Gas and electricity giant SSE has told staff to save £2m by slashing pay-outs to customers who complain.
Chiefs have told workers at the firm to offer goodwill pay-outs of £20 instead of £30.
SSE boss Alistair Phillips-Davies, 49, was paid £2.92m last year, up from £1.7m the year before. And the firm itself made a £1.8bn profit last year.
One customer service worker said: ‘They’re trying to make us scrape every penny from our customers. It’s embarrassing.
Gas and electricity giant SSE has told staff to save £2m by slashing pay-outs to customers who complain
‘We make a fortune and yet they are asking us to save £2million this year for no reason other than greed.’
Last night campaigners blasted the strategy, dubbed ‘Goodwill – Give Less’, at a time when households’ energy bills are rising.
SSE, the UK’s second largest energy firm with around 7.7m customers in the UK and Ireland, hiked average bills by £73 per year last April, to £1,142 per year.
Its five major competitors also increased bills, sparking widespread anger. Industry analysis suggests average energy bills increased by more than £240 last year, from £1,383 to £1,625.
Laura Hill, from affordable energy campaign group Switched On, said: ‘Yet again, SSE are putting their bottom line ahead of hard-up customers struggling to make ends meet because of rip-off fuel bills.
SSE boss Alistair Phillips-Davies (pictured) was paid £2.92m last year, up from £1.7m the year before
‘This is just the latest example of the Big Six’s blatant profiteering. Their meagre scraps of ‘goodwill’ aren’t enough.’
Mike Shamash, from energy switching site The People’s Power.co.uk said: ‘It’s hard to be outraged when this is completely normal behaviour.
‘Energy companies are very good at hassling you for payment but when it comes to reimbursing customers, they are appalling.’
Staff at SSE’s offices in Portsmouth, Cardiff, Glasgow and Perth were urged to save the cash, according to the Sun.
SSE insists the move is designed to make sure payments properly reflect the complaint.
Firms typically offer goodwill payments when they want to keep customers happy without necessarily accepting liability for the complaint.
The move comes as SSE and other energy firms are battling increased competition and a looming price cap.
SSE has lost 410,000 customers over the latest year in the UK and Ireland, from 8.13m in September 2016 to 7.72m in September 2017.
Mark Todd, of energy switching site Energy Helpline, suggested SSE’s strategy with goodwill payments could be a sign of things to come as firms cut down on bells and whistles to focus on prices amid tougher competition.
Chiefs have told workers at the firm to offer goodwill pay-outs of £20 instead of £30. File photo
He said: ‘I think it shows how much energy firms are being squeezed right now – there are about 70 suppliers.
‘SSE is the second biggest and all these little suppliers are really nipping away at their customer base so it’s really hard to maintain their profitability.
‘The whole sector is potentially going to get a bit Ryanair: in a very competitive environment customers want the cheapest price so suppliers will do everything to deliver that cheaper price.
‘What competition tends to do is that headline prices go down – it does not necessarily mean that people get better standards of service.
‘British Airways got rid of meals to compete on price, so I think this might be a sign of things to come.’
An SSE spokesman said: ‘We know how important it is to offer market-leading customer service and we’re proud we have the lowest number of complaints via the Energy Ombudsman.
‘At SSE we encourage our customer service teams to treat all our customers fairly and to offer goodwill payments that properly reflect the nature of the complaint.’
It is the latest blow for SSE, which in 2016 was exposed by the Mail on Sunday for using scare tactics to try to stop customers switching to cheaper rivals.
SSE said the practices were inappropriate and did not reflect its culture and values.
Campaigner Ms Hill added: ‘Local councils should lead the way on bringing down bills. By setting up municipal non-profit energy companies that prioritise customer service and fairly priced renewable energy, we can dump the big six.’