Energy News

SSE says it will compensate mis-sold customers

Monday 19 December, 2011

By Martin Fagan

SSE has put aside £5m to compensate consumers who were misled by doorstep salespeople into switching supplier.

Energy giant SSE (formerly Scottish & Southern Energy) is to offer guaranteed compensation to almost half a million customers who were persuaded to switch energy supplier by doorstep salespeople.

The compensation will apply to any household energy sale made by SSE between October 2009 and July 2011. Although the energy supplier cannot put an accurate figure on the extent of the mis-selling, it believes 400,000 households could be in line for compensation and has set aside £5million to cover any claims.

Under the guarantee, any customer who shows that they switched their energy supply to SSE after being given inaccurate information or being misled will have any resulting financial loss made good.

From late January 2012 onwards, SSE will write to all of its existing customers who it signed up through the doorstep sales channel to make them aware of the guarantee and to let them know what they need to do if they believe they have suffered any financial loss.

“We agree with Ofgem about the need to restore customers’ trust in the energy supply market and to treat customers fairly,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, generation and supply director of SSE.

“That’s why we have decided to introduce this sales guarantee and to implement it retrospectively, which is a practical demonstration of putting words into action.”

Responding to SSE's announcement, Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at watchdog Consumer Focus, said: “Ultimately, what people want to see is energy firms doing the right thing first time, but when things do go wrong, they need to see suppliers taking action to put things right.

“It’s only fair that the firm holds its hands-up on any bad selling practices that have happened, and refund customers that have lost out as a result.

“This step should help people to claim back any money they lost without having to go through the Energy Ombudsman, which they would have to do otherwise.”

In May 2011, after it was found guilty at Guildford Crown Court of using misleading sales tactics, SSE became the first supplier in the UK market to stop commission-based doorstep selling of electricity and gas.