You wouldn’t believe the challenges that we have had to overcome in such a short period of time. It
just goes to show how greedy and sly large companies really are, and how little they care about
small struggling businesses! I guess we were a bit naïve and ignorant in that respect; well, not
anymore!
I doubt any of these companies will surprise you and I am not ashamed to admit that I became their
worst nightmare for the next three months!
The first company I will happily ‘name and shame’ was our electricity company, British Gas Business
(BGB). Due to a screw up at the National Grid and some confusion with our Broker, our business was
linked up with the wrong meter. This was first brought to our attention when our first bill came
through at just £16!! We knew this wouldn’t be right, so we got on the phone straight away and
after doing some digging ourselves, we had finally worked out what had happened. However,
nothing gets rectified with these large companies without prolonged stress! It took me, the company
and our Broker a good couple of months to finally put us on the correct meter. However, by that
time, we had already received three months’ worth of bills at an ‘out-of-contract’ rate (which, as you
can imagine, was extortionate!!). I was not having this, and we were certainly not going to pay it!
After getting some answers from our Landlord, I got straight on the phone to BGB and shock horror,
they were as useful as a chocolate teapot! With some great advice from our Broker (thank you Bob!)
I was ready to fight back! After several emails and phone calls back and forth, BGB finally admitted
that they had not actioned our landlord’s change of tenant request from when he submitted it back
in January, but they were still demanding that we pay them the full amount.
So, not only were we paying for an incorrect electricity meter with British Gas Lite (BGL), but we
were also getting changed extortionate out-of-contract rates with BGB as well!
If that wasn’t enough, Opus Energy also became our enemy when we received an abrupt threatening
letter one day out of the blue, demanding that we pay our gas bill immediately (bearing in mind that
we don’t actually have any gas appliances in the property!), or they will take it to their debt recovery
service. What a lovely letter to receive first thing on a morning! I instantly noticed that the ‘pay by’
date and the invoice date did not match up (the pay by date was dated two weeks prior to the
invoice date!). I had previously spoken to our Broker about the gas situation in the property and he
reassured me that he was dealing with it and getting the gas supply cut off. Anyway, I was livid with
Opus Energy and I got straight on the phone to them to get an explanation as to why we had
received this letter (in error!). Again, I may as well have been talking to a brick wall, as they couldn’t
care less and just kept demanding that we pay this bill. Well, tough sh*t, because I wasn’t going too!
You’d think that would be enough stress for us to deal with in one go, wouldn’t you?! Well, think
again!
Let’s rewind to the beginning of January when we were setting up the business. We had ordered all
our equipment from various online companies, which unfortunately, included the evil company,
Adexa Direct.
We ordered three items from them and luckily the two smaller items arrived without too much
stress! However, they appeared to have ‘lost’ our very large saladette prep counter and were unable
to tell us where it had been delivered too. We had never come across such an unprofessional and
uncaring company in all our life! Now, as you can imagine, we were in panic mode all weekend, as
we needed this counter to store our refrigerated items and cookie dough, as we were due to open
the following week. After ringing round, Nisbets came to our rescue and delivered a similar prep
counter in time for our grand opening (thank you Caroline!). However, sod’s law, on the day we get
this delivery, Adam gets a phone call from a friend to say that he has located the saladette prep
counter at a different address! What are the odds!?
We instantly phoned up Adexa to inform them of this update and that we no longer require the
item. However, even though this error occurred because of their delivery driver’s incompetence, we
would still have to pay a ridiculous amount of fees if we wanted to return the item – how unfair and
unjustified is that!? We were relying on that refund to pay some of the bills!
After receiving some great guidance from Citizen’s Advice, we ended up taking Adexa to the Small
Claims Court and had mediation with them. The mediator was lovely; she understood our
frustrations and empathised with us. The end result was that Adexa agreed to collect the item (free
of charge!) and that we would only need to pay the admin fee for us to get a full refund – halleluiah!
One company down… three to go!
Now, I’m sure you have all met a ‘Karen’ at some point in your life. Well, I became the next level
‘Karen’! (P.S We mean no disrespect to any of our lovely followers named Karen).
Unfortunately, our Broker was extremely busy and preoccupied, so we took it upon ourselves to deal
with these energy companies head on! It was us verses these greedy multimillion pound
corporations, and we were going to make damn sure that we win all three battles! Firstly, I sent a
very detailed written formal complaint to each energy company and my word, I gave them both
barrels!
Rather amusingly, Opus Energy threw themselves under the bus when they breached the GDPR rules
and sent me someone else’s business information! I know, you couldn’t make this stuff up! I’d like to
thank Bob for his part in this! He played a blinder when he (not so) subtly made it known to Opus of
the humongous penalty for GDPR breaches. £300 vs up to several million pounds (4% of their annual
turnover) … it’s a no brainer! No wonder they agreed to write our bill off! Anyway, two down… two
to go!
Next on my hit list was BGL – now they were taking ages to close the incorrect account (shock
horror!), so after they received my complaint, things started moving a bit faster and we eventually
received a refund for three months of incorrect invoices (to be honest, I think they were just sick of
me calling up and complaining, but I didn’t care!). Right… one left to go!
The most difficult company to reason with was BGB – it took them a long time to take responsibility
for their mistakes and after a few phone calls with the complaints department, they agreed to
reduce the bill to a reasonable amount.
It’s just unfortunate that all these issues took our attention away from the business for many
months, and caused us unnecessary stress and sleepless nights, when our primary focus should have
been on Rawkies. Nevermind, we won the battles and the war in the end! Sometimes it pays to be a
‘Karen’!
My advice to anyone ever in a similar situation is that Citizen’s Advice are a great pool of resources
and don’t be afraid to take it further with these companies. If you shout loud enough, you will get
the (fair) result you deserve! Any most importantly, never give up!
This has made us even stronger and more determined than ever to make Rawkies a success. Our
moto is that there is always a solution to every challenge! And we have certainly proved that!
Now, I purposely, didn’t mention about the issues we experienced with the Council during this time
as well, (I know, poor us!), but I will let Adam tell you that story!