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Utilita has paid £3.61 million back to smart meter customers after it failed to correctly implement price cuts.
Due to technical issues, the supplier failed to meet the level of the cap in April for prepayment customers on multi-tier first generation smart meters (SMETS1) and non SMETS Smart (NSS) smart meter tariffs.
Around 348,000 customers were affected and were cumulatively overcharged £3.54 million.
Utilita became aware of the failure with SMETS1 meters in April, and the failures with NSS meters in May. In both cases, Ofgem said the supplier promptly raised the issue.
Ofgem said Utilita now meets the level of the prepayment safeguard tariff cap for customers on these tariffs, and has reimbursed almost all affected customers’ money lost due to the failures. It has also paid a further £68,000 compensation to affected NSS customers. Affected customers have all been contacted.
As a result of these actions and Utilita’s “quick action in coming forward to report the issue”, Ofgem has decided to close the compliance case without taking further action
Elsewhere, two cases into incorrect messaging around exit fees by Npower and Eon have also been closed by Ofgem.
Npower and Eon wrongly told customers whose contract was due to end that they would incur exit fees if they switched supplier during the last 49 days of a contract.
Under Ofgem’s licence conditions, suppliers cannot charge exit fees for switches within the 49-day “switching window” before a fixed-term contract ends.
Ofgem found that between June 2016 and February 2017, Npower sent 22,000 customers a letter incorrectly telling them that they would incur exit fees if they switched during the “switching window”.
And between October 2013 and February 2017, Eon call centre advisors incorrectly told 450 customers that they would incur exit fees if they switched during the “switching window”.
Ofgem found no customers who had been wrongly charged exit fees as a result of the misinformation, and said the two suppliers have since taken steps to put things right. As a result it has closed both cases without taking formal enforcement action.
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