Free energy for npower customers until

Regulator Ofgem has ordered the supplier to cancel any money owed by 1,000 customers who have been waiting at least a month to have gripes dealt with properly after they were handed to the industry ombudsman. Among the major energy firms, Npower received the most complaints in 2014, Ofgem figures have shown.

Those households will also get gas and electricity for nothing until npower sorts out their problems.

After this time, householders can take their case to the Energy Ombudsman, an independent dispute resolution service, which gives npower 28 days to resolve the issue.

Ofgem opened an investigation into npower’s “prolonged customer service failings” in June a year ago, the first under its new Standards of Conduct which state that suppliers must treat consumers fairly.

Npower has previously blamed a wealth of complaints against it on a new billing system it brought in.

The company will write to those customers affected, many of whom complained about billing errors.

Npower will now write off any debt on their accounts and provide free energy until the rulings have been applied.

“We welcome the company’s commitment to working with us to put things right”.

Incorrect invoices, disputed charges and nonexistent bills are the most common npower complaints that have been referred to the Ombudsman so far in 2015.

Npower agreed the concession after talks with the ombudsman and the energy regulator, Ofgem, which deemed such lengthy waits were unacceptable.

The supplier said: “npower continues to make steps to improve its service, including halving overall complaints and reducing Ombudsman complaints by almost 10% since the beginning of this year but sometimes a delay in finally resolving a complaint can occur, for which we apologise”.

The company also made a £1 million goodwill gesture to vulnerable customers.

In March, rival Scottish Power accepted a 12-day sales ban after failing to meet Ofgem’s customer service targets.

In each case, npower itself failed to resolve the customer’s complaint within eight weeks.

The ombudsman can require the company to correct the problem, apologise or explain what happened and can award compensation to the customer of up to £10,000.

One of the “big six” energy firms has been told to give free energy to customers whose complaints it has failed to resolve on time.