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Last month, a customer signed a business energy contract through us. But they then became upset when the paperwork turned up, due to a fee that we told them about when they signed.
The way it works is that, whoever you sign up through, there’s a particular fee. You even pay this fee if you sign through the supplier directly. This fee is included in your unit rates, so you don’t ever pay it directly, but for reasons, the regulators want it listed.
It typically typically works out at around 0.1% to 1% of your bill, depending on what the signing party set it at. We set it at the minimum.
The customer has misread the paperwork and thinks we’re going to bill them this full fee, directly, up-front, and will not listen to anyone telling them otherwise. They’re also upset that they have to pay this amount and think they could go elsewhere and pay less as a result.
They also signed up for a pre-pay supply, as these are cheaper and have lower credit criteria. You keep your supply topped up like a PAYG mobile. Their first bill is an estimated month to get them set up, then they top up themselves.
The customer receives this bill on day seven of their contract and thinks that this month forward bill is actually a seven days in arrears bill, and thus the price is a rip-off.
Of course, when they call in, they refuse to be told that they are wrong. I even talk the through the paperwork and the numbers on their account so they can see that they’re wrong, but to no avail.
And now they complain to their Member of Parliament, who has written to us asking us to please investigate. Credit where credit is due, the MP is being very polite & diplomatic.
I just handed a full report to the MD. I’d sure the MP will have a good laugh when they read it and see how foolish their constituent is being.
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