Scottish Power fined £18m for poor customer service

26th April 2016 | Commercial Energy

Between June 2013 and December 2015, Scottish Power received more than one million customer complaints, failing to provide basic levels of service (according to Ofgem), with particular issues in call handling, complaint resolution and billing. More than 300,000 customers received late final bills, many of whom did not receive monies owing for a long time.

Scottish Power has agreed to pay a fine of £18m, of which £15m will be paid to vulnerable Scottish Power customers affected by the company’s failings, and the remainder donated to charity.

The failings have been blamed on a new IT system and Scottish Power has claimed that service has improved significantly now it is in place.

Scottish Power has 3.2m customers and many of those affected directly may decide to source their electricity and gas from alternative suppliers. Residential switching is now very simple, takes a few minutes only, and can result in significant savings for householders. Despite this, according to Ofgem, more than 60% of households have never switched supplier – and one can safely assume that many of these are not in contract (on out of contract or variable rates), paying more than they should.

More information is available at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/26/scottish-power-fined-18m-pounds-for-poor-customer-service-ofgem