News

Rising  business energy prices have had one unfortunate consequence.  As competition heats up in the marketplace for energy supply, the interest of some less than reputable operators has been piqued.  Whilst established businesses such as Utility Helpline can boast of a proud five year history in the industry, serving hundreds of businesses by helping keep down their costs, the perception of this growth industry has led to other, more dubious, companies cropping up. Indeed, our recent broker scam report highlighted this. Ofgem has now spoken out and labeled such companies “rogue” energy brokers. Here at Utility Helpline we would like to distance ourselves from the more unsavoury elements of the energy market, and to support Ofgem in their quest to regulate the industry and clamp down on their activities.  As we have posted before, sometimes the operations of these companies are purely and simply fraudulent.  More commonly however - and yet equally regrettably - they are simply incompetent, set up by people inexperienced in the industry and unable to deliver a quality service, despite promising the right business energy rates around. On the positive side, it’s worth noting in the Ofgem findings that around 85% of businesses were actually happy with the service they received from energy brokers.  However, 15% dissatisfaction is still too high, especially when allied to complaints of heavy-handed sales techniques and unprofessional behavior.  Again, our experience of the industry consistently proves that that is not the way to do business, as our client testimonials will attest.  Ofgem also found some rogue brokers were locking customers into automatic rollover contracts.  As you’ll see from our range of services, here at Utility Helpline we work to find the right possible business energy rate, and conversely that often means staying flexible, and therefore able to react to a changing energy marketplace. So at Utility Helpline, we support Ofgem in their laudable aims.  We know the engine that will drive the UK’s economic recovery will come from the SMEs that we work with on a day-to-day basis.  So our focus is devoted to helping them, by checking the market to secure the right business energy rates available… to do what we can to maintain the bottom line in a tough fiscal environment.