by Brendan Coyne
SSE has rejected accusations that it is dragging its feet over compensation payments for misselling.
The firm was last week fined £1.25 million at Guildford Crown Court for doorstep misselling.
The case was originally brought by Surrey Trading Standards. Steve Playle, investigations and enforcement manager for Surrey County Council Trading Standards, welcomed the fine. However, he said SSE should “start making serious payments” to customers who were told they would save money by switching to SSE.
“It has been proven that SSE has lied on the doorstep. It should ensure people are properly compensated and we will be asking Ofgem to beat that drum,” he said.
SSE admitted it was not sure how many customers were due compensation but insisted it had not delayed making good. The firm said it had written to 318,000 customers of 400,000 it thought may have switched after being given misleading information. A spokeswoman said the firm expected that the number of people who received a worse deal with SSE would be “a fraction” of those 400,000 people.
Last December SSE announced £5 million had been set aside to deal with compensation claims for misselling. The spokeswoman said SSE was “not going to quibble” with customers over compensation and that there was no cut-off date for claims. She added that the process was “very robust” and open to challenge. As a result, SSE was not expecting customers to take further steps.
Ofgem investigations ‘overdue’, says watchdog
As SSE’s fine was announced, Consumer Focus called for Eon to stop doorstep selling and urged Ofgem to make some decisions after its 18-month investigations of other big energy suppliers.
“Decisions by the regulator are overdue,” said director of energy Audrey Gallacher. “Whilst any potential misselling must be carefully looked at, consumers will also want to know that problems in the market are being dealt with quickly, purposefully and effectively.”
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 11 May 2012.
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