ScottishPower Sales Ban For Complaint Failure

ScottishPower has been handed a 12-day sales ban for failing to meet targets on handling customer complaints.

The industry regulator said the company, a member of the so-called 'big six' energy suppliers, had agreed to temporarily stop proactive selling from today as punishment for a series of failures.

Ofgem found the supplier had failed to remove a backlog of outstanding Energy Ombudsman decisions by a November deadline.

It said: "Customers were experiencing long call waiting times, receiving late bills and the firm was not implementing Ombudsman decisions.

"ScottishPower ... signed up to three Ofgem targets to improve customer service within three months or suspend proactive sales activities until the targets were met.

"It has failed to reach the target to remove the backlog for acting on Ombudsman decisions for individual complaints by the end of November."

Ofgem said ScottishPower’s IT systems only allowed "a partial implementation" of the Ombudsman’s proposed remedies and the firm had been providing thousands of affected customers with free energy and writing off past debt as a result.

The statement continued: "ScottishPower has assured us that these Ombudsman requirements will remain in force for any case where the company can only partially implement the Ombudsman’s decisions.

"More than 2,000 customers are currently receiving free energy."

Sarah Harrison, who heads enforcement at the regulator, said: "A sales ban illustrates the difficulties ScottishPower is having in delivering the levels of service customers deserve.

"While Ofgem’s targets have driven significant improvements in ScottishPower’s performance, we remain very concerned about how customers are being treated.

"As well as our ongoing investigation, we require ScottishPower to undertake an independent audit of its progress on improving customer service.

"We will keep the need for any further action under review."

ScottishPower insisted it was committed to improving customer service and said it had voluntarily agreed to the improvement targets.

The chief executive of its retail and generation business, Neil Clitheroe, said: "The process of moving to our new (IT) system has been challenging and has resulted in service problems for some of our customers.

"We are determined to put this right. We continue to correct problems, pay appropriate compensation and ensure no customer is left financially disadvantaged."

It said the failure to clear complaints via the Ombudsman was down to the fact 30 cases had been closed incorrectly.

The statement continued: "We are all fully committed to delivering continued service improvements, return to the high service standards long associated with ScottishPower and ensure that our customers realise the very real benefits of our IT system investment."