Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

After five years of sharp selling on the doorstep, the energy companies are now delivering a dismal level of service. Mary O'Hara reports on how they are struggling to cope

Saturday May 3, 2003
The Guardian

Customers switching between energy suppliers in search of cheaper deals are paying the price as the companies' billing systems turn to chaos. And, as dissatisfaction with the once publicly owned utilities reaches an all-time low, accusations of "bully-boy tactics" prompted a major Jobs & Money investigation. It reveals:
• Individuals hounded by bailiffs for money they do not owe
• Widespread billing by power companies of people who are not their customers
• A high number of disconnection orders, some stemming from incorrect billing
• Aggressive call centre behaviour, inadequate staff training and a casual disregard for customer complaints
• Creaking customer service computer systems bolted together following mergers and takeovers.
Privately, energy company insiders told Jobs & Money that billing systems have descended into near chaos following the five-year spree in switching, driven largely by highly controversial doorstep selling of gas and electricity deals.
The growing scale of the problem with power company billing has prompted Energywatch, the gas and electricity consumer watchdog, to launch a major campaign next week. It will highlight how households are having to cope with a wave of inaccurate, unclear and late bills from energy companies. But critics also point the finger of blame at the regulator, Ofgem, which despite repeated promises to crack down on the industry, admits that its job is not about regulating the retail sector.
When it was set up in June 1999, the gas and electricity regulator Ofgem was supposed to kick the industry into shape and make sure competition meant a better deal for consumers. However, critics argue that not only did Ofgem stand by while doorstep mis-selling ran out of control, it also helped to foster a situation in which consumers now face many years of problems with billing and switching caused by the incompetence of individual energy firms.
Ofgem says it is not responsible for regulating the retail energy sector. What it is responsible for, it says, is monitoring the sector and cracking down on companies that act against the interest of consumers.
So far the crackdown has consisted of large fines against the worst user of unscrupulous and aggressive sales tactics. In November last year, London Electricity and its affiliate, Virgin Energy, were fined £2m. In perhaps the most shocking and cavalier example of mis-selling, Virgin Energy sales reps were discovered in a north London public library forging the signatures of dead people on to energy transfer forms.
British Gas was also fined £200,000 for preventing people from switching suppliers. But critics claim the fines are not large enough to deter poor practice. They point to the £280m annual profits of British Gas parent company, Centrica, saying that a £200,000 fine is nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
Ofgem says its job is to make sure fines are "proportionate" to the offence. It says that very often it is the bad publicity that follows that does the real damage. But there is disturbing evidence that the high-profile fines against rogue practices are failing to deter continued mis-selling and fraudulent switching of customers. Letters we have received suggest rogue agents are still on the loose.
But it is incorrect billing that is now at the forefront of customer complaints. Energywatch says half of the 86,000 complaints it has received over the past 12 months concern billing and customer accounts.
Often the victims are the elderly and the poor, some threatened with legal action and disconnection. Organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureaux, National Debtline and Help the Aged have all told Jobs & Money about their increasing frustration over energy company practices.
In a scathing report this week by independent market analyst, Datamonitor, energy companies were slammed for dreadful service to their biggest industrial customers. Two-thirds of customers are threatening not to renew annual contracts.
Industry insiders say that a lack of investment in customer databases by energy companies is the chief reason behind the current malaise in billing. It means that individual firms are not sufficiently geared up to deal with customer enquiries and can be woefully remiss at rectifying mistakes. The result has been - and will continue to be - a catalogue of disputes with customers. Because of a lack of investment in compatible technology across the industry, and a failure to properly train staff, customers have been mistreated, bullied, or simply completely misinformed by call centre staff.
Customer transfers are fast becoming the biggest cause of complicated disputes. They are putting a huge strain on antiquated company databases and with over 150,000 households switching every week this is not a problem that is about to go away.
"There are so many things that can go wrong with a transfer," an Energywatch spokesman says. "The problems persist because old technology undermines customer service. Companies have incompatible databases, so that once a mistake is made it's incredibly difficult to put right.
"There are as many as 40 separate stages to go through before a transfer is complete," he adds. "Some of these are because of the number of organisations involved, such as the transportation companies and meter installers. But the focus for the suppliers has from the start been on capturing new customers, instead of getting things right for existing customers in the first place.
"At the moment, one in every three switches requires manual intervention. This is incredible for a system that is supposed to be automated. There is a charter that says erroneous transfers should take no more than 28 days, but under the current system one mistake can screw up the whole process. In some cases it can go on for years. The system is in need of a complete overhaul, but whatever solution is agreed it will be a long time coming."
This will be little comfort to the thousands of people at the sharp end.
Take the case of one Jobs & Money reader, Pauline Lee from Lymington. Three energy companies have been involved in an 18 month-long wrangle about who is supplying her gas and electricity - even though she has only ever asked London Electricity to supply her home.
Mrs Lee says she is "frustrated beyond belief" by what is happening and by the fact that none of the companies appear able to agree on the source of her problems. She has had a series of bills from two companies at once and been threatened with court action for non-payment of bills she doesn't even owe. In one instance she says she felt "harassed" by a British Gas rep into paying, despite the bill being officially in dispute with another department.
Mark Clare, managing director of British Gas, says they are conscious that something needs to be done: "The existing transfer process... can be complex, inefficient and exacerbate data inaccuracies, leading to frustrating delays for all suppliers and for their customers and problems in billing," he says.
A spokeswoman for npower, which like British Gas has had its fair share of complaints, says: "Companies do need to get their houses in order. We have to hold our hands up. The wheels can, and do, fall off.
"Our customer base has expanded to 7m because we have merged with two companies in two years. It is hard to keep customer service operations as they should be when this is happening. All the customers will have been on different databases," she explains. "There is a continuing migration going on."
Ofgem estimates that the average consumer who changes supplier stands to make annual savings of 22% on their electricity bills and as much as 18% on their gas, and that 90% of people that do so encounter no problems. However, a spokesman said: "These problems won't be solved overnight. We recognise that there is a problem and the industry does want to improve.
"In the summer we will introduce a new threshold for complaints and as soon as a company exceeds it we will automatically investigate."


bailiff – komornik
to bolt – przykuć
bully-boy – chłopak, który zastrasza i znęca się nad słabszymi w szkole
cavalier – nonszalacki
to crack down - to start dealing with bad or illegal behaviour in a more severe way
to creak – skrzypieć
to deter – odstraszać
Dismal – fatalny, ponury
disregard – lekceważenie
exacerbate – to make something bad even worse
fraudulent – dishonest, illegal, oszukańczy
the forefront – the most important position
to forge – fałszować
to gear up – prepare for something
to hound – prześladować
malaise – apatia, niemoc
to rectify – to correct
remiss – careless and nor doing its job well
rogue – łobuz, łobuzerski
sales reps – sales representative: przedstawiciel handlowy
scathing - cięty, zjadliwy, severely critical
sharp end – the part where the most problems are found
spree – szaleństwo
to stem – zatamować
threshold - level
unscrupulous – nieuczciwy
watchdog – jednostka nadzorująca
woeful – very bad
wrangle – argument, row, that lasts long time


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