Energy firm pays £450k to StepChange

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Energy firm pays £450k to StepChange

This is a duplicate of the Blog Entry made on: 16th October 2015 16:01

Energy supplier Utilita will pay £450,000 to StepChange Debt Charity after the regulator Ofgem found it had wrongly blocked 40,000 of its customers from switching to other suppliers. Utilita will also have to refund £110,000 to customers who lost out financially after being stopped from switching. Any unclaimed money will go to StepChange. Between June 2010 and May 2015, Utilita wrongly stopped customers from switching away. Customers were incorrectly blocked by the supplier in a variety of ways, including automatically blocking those on fixed term contracts. Utilita also failed to write to customers to explain why their switch had been blocked and what action they could take to resolve any issues.....Read more here

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Re: Energy firm pays £450k to StepChange

And this will affect Utilita exactly how?

In the last year, their customer base doubled from 93,000 to 186,000 and their pre-tax profit shot up from £1.8 million to £11.9 million.

Utilita - which only installs pre-payment smart meters - enjoys a 7.7% profit margin, whereas the industry average is a mere 3%.

Thus, giving customers a refund and giving £450,000 to StepChange is effectively like giving them a thorough thrashing with a feather - they'll barely feel it.