Almost two million customers who were overcharged for their gas by energy company Npower will receive a refund in the coming weeks.
The firm will have to give back £70 million after implementing a confusing calculation system three years ago, which resulted in many customers over paying. The company has vowed to contact all those affected within the next couple of months and the consumers involved in the long-running battle against the energy provider will receive an average of £35 each.
The firm was initially investigated by industry regulator Ofgem, which resulted in Npower agreeing to repay an average of £6 each to 200,000 customers. However, watchdog Consumer Focus campaigned further causing the company to conduct its own review and calculate the refund figures revealed yesterday.
In a statement, Npower said: “In the spring of 2007, we lowered our prices, increased our discounts and also changed the way we charged for the first units of gas each month. It was this last element, which we call the primary block, which caused confusion and controversy. It is now clear that we did not communicate all the changes well and, as a result, some customers were convinced they had been overcharged”.
It continued: “Although the vast majority of our customers benefited from the combined effect of the changes, some, who were low users of gas, did not. We’re sorry that the complexity of the changes we made caused confusion. We’re now doing all we can to improve our communication with customers”.
