Deganwy pensioners get justice against npower

Jan 15 2009 by Mari Jones, North Wales Weekly News

Deganwy residents in dispute with npower

ENERGY giant npower has been fined after selling extortionate contracts to 12 Deganwy pensioners.

In 2007 the pensioners made a complaint to watchdog Ofgem after they felt they’d been misled into signing up for energy contracts that saw their bills soar by more than 100%.

William Wright, 80, from Rockfield Drive explained: “My wife Elaine and I got a knock on the door from an npower salesman.

“He told us we had to sign with npower as he had an offer we couldn’t afford to refuse. It did look like we could save a lot of money, so we signed.”

Five months later Mr Wright and other Deganwy pensioners who had signed with npower received a letter saying the contract was being reviewed.

“It showed we were going to have to pay more than 100% extra for our energy, and the bill was being backdated!” he said.

Deganwy Residents’ Association rallied round and decided to complain to Ofgem, which fought their case and won. The pensioners received a full refund, an apology and £100 compensation each, while npower was fined £1.8 million overall for similar cases nationally. Mr Wright has since changed his energy supplier.

Ofgem’s Sarah Harrison said: “This victory sends a clear message to energy suppliers that failing customers and falling short of licence standards will lead to Ofgem action.”

Ofgem said it would propose tougher rules on doorstep sales in order to tackle mis-selling.

Mr Wright said: “It does concern me that npower is developing the windfarm off Llandudno, but have been so untrustworthy with their customers.

“Misleading pensioners is a callous thing to do. My wife and I had a lot of worry over this and I know of another pensioner in Deganwy who was suffering heart problems because of this.”

An npower spokesman said: “We were very concerned when we found out that some sales staff were deliberately flouting our procedures. We set high standards and there is no place for this behaviour in our company so we immediately dismissed those six staff acting fraudulently.

“We have improved our processes and introduced sales validation on the doorstep. We are pleased that Ofgem has recognised our improvements and confirmed that this represents best practice.”

mari.jones