npower will have to provide free energy to some of its customers for failing to resolve their complaints within the required 28 days.
Energy suppliers are given that amount of time to put in place a remedy the Energy Ombudsman has directed but the Bix Six company failed to do so for around 1,000 customers.
They will receive free gas and electricity until npower has applied the rulings in full.
The supplier will also write off any debt on the customers’ accounts following an agreement with regulator Ofgem and the Ombudsman.
Anthony Pygram, Senior Partner at Ofgem said: “We expect npower to implement Ombudsman decisions on time. Our intervention has only been necessary because of npower’s failure to do this. This has led to further frustration for affected customers who have already been waiting some time to have their issue resolved.”
npower will write to those customers who have been affected confirming the actions by 24th July.
The supplier said: “npower continues to make steps to improve its service, including halving overall complaints and reducing Ombudsman complaints by nearly 10% since the beginning of this year but sometimes a delay in finally resolving a complaint can occur, for which we apologise.”
