A SHOP owner says she has been made ill by bullying from energy company brokers.

Denyse Cameron, co-owner of Quayside Leather in Weymouth town centre, claims she has had more than 50 calls from brokers working for Business Energy Solutions persuading her to switch her electric and gas supplier.

She said the phone calls began when she and her husband Perry relocated their shop to Westham Road from Brewers Quay because of development work.

The couple say they have had more than 50 phone calls from the Blackpool-based business sector energy supplier.

Mrs Cameron said: “This has driven me mad.

“It’s made me feel sick and it’s made me quite ill. They have been hassling me all the time. They are ringing six days a week – even late into the evening. It’s horrendous.

“Their tactics are so hardcore – it’s bullying and it’s harassment.

“It’s a very underhand way of doing business.”

The Camerons said they were initially asked by a Business Energy Solutions representative if they were interested in saving money on their gas and electricity.

Mrs Cameron added: “I said ‘yes’ and they took that as a verbal contract.”

She said she was in a hurry and was asked for her bank details while working on the shop floor.

“They told me I had given them a verbal agreement and told me it was going to cost £400 to cancel something I hadn’t said yes to.

“I told them I would use my seven-day cooling off period and they said I couldn’t use it.

“It’s been horrendous and I had to change my bank account to stop them.

“They sent me a letter saying they had taken over our gas and electricity supply and would be charging £199.88 a month.

“It’s been so stressful. One day I was on the phone for nearly six hours trying to sort it out.

“I would say to people ‘do not listen to them when they call’.

“I think it’s outrageous that people can take contracts without buyer consent.”

A spokeswoman for Business Energy Solutions said the company is a commercial gas and electricity supplier operating across the UK and doesn’t have its own sales team and receives new customers from several different energy brokers.

She added: “Mrs Cameron entered into a BES contract with an energy broker in May.

“BES followed up with just two phone calls to the customer, which is standard procedure to confirm meter readings.

“We recommend that any customer receiving regular unwanted calls should consider using the Telephone Preference Service.”

A spokeswoman for Ofgem, which regulates the electricity and gas markets in Britain, said the regulator is aware of similar complaints concerning brokers.

She added: “However, we have no powers to regulate commercial energy brokers.

“We approached the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) about examining complaints we had received about specific third party intermediaries or brokers as OFT has powers we do not.

“OFT has decided not to investigate the cases we sent to them and we are now reviewing the position in the context of our major review of the retail energy market.”