Scottish Power has already agreed to pay £18m for providing poor customer service. This is the third biggest fine given by regulator Ofgem to one of the country's biggest energy providers.
In Ofgem's investigation, it was discovered that Scottish Power failed to provide even the basic level of costumer service required. This attracted more than 1 million complaints from customers between June 2013 and December 2015.
The chief executive of Ofgem, Dermot Nolan, said that Scottish Power has been treating customers in the worst way. Nolan said that the fine is a significant amount of money because of a simple unfair treatment to its customers over a significant period of time. The complaints are based on customer resolution and billing issues, according to The Guardian.
As reported by Telegraph, Ofgem said that many customers faced unacceptably long waiting times when attempting to reach the supplier, usually ending the call or hanging several times before eventually getting through the line. On the other hand, more than 300,000 customers received late final bills making them missed their refunds.
The inefficient service of Scottish Power to its 3.2 million customers was blamed to the new IT system. According to City A.M, Scottish Power's chief executive, Neil Clitheroe, said that during the complex transition between systems, the company encountered a number of technical issues. This led to an unacceptable increase in complaints and decrease in quality of their customer service.
Nolan, on the other hand, said he doesn't care how the energy provider messed up because it is the responsibility of the provider to get the IT right. He added that customers who are unhappy with their service will probably switch suppliers.
According to Ofgem, £15m of the total fine will be paid to vulnerable Scottish Power customers who were affected with the complaint and the rest of the money will be donated to charity. Scottish Power, however, guaranteed that it has already replaced its IT system and the service performance has improved dramatically.
