Energy firm sets up £5m fund over misselling

A MAJOR energy supplier is to contact 400,000 customers next month in a bid to compensate people missold contracts by its door-to-door sales teams.

SSE, formerly Scottish & Southern Energy, which trades as Southern Electric, Swalec and Scottish Hydro, said customers who switched supply to SSE after being given inaccurate information or being misled would be refunded any money lost.

It has set aside £5 million for compensation to cover doorstep sales between October 2009 and July, when the practice stopped.

It was found guilty of unfair trading in May after signing up customers using a misleading sales script. Sales agents were said to have called on potential customers claiming they had a printout of customers who were paying too high a tariff. However the printout was fictitious.

SSE is the first supplier in the UK to stop commission-based doorstep selling of energy.

From late January, it will write to all of its existing customers who it signed up through the doorstep sales over the two-year period – an estimated 400,000 – 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.

The move was welcomed by watchdog Consumer Focus, which said it was an important step towards rebuilding the trust of energy customers.