ScottishPower has confirmed that it has reached agreement with Ofgem following an investigation into customer service standards during the implementation of a new £200 million IT system. The company will now pay £18 million. This will consist of up to £15 million to vulnerable customers and £3 million to charity.1
Neil Clitheroe, ScottishPower’s CEO of Energy Retail and Generation, said:
“ScottishPower has worked with Ofgem throughout this investigation. We apologise unreservedly to those customers affected.
“In order to upgrade our old IT systems, we invested £200 million on new technology to allow us to deliver smarter digital products and services to benefit our customers. During the complex transition between systems we encountered a range of technical issues. This lead to an unacceptable increase in complaints and reduced the quality of our customer service.
“I gave a guarantee that no customer would be left out of pocket by these issues and we continue to compensate customers who have been affected. Additional customer service advisors were added and we extended our opening hours to the longest in the industry in order to improve our customer service levels.
“With our new IT system now fully in place, our service performance has significantly improved and customers will start to see real benefits in managing their accounts. Newly developed digital services have been launched, such as online payment adjustments and refunds, which would not have been possible on our old system.
“We know we need to do more and we will continue to work hard to deliver further improvements, and ensure that our customer service standards return to being amongst the best in the industry.”
Note to Editors
1 Vulnerability - ScottishPower (SP) will make a Consumer Redress package, including up to £15million to directly benefit any vulnerable customers who have been impacted by SP’s migration to a new IT system. These customers will be identified by SP though its Priority Services Register scheme or through SP’s Warm Home Discount scheme and who, in the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2016, had a customer service problem (either a complaint or a late bill) due to an IT system issue.