Gas customers with bill issues urged to seek help

Isle of Man Energy has 23,000 customers on the island

People with issues with their gas bills have been urged to come forward to seek help by the Isle of Man Office of Fair Trading.

Since September, the watchdog has received more than 300 complaints from Isle of Man Energy customers.

They included bills not being issued, inaccurate meter readings and problems with direct debits.

But Aidan Baglow from the energy firm said technical issues caused by a new billing system had since been fixed.

The island's monopoly gas provider confirmed there was a backlog of historical billing queries, and apologised for delays resolving those issues.

'Chaos'

An OFT spokesman said it has been engaging with firm to support those affected and 87% of residents who contacted the watchdog had seen a quick resolution of the issues.

However, some customers were returning with different issues, such as bills that did not add up, and those queries were taking "considerably longer" to fix, he added.

OFT Chairman John Wannenburgh said while the situation appeared to be improving, the introduction of the new billing system had "caused a lot of chaos".

The watchdog was "particularly concerned about the more vulnerable customers who may be extremely worried about not being able to pay, charges attached to going overdrawn, or even being cut off due to missed payments", he added.

Residents with unexpected bills should not "suffer in silence", Mr Wannenburgh said.

In response, Mr Baglow said the company was committed to making sure "all customers, especially those in a vulnerable position, receive accurate bills".

In February, legal action against Isle of Man Energy over billing issues was instigated by the OFT, and a verbal warning issued.

The watchdog had previously pushed for a full audit for all gas consumers over the period issues have arisen, but Mr Wannenburg said the company had not confirmed if it would undertake one.