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03/12/2013
Npower Issues Apology To Customers
Energy firm npower has said it is to send a written apology to all of its domestic customers.
Some 3.4 million customers are expected to receive an apology after there was a sharp increase in the number of complaints made to the firm in the last year.
The German-owned company said glitches from the installation of a new billing system had caused service issues for its customers.
Throughout the year, a number of bills and statements failed to go out in time and direct debit payments were not set up properly, while some customer accounts had problems being started. In its apology, npower pledged that none of its customers would lose out financially as a direct result of the issues.
CEO Paul Massara said: "In recent months, we've let many of our domestic customers down and I wanted to write to each of them personally to say sorry. We have been in discussions with Ofgem and are working on this as our top priority.
"Although we've made good progress fixing many of the underlying issues, we still have a long way to go, and our customers deserve to get the best possible service. That is my commitment."
In addition, the company is to donate £1m to the npower Health Through Warmth Scheme Crisis Fund. This fund supports vulnerable homeowners with cold related illnesses who need heating repairs and installations that they cannot afford themselves. Vulnerable people helped by this scheme are customers of all energy companies, not just npower. It has also been agreed that half of this money will be allocated to Macmillan Cancer Support, in order to help the charity support even more people who are affected by cancer and fuel poverty and meet the scheme criteria.
Previously, industry regulator Ofgem said it had been concerned about a "serious deterioration" in customer service levels, but it welcomed npower's apology and payment, and added that after its intervention, npower had set out a recovery plan to ensure that service levels improve.
(JP/IT)
Some 3.4 million customers are expected to receive an apology after there was a sharp increase in the number of complaints made to the firm in the last year.
The German-owned company said glitches from the installation of a new billing system had caused service issues for its customers.
Throughout the year, a number of bills and statements failed to go out in time and direct debit payments were not set up properly, while some customer accounts had problems being started. In its apology, npower pledged that none of its customers would lose out financially as a direct result of the issues.
CEO Paul Massara said: "In recent months, we've let many of our domestic customers down and I wanted to write to each of them personally to say sorry. We have been in discussions with Ofgem and are working on this as our top priority.
"Although we've made good progress fixing many of the underlying issues, we still have a long way to go, and our customers deserve to get the best possible service. That is my commitment."
In addition, the company is to donate £1m to the npower Health Through Warmth Scheme Crisis Fund. This fund supports vulnerable homeowners with cold related illnesses who need heating repairs and installations that they cannot afford themselves. Vulnerable people helped by this scheme are customers of all energy companies, not just npower. It has also been agreed that half of this money will be allocated to Macmillan Cancer Support, in order to help the charity support even more people who are affected by cancer and fuel poverty and meet the scheme criteria.
Previously, industry regulator Ofgem said it had been concerned about a "serious deterioration" in customer service levels, but it welcomed npower's apology and payment, and added that after its intervention, npower had set out a recovery plan to ensure that service levels improve.
(JP/IT)
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Almost 800,000 accounts of electricity and gas customers are to be sold by Npower to Telecom Plus brand, Utility Warehouse. The sale of the 770,000 accounts will net Npower £218 million pounds and leave them with some 4.6 million accounts. Utility Warehouse will see their customer numbers more than double to 1.2 million.
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