Energy firm switches customers to higher priced tariffs

German owned energy firm NPower has shifted tens of thousands of its customers onto higher priced tariffs in a bid to retaliate at the energy regulator Ofgem. The move comes after Ofgem said that companies must only offer deals to customers that reflect the actual cost of providing the power.

The requirement was made by the regulator in a bid to reduce the cost of energy for many customers. However, Npower has been described as acting ‘petulantly’ by stating that it works both ways and subsequently moving thousands of its customers onto deals that could see them paying up to 25 percent more for their energy.

The supplier, which has over six million customers, said that the changes that Ofgem has made to its licensing requirements has forced it to cancel the deals that have seen customers moved over to more costly tariffs. Whilst some of the customers that have been switched had come to the end of their special deals, others had taken deals that had no expiry date attached and have simply found themselves simply shunted onto poor value deals.

An official from a popular comparison site said that Npower had turned the tables on the regulator but offering its consumers poor deals as a result of the changes when the regulator had been aiming for consumers to get better results because of the changes that it has put into place.

He said: “This is a petulant move from Npower which demonstrates its disregard for customers who signed up to cheaper online tariffs. Ofgem’s guidelines were designed to encourage energy providers to offer all customers equally good deals, but Npower seems to have turned that on its head and decided to offer all customers equally bad ones.”

Tags: ofgem, Npower, tariffs, energy providers, energy