Scottish Gas tells staff to allow Stornoway customers to switch to cheaper deal
22 March 2017
Scottish Gas have been telling Stornoway customers there is only a single -
Following intervention from MP Angus MacNeil, the utility firm will now remind its staff that people from Stornoway are allowed to switch to the lowest cost deals.
Recently, the energy company told island B&B operator, Derek Macpherson, he was £600 worse off on the tariff they placed him on but then stopped him from switching to their best offer when he phoned them, resulting in him paying 30% extra.
Back in 2013 Mr McPherson was told by Scottish Gas there was “just the one tariff” for piped propane customers.
In recent months, he was informed by another Scottish Gas representative that the firm’s partner company, Sainsbury’s Energy, cannot supply customers who rely on pumped propane gas.
It seems islanders who telephone the company’s call centre to switch to a cheaper tariff by phone may have been given wrong information and blocked from switching.
Mr McPherson is adamant, that over the years, different Scottish Gas customer services staff categorically told him “there is only a single tariff for Stornoway.”
He thinks it is impossible that he is an isolated case and other Stornoway residents would have been told the same
Mr McPherson -
Isles MP, Angus Macneil, who took the issue up with energy regulator, Ofgem, said: “I am pleased that Scottish Gas are showing willingness to assist customers to switch tariffs.
“However, the reality is that the majority of Stornoway LPG customers have not switched and indeed evidence would suggest that many more have been refused the chance to switch to the cheapest tariff.
“We have still not been assured that customers who have switched have received the cheapest tariff and since this issue was highlighted I have been contacted by even more constituents.
“I know that this is not an isolated case and I am asking Scottish Gas to seriously look at this issue and view the system through which people can access the cheapest tariff.
“I would ask any constituents who have been denied the chance to access the cheapest tariff to contact me on angus.macneil.mp@parliament.uk or on 01851 702272.”
A Scottish Gas spokesman said: “More than 350 of our customers in Stornoway have switched tariff to take advantage of a different deal – so the suggestion that up to a thousand gas customers may have been overcharged by being prevented from switching to cheaper tariffs is not true.”
Angus MacNeil MP and Derek McPherson