Redwood Utilities Opiniones 

Was called by callum who was fairly new to the company. Really helpful and was well mannered. Everyone I dealt with from the group was excellent as they have all merchant services under one roof! Excellent after sales support and easy application. Can't recommend them enough!

Spoke to Aaron regarding changing gas and electric, no clue what I had to do but he helped every step of the way massive help and top guy!

I spoke with Jake Ogden about changing my card machine he explained everything in detail and made sure I got the best deal possible I would recommend these guys to anyone who's in need of a card terminal

After being dubious of using a business we have never used before we then had a with jo who helped us from start to finish! She Saved us a bomb on transaction fees and was very professional! I would highly recommend this business to anybody requiring card services. I will never go anywhere else, so glad i called thanks jo x

Used redwood for the first time saved us loads of money on our transaction fees jo was amazing very approachable and very helpful. Would definitely recommend.

Great price and great company! No saved us a lot of money

Jo was amazing. What a woman. Saved us loads of money. Thanks.

Jo was brilliant and saved us money on our card machine…very helpful and a smooth transition…nothing was to much trouble

Was looking for a new gas/electric supplier and James B at redwood made it such an easy and seamless transition from my old supplier. Would highly recommend and will use them for any future procurement of contracts. Thanks guys

Was contacted by Josh to help change over my energy supply for my business. Was unsure at first but Josh soon put me at ease.

Rates for 29p/kWh:

Valda Energy daily S/C: 71p
Redwood 'broker' rate: 93p
Octopus: No standing charge, no 'sudden' high direct debit.

Redwood Utilities, part of the Redwood Group and one of several firms to rise and fall within the same theme and region, seems to specialise in some fairly murky things. But of course, they've reached my attention through cold calling.

We were called from 0161 518 7816, and since Redwood runs VoIP telecoms services I suspect they set up their agents with blocks of geographically misleading numbers – the 0161 518 78xx series is already showing on WhoCalledMe as a utility scammer with a Scottish accent.

The agent had presumably got details from the council after a change of tenancy on a small shop; I should know better than to deal with cold callers, but when you're setting up a small business there are plenty of things to deal with. 8:30am is before the coffee kicks in, too.

Fair enough – but I'm not a total idiot. I listened to what was being sold, and the package presented with Valda Energy; a fixed-rate deal of 39p/day standing charge and 29p/kWh consumption – seemed pretty good.

No other providers were mentioned and I was impressed, genuinely, with the speed-rapping skill of the practiced sales patter, mimicking the high-speed tape effect of terms and conditions. I did not know at this point that these terms and conditions are considered legally binding on a B2B contract (though, it is possible to mount a legal challenge if the contract terms are not as presented, so – yeah, you'll be hearing from me if you continue to give me a reason to follow up – I've got enough time to focus on this for a while :D ).

Valda Energy's own agent, Maisie, reviewed the salient part of the recording for the agreement, and confirmed that I mention the 39p/day standing charge and it goes uncorrected and unchallenged.

Which made the actual contract sent through, at 93p/day, rather a shock. More so, the fact that the £450 commission mentioned is in fact paid by the customer - yes, it is recovered through billing from the energy supplier, but they still recover it, they're not paying a commission, they are covering an extortionate fee to rip you off and mislead you on energy and complicit in the process.

Anyway, back to this firm. As mentioned, I was told 39p/day, initially - I repeat it a couple of times, and apparently the agent does say 93p once, at the same time as I am talking, but doesn't correct it during the agreement part of the conversation They also insisted on taking direct debit details to proceed, which as it's a new business weren't available. The delightful, caring and empathic human being on the end of the call, who at this point had chatted enough to know I was between jobs, took mine – even though I'm not liable for the supply of energy, and Valda has a practice of taking a SUBSTANTIAL sum in a first direct debit as 'payment on credit' regardless of usage. This is well documented on Valda's own trustpilot page.

Had they done so, I'd have been put into a very difficult position indeed. As it happens, the expert contract negotiator from Redwood also mis-spelled the responsible party's name on the contract, so I'm not entirely sure who they have a contract with even before challenging it for being misrepresented.

Valda say 'get Redwood to void the contract'. Redwood say 'complain we have 14 days to reply'. Valda aim to take the first direct debit within 10 days of supply being transferred (and had already submitted an authority to the bank). The whole game is built around selling something that isn't accurate, ripping off the customer to cover that huge commission, and then the process of complaining all taking place AFTER the trader or business has been put under financial stress, with terms in Valda's contract (that you never get to see before agreeing to anything) saying that 'agreeing to a missold contract is still agreeing and there's no right of withdrawal'. Ombudsman complaints take 8 weeks.

