British Gas has dropped a company that broke into customers’ homes after an outcry to install pre-payment meters on behalf of the energy company.
According to a report in the Times, British Gas agents had broken into the homes of people at risk.
A review found that there had been “no systemic issues” with prepayment meters (PPMs) installed under the warrant.
However, it added that in a small number of cases “something went wrong”.
Anger following revelations about the behavior of employees at a third-party company – Arvato Financial Solutions – led to a temporary ban on all forced energy prepayment fixtures.
British Gas announced that it would “permanently” end all activities with Arvato and bring the work in-house.
The ban on forcible meter installation with warrants has now been lifted, but under the guidance of energy regulator Ofgem, customers must be given more chances to pay off debts and forcible meter installation is banned in homes with residents over the age of 85.
The report for British Gas, prepared by Promontory Financial Services, an independent regulatory compliance consultancy, found that two customers had been wrongly forced into PPMs in the past year.
In two other cases, she also found that the contractor had acted in a manner that was “below the expected standard of conduct.”
Chris O’Shea, Chief Executive of Centrica, owner of British Gas, responded to the report: “I was deeply concerned to see how some of our upfront customers were treated earlier this year.
“This is not how I want us to do business and I would like to take this opportunity once again to say how sorry I am and to apologize to everyone involved if our actions have fallen short of the high standards that have been set.” we sat down ourselves.”
In response to the Times report, Arvato said in February it was “very disappointed” with the behavior and “we deeply regret the misconduct of individual employees.”
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