus where the cheapest in our area. As you may imagine, like several other people have already said, it is difficult enough to get a new business up and running without being harrassed daily by these dis-honest people. We have learned a very important lesson and in the future, we will make the calls ourselves and never agree to anything over the telephone and will ask for everything to be sent through on e-mail or in writing.

Thank you for the advice about putting everything in writing, I am just about to go and write a letter of complaint to Opus regarding their tactics on getting customers to sign up with them. :mad:

I HAVE emailed Opus and complained I had been misold this contract and would not be proceeding as they were not the cheapest in the area as told to me, but the only tape they have is the one I agreed to and not the hard sell and lies and a woman from customer services contacted me re the complaint saying that it was all legal and above board and would keep persuing the present suppliers in order to take my account as I had agreed a taped verbal contract. The other day someone on behalf of Opus turned up to read the meters and I sent him on his way. My present suppliers have put a block on the transfer and hopefully they (Opus) will not get it. Good luck!

englishkev

I set up my first business in recent months, our story reads much the same, as soon as the phoneline went live the calls started. I got caught out with one of the first calls...from Central utilty registrations -yes it turns out Opus was cheapest, an amazing piece of acting from the woman on the other end of the phone and i fell for it - i was even given a password so that only she would be able to contact me and told to ignore all others etc. etc. etc. (I realise i'm obviously naive but i can't believe that people are prepared to go to work and lie, cheat people and abuse them).
I was gutted to get home that night and find this forum with post after post the same. I rang British gas as they were the previous supplie and they told me i had agreed a verbal contract and there was nothing i could do. So after a sleepless night i tried again.
Here's my glimmer of hope - i hope others may do the same and read this before it's too late.
Next day i contacted British Gas again and spoke to a very helpful man, he said that its a case of who gets there first but was confident that he could sort things - we were to call again in 7 days to see if it had worked.
After 6 days a contract came in the mail and when we spoke to him again it was confirmed as being all sorted - i can't believe how lucky we were as we got a much better deal and only a 1 year contract rather than the 4 years Opus wanted.
I had emailed Opus complaining about thier tactics and after 3 weeks (too late for them) i got a reply saying that they had checked the recording and everything was above board and there was no issue but i should contact them to discuss it - needless to say i didn't and we never heard from them again.

So the moral of this story is that you can get out of it but it has to be done within 24/48 hours.
Hope this might help someone.

hepcat42

Ok, here's a question- if dealing with a broker is a bit of a minefield, how should one go about getting a quote for business electricity supply? Direct to the company? Our current contract is coming up for extension but the rate isn't great so I think I could find something competitive if I could actually get someone to quote for it. The worry is they all seem to want the MPAN or meter number and I'm afraid that might somehow end up tying us into something without our having expressly agreed to it. We could of course make clear in any correspondence that the MPAN information provided by us should not be treated as consent to a contract- but so many places seem to require a phone call and our prior experience has suggested that these recordings can be doctored to indicate consent has been given when it has not.

mobilezillacouk

i found out its because i registerd with thompson local - there free business listing , they sell your details on , within days i was getting calls fromt hese about gas supply , verry rude they were , then came the calls about water coolers , sage accounts ect ect

so think twice about registering with thompson locall online

soldieroftheline

Just had half my morning at work wasted by calls from "Commercial Registrations", "Meter Registrations" etc. Very similar experiences to previous posters, fortunately I am suspicious of such calls to start with and very reluctant to deal with cold calls generally so I didn't agree to anything.

However what I did fall for yesterday was agreeing to confirm my firm's details for businesdirectorylive.co.uk which I thought was just an online directory like Thompson's etc. Despite their assurances that they didn't sell the information on I can't help but wonder if it's more than a coincidence that I started getting calls about the electricity meter this morning especially as the callers all had my first name which I had confirmed to businessdirectorylive.

I've called businessdirectorylive and asked for my entry to be removed but I'm probably shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted!

pammy2905

Had someone from 'Commercial Energy Meter Registration' on the phone this morning, stating that we were out of contract, the supplier was about to issue an invoice and it would be astronomical if we didn't tie into a contract RIGHT NOW!!! :eek: I asked if they were a broker, she told me in no uncertain terms that they were not, they merely worked on behalf of all suppliers to find the best price for us!

I asked her for an email of the prices of that contract and she informed me that she couldn't do that as suppliers changed all the time!! She said she'd call back with the best rates for me. Phew, was I grateful.....

Call me sceptical, but I wasn't convinced so I called our current broker who had never heard of them, and then did a quick search online and came across this forum!! :j

She called back a few minutes ago, I asked her whether they were part of a group, she said no, I again asked her if they were a broker, she said no, I asked how they make money, she said they set up contracts for suppliers and the suppliers pay them a fee on each anniversary, I said well that makes you a broker, whether it's paid monthly, annually or a one off if you get paid a fee then you are a broker. She did try arguing, but finally gave in and kindly put the phone down without even a 'have a good day', the cheek....

MarieBrown

moosh wrote: »

Can not find this company CUR Ltd. Are you sure you are not from Benjamin Dexter Ltd trying to put us off the scent!

CUR Ltd is a genuine meter registrations company! They don't have a website though, but you can find them on Company's House

MarieBrown

BoxCleva wrote: »

I have just had my wife on the phone telling me she has had a call (again) from Commercial registrations Ltd.

Even though i told her that I had bounced two of these calls last week she (in a fit of madness!) gave the company the electric meter reading. Whilst doing this she was asked for her home address and DOB, which yet again she gave. :mad:

She is adamant, although I'm not sure, that she didn't commit to anything and said she would have to speak to her husband. She wasnt able to give them the gas reading as she couldnt access the meter.

What is worrying me is this enough information for these scam artists to change supplier ??

absolutely not. for them to change your supplier you need to go through a verbal recording and give them your direct debit details.

Andrew.atkinson_2

Hi in response to your last post the simple answer is YES by the sounds of what you said she may have given enough information to them to contract you via invoice payment only if she has not given any direct debit details then you may still have time to get out of any agreement drafted for you.

I have unfortunatley had the experiance of working for the biggest energy broker in the uk (commerical enrgy-AKA - commercial power, BES gas & BES Electric) Here are a few key things never to do on any of these calls.

Never give your Metre numbers either gas or elec.
Never give them an MPAN number from your Bill.
Never give them any personal Details
Always Make it clear you are In a contract with an energy supplier for both gas and electric even if they say that your not ( they have no way of Knowing).

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] if you think you may have accidently agreed to there contracts then contact your current energy supplier who can block any attempt to take over your metre but you mucst act quick as companies such as Bes and opus can take over your metre within 24 hours.

and for people wanting to know the link between Commercial Energy and BES here it is. Bes is directed by Andy pilley who also owns the telesales company Commerical energy but offically it is Directed by Lee Qualter (HIS BEST MATE) they are both within the same buiding.

Darwin court
Hawking place
Off faraday way
Bispham
Blackpool
Fy2

Although Bes will soon be moving to the new football stand at fleetwood town football club where Andy pilley is the director.

Opus energy is based in oxford but only have a small sales team directly working for them all there sales is out sourced to hundreds of telesales centres around the uk.:mad:

Other companies include metre registraions and commercial registration both based in bolton and Benjamin Dexter who Work on behalf of British gas and opus they are based in manchester.

Some tactics used by commercial energy are that if they have an awarked customer they will hand the call over to a closer (known Within the company as The Legends team) they will do there absolute upmost to get your details REMEMBER NEVER RELEASE ANY DETAILS.

The views in this post are solely my own