From my point of view, they just need to void this switchover – if Redwood IS a legitimate firm and has run afoul of a rogue sales agent's dishonesty, they have every opportunity to sell us an energy contract with full transparency, after all. But I don't believe that they are, and a phone call and email has had no response that will change my mind. So the next stop is legal action and – thanks for the inspiration – a campaign to get the legislation on business to business contracts changed to ensure sole traders and small businesses, who can be held to account personally are given the same protection as consumers – as they can be seriously harmed by aggressive services and utilities firms, rather than a limited company taking the hit if it fails because an energy company ripped it off to the point of insolvency.

We were cold called by someone from this company, purporting to be from Octopus, when we were trying to sign up for a business contract with Octopus ( it being by far the most favourable business tariff for us). At no point did the caller identify himself as being from the Redwood Group. If so, it would have been obvious straight away they were a broker. How they got our number I do not know - we only gave it out to Octopus. We were gradually pressurised into signing a contract with YGP, being repeatedly told, after credit checks on three of the business partners, that Octopus were not coming up in the top three competitive quotes (and that Octopus rates on line were 'generic' only... the credit checks were necessary to ascertain best company for us). We were also told that the solar export tariff would be provided by the utility company once we had signed up ( something Octopus have always been transparent & upfront about).....YGP have since confirmed they do not support a solar export tariff!

We have lodged a formal complaint with this company, and will pursue via the Ombudsman if the contract is not cancelled (YGP have pushed us back to the broker as the ones who arranged the contract) We were mis-led, pressurised, and mis-sold this business contract. We are a very small business just starting out, and are sickened by this disreputable behaviour.

It’s a scam. Josh rang my business and intimidated my staff concerning ‘change of tenancy agreement’. Rang several times and made them anxious. I’ve been in business many years and it’s a good job because Josh basically told me lies. Luckily I was able to just play games with him until he put the phone down. What an appalling way to do business

misled us into signing a "verbal" contract when we got cold called even though we was just after prices at the time being. absolute scam and appalling customer service.

So someone from this company called me when I just got a new shop had no idea con man exists. He said: calling regarding my meter reading for my new shop’s electricity.

Very natively I thought he was the supplier, calling regarding owner changing. Gradually he started to offer me new energy deal, made me believe he had already compared every bundle available and recommended the cheapest one. Again, I totally thought this was something I had to do and his speaking speed was ridiculous.

I would admit it’s my fault to didn’t think if through just went with him, now signed myself in an expensive deal.

But hope everyone else can see this and avoid.

People in Redwood: no matter what you tell yourself to make yourself able to sleep, you are a shameful company and you should be ashamed of yourself. For £450 commission, set up a new struggling business with some expensive energy deal, that’s not decent what so ever.

It’s not that much money involved, I’m just disgusted that this kind of company exists. Thanks for teaching me a lesson to be more careful in the future.

But everyone else: if you have been called by this company or any similar brokers, just hang up and block the number. Business nowadays is already very hard, let’s not get hit more.

This company mis-sold a contract between my company and YGP. The company in question does not hold a lease for the address - which was told to them on the phone however the broker told us we would not be paying for anything we are not legally liable for as well as other multiple lies. They’ve told us over the phone that the contract is in the process of been cancelled but then heard nothing from them for about 4 weeks. We continue to ask for some correspondence in regards to our complaint but hear nothing from them. We have contacted the ombudsman as we feel this is our last resort. Do not let this company lie, trick or undermine you. The ombudsman informed us they’ve dealt with this company before and felt we had a case. Now to just wait it out - not what we need when setting up a small business.

Used them to supply 2 businesses with card machines. Both work superb and great customer service

John Mchendry has sorted all my issues no problem at all.

Sasha sorted my energy out for me last week and it’s now all swapped over. Hassle free and no drama which is what I needed, even did my card machine with them and have referred other friends of mine to Redwood.
Renewing my other business energy contracts for my other 4 premises with them, as it’s quick and simple and the communication at each stage was bang on.
Cheers guys for all your help

I had a call on Friday to sort out my energy for my new shop. I was guided through the process and it was explained to me step by step as I was unsure of how this works. I was offered a search of suppliers and give prices and asked if I was happy with any of them, I was so I was then taken through a verbal contract for Valda energy which is who I chose. It was all explained thoroughly and I was asked several times along the way ‘Did I understand it all’ to which I did. It was also explained to me that it was a verbal offer of contract and that once agreed, I cannot cancel. I understand this, and Martin went through all the main aspects again just to be sure I understood and didn’t feel pressure.
Thank you Martin for being so understanding at a time that I needed the reassurance. I would 100% recommend you.

Reviews are really bad but Martin and ryan really put my mind at rest and helped arrange a new supplier for me.