EONGY E ON SE (PK)

   By David Sachs 
 

E.ON Next Energy has agreed to pay 5 million pounds ($6.5 million) following a review by the U.K.'s energy regulator into customer-service standards.

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, or Ofgem, said it found severe weaknesses in how the Germany-based electricity utility deals with customers, particularly in relation to excessive call waiting times and high rates of abandoned calls. Many customers--potentially more than 500,000--were sometimes unable to speak with E.ON or were forced to wait an average of 18 minutes, Ofgem said.

A total of GBP4 million will be paid to customers as compensation, while an additional GBP1 million will be paid into an Ofgem fund that supports consumers in vulnerable situations, and other investments in innovation and carbon-emission reductions, the regulator said.

Following an order issued by Ofgem requiring improvements to customer service, the company worked with the regulator and call waiting times dropped to an average of five minutes with a dropped-call rate of under 10%, Ofgem said.

E.ON said it began to improve its services before the review. "We won't shy away from the fact that we weren't at our best but we're heartened Ofgem recognizes our efforts and our success in improving service levels even before this review began," the company said in a statement. "We hit our agreed targets with Ofgem on day one and we've stayed there ever since."

Write to David Sachs at david.sachs@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 14, 2023 03:02 ET (07:02 GMT)

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