Energy Giant Forced to Shell Out Thousands After Leaving Customers High and Dry

By HOAR Team 7 May, 2025 5 mins read 72 Views

God. Don't you just love it when big corporations mess up and actually have to pay for it? Feels like watching your school bully finally get detention.

Good Energy (yeah, the irony of that name isn't lost on me) has been forced to cough up compensation to 2,284 of its roughly 200,000 customers after a major billing blunder. Each affected customer received about £66 on average. Not exactly life-changing money, but hey—it's something.

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A Decade of "Oops, We Forgot"

The whole fiasco started when Ofgem, our energy watchdog with actual teeth apparently, discovered these customers—all on prepayment meters—weren't getting their final bills within six weeks after switching providers. And to make matters worse, Good Energy wasn't refunding credit balances either.

This wasn't just a one-off mistake. The error stretched from 2014 to October 2023. That's nearly TEN YEARS of "forgetting" to give people their money back!

I had a similar experience back in 2019 when I switched from a different provider. Took me three angry phone calls and one slightly threatening email to get my £127 back. The customer service rep eventually told me, "Sorry, it fell through teh cracks." Yeah, right into your profit margins, more like.

Where's Your Money Gone?

Beyond the direct compensation to customers, Good Energy has also paid £94,786 to the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund. That's the pot that helps vulnerable energy consumers—you know, the people most hurt by these "administrative errors."

Beth Martin from Ofgem didn't mince words: "At a time when so many households are facing financial difficulty, it's unacceptable that Good Energy failed to provide refunds of money that was owed to customers, compensation they were due, and final bills they were entitled to."

Tell 'em, Beth.

The Usual Suspects (Spoiler: It's Everyone)

Good Energy isn't alone in the naughty corner. E.ON Next recently had to pay £144 in compensation to a whopping 250,000 customers for essentially the same mistake. At least they had the decency to self-report to Ofgem.

My neighbor works for one of these suppliers (won't say which—don't want him losing his job). Over beers last weekend he admitted, "These aren't mistakes... they're calculated risks. The fines are built into the business model." His response when I looked shocked: "Already updating my LinkedIn."

The Energy Industry's Wall of Shame

Since 2020, Ofgem has collected over £400 million through enforcement actions. That money supposedly helps struggling households with their bills.

OVO Energy paid out £378,512 to 1,395 customers last September after taking up to 18 MONTHS to address complaints. Some people received around £271 each.

E.ON Next was ordered to pay £5 million last June for "severe weaknesses" in customer service. Long call waiting times, unanswered calls... the usual delightful experience we've all come to expect.

And just a month before that, Good Energy and OVO were told to pay £2.7 million to thousands of overcharged customers.

Listen. I'm not naive enough to expect perfection from these companies. But is it really that hard to give people their money back when they leave?

My dad always said you can judge a business by how they treat you when you're walking out the door. By that standard, our energy suppliers are failing spectacularly.

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