A third of Contact Energy customers will receive a refund after 1News discovered the major electricity retailer had been wrongly charging some consumers for six years.
The mistake was discovered by an eagle eye customer who noticed he was being charged a few extra cents each month and complained to the company. After months going back and forth, the legal team admitted he was right.
The chief executive has fronted up to 1News and apologised to customers.
“A mistake was made, we put it right, we’re sorry it happened and that’s who we are at Contact Energy, we try to make sure we put things right when mistakes are made,” CEO Mike Fuge told 1News.
A coding mistake meant fee on top of a fee was charged when customers paid by credit or debit card for two months or more. It’s been in place since October 2017, when the fees were introduced.
“It was a very small error and it was pointed out to us by a customer recently. As soon as we were notified about it, we went about putting right. We notified the Commerce Commission it was an issue.”
Contact has more than 400,000 customers and is the second largest gentailer in the country. Now, 133,602 of those customers will start receiving refunds from this week, after 1News approached Contact Energy.
The amount owed is only $34,679 with most customers owed less than a dollar.
Jessica Wilson from the Consumer Advocacy Council says while it’s only a small amount, Contact is a major player and should be more careful.
“You can’t mislead customers about prices, that is a breach of the Fair Trading Act and any company doing that can find themselves in front of a court and facing a fine of up to $600,000,” she told 1News.
It shouldn’t take a customer to find mistakes like these.
Contact Energy has referred itself to the Commerce Commission, who has confirmed it’s looking into the issue.
All credit card fees have now stopped. Fuge says it’ll take months for the error to be fixed and it’s constantly reviewing all processes.
The company will use all means it can to identify those who are no longer customers and any leftover money will be donated to Women’s Refuge.
Have you been wrongly charged or faced costly surcharges? Contact Katie Bradford on Katie.Bradford@tvnz.co.nz
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