A litigious company best avoided …
I am the owner of a micro business who has been sued by Consultiv Utilities for breach of contract for an electricity supply contract that failed to go live.
Their salesman 'Nathan' contacted me a full eleven months before the expiry of my existing contract. When I pointed out that it was too soon, he made the usual claim that 'now is the best time to secure a good deal' and Act Now! In fact the renewal deals he offered were disappointing, specifically with a very high daily standing charge. When I queried this, I was told that they're all like that, that's as good as it gets. He continued to ring me over the following few weeks each time offering slightly better rates, and always very friendly, using my first name and the usual 'how are you today?' sales patter. At the time my existing contract had been brokered by CU, so I trusted them to find me the best deal, and eventually agreed to accept the contract they'd secured for me.
So with a sigh of relief I forgot about the matter.
Some months later I was contacted by Bionic Ltd, another brokerage I've used in previous years. I explained that they were too late. Ah, no problem, I was told. You can only have one supplier, and whichever deal goes through first is the one you'll have, it might be ours or it might be theirs. And Bionics offer was considerably better - a daily standing charge that was £0.20p less, and an electric unit cost £01.53p lower. All this with one phone call, no constant pestering as with CU.
I hope this review will alert others not to break a contract with this litigious company, who emailed me 2 months after the event, aggressively demanding £750 + VAT. CU's declared lost commission on the deal was £550, but £750 is the flat 'per meter' fee. Having taken legal advice, I decided to pay up or risk escalation and even more expense. However, if this happens to you, I suggest kick the can down the road, then plead poverty and negotiate. I finally paid them £500 + VAT.
An expensive lesson learned the hard way; I find it strange that CU have secured such a high star rating on this site, and would certainly question the provenance of these glowing reviews. If I could have left a no-star review I would have, and I look forward to reading their response to this review. They always have an answer don't they?
Reply from Consultiv Utilities
Thank you for sharing your feedback.
We appreciate your concerns and are sorry to hear you are unhappy with the outcome. However, we would like to clarify the situation for transparency.
You signed a legally binding energy contract with Consultiv Utilities, and we proceeded to secure your supply with the agreed rates and terms to protect your business from market volatility. Entering a duplicate contract with another broker after signing with us does not cancel your obligations under the agreement you made with Consultiv. Only one contract can go live, and when a customer chooses to enter another contract elsewhere, the original agreement becomes a failed transfer, creating unrecoverable costs and lost commission on our side. This is something Bionic should have made clear to you.
Our terms, including cancellation fees, are made clear at the point of agreement. We do not take legal action lightly, but we have a duty to recover costs when a customer chooses to breach a contract they have signed. We offered a settlement figure lower than the contractual fee to resolve the matter without prolonged escalation, and we appreciate your cooperation in settling this.
We understand this has been a frustrating experience, but we encourage customers to seek clarification before signing multiple agreements to avoid these issues in the future.
We wish your business well going forward.
– The Consultiv Utilities Team