A British energy company has been forced to pay £150,000 in compensation and redress after failing to provide final bills and refund credit balances to over 2,000 customers.
The energy regulator, Ofgem, revealed that 2,284 prepayment meter customers were impacted by a fault in Good Energy’s billing system between 2014 and October 2023.
This systemic error meant that prepayment customers switching suppliers or terminating their contracts with Good Energy did not receive their final bills within the mandated six-week timeframe stipulated by Ofgem.
The total payout of £150,067, averaging £66 per customer, encompasses £55,281 in direct compensation and refunds, with a further £94,786 contributed to the industry’s voluntary redress fund, a scheme designed to support vulnerable energy consumers.
The issue came to light following a self-reported incident of the same error by energy supplier E.On Next to Ofgem last year. Subsequent investigations led to Good Energy updating its systems to rectify the problem, according to Ofgem.
Beth Martin, director for consumer protection and competition at Ofgem, said: “At a time when so many households are facing financial difficulty, it’s unacceptable that Good Energy failed to provide refunds of money that was owed to customers, compensation they were due, and final bills they were entitled to.
“Driving up standards for consumers across the board is our top priority, and improving billing accuracy is a key part of this.
“We also expect suppliers to make sure they have robust systems in place to limit the risk of issues like this happening, and to proactively report problems when they arise.”
Good Energy chief executive Nigel Pocklington said: “We were dismayed to find the billing system issue causing these prepayment customers to have not received their final statements and we deeply apologise to all those affected.
“As soon as the issue was identified we put in place a manual process to ensure it did not continue and have since made changes to make sure it does not happen again.
“We have also made every effort to provide due compensation to affected customers. This includes goodwill sums in excess of their potential credit balance plus interest, and the general standards of performance payments all customers who do not receive final statements in time.”
Last month, the boss of Ofgem said he wanted to be less “heavy handed” in policing energy firms, including only taking enforcement action in “serious cases” of companies failing customers.
Jonathan Brearley said he wanted to take a “proportionate, intelligent” approach to regulating customer issues in the coming years.
He said: “The fact is that over the last few years Ofgem has had to intervene in light of poor services and poor practice for some suppliers.
“However, I also recognise that at times, our past approach has been unwieldy, potentially heavy handed and bureaucratic.”
But he added that firms need to “do more than the regulatory minimum” in return.
That includes by providing faster redress payments for issues like poor smart meter installation services or incorrect billing.
