A new series of the BBC's flagship consumer programme Watchdog started last Thursday evening.
Watchdog is side-splitting entertainment, because for a whole hour the BBC tries to come across all virtuous and whiter-than-white. Forget the decades of historic paedophile rings, fixed competitions, political bias, Parliamentary dishonesty and squandered public millions - in the weekly hour of Watchdog the BBC is actually there to protect the interests of licence fee payer!
The show featured a segment about UK retail energy giant NPower. Naughty old NPower, according to Watchdog, have been bullying their customers and forcing their way into some of their homes.
The NPower segment appears 20 mins 30 secs into the show, which was broadcast at 8 pm on Thursday 19th September 2013. Part of it is transcribed below:
---Transcription Starts---
Anne Robinson (AR): Next NPower, one of the "Big Six" energy suppliers with 6.5 million customers in the UK. Meanwhile prices for gas and electricity are higher than ever before, so, not unreasonable to expect equally high standards of customer service, but, if you're an NPower customer watch out.
Riz Latif (RL): One in ten of you might depend on NPower to provide your electricity or gas, but it appears you can't always depend on them to show you any courtesy. It seems that this is a company spending a lot of its energy abusing its power, because we're beginning to hear about a new type of NPower complaint - ones that involve bullying tactics, extreme heavy-handedness and above all a distinct lack of respect for their customers.
That's certainly what Steve Cooper thinks. He received this letter for NPower saying that they needed to carry out a safety check on his gas meter, but the letter claimed they'd already tried several times to contact him. Not only that, but if he didn't respond within 7 days then they may apply to court for a warrant of entry.
Steve Cooper (SC): So I rang them up and I said: "So why are you threatening to take me to court? This is the first I've heard of it. I haven't had any correspondence before regarding this matter."
RL: What makes NPower's stance so baffling is that they wouldn't need to enter Steve's home to access his meter, because it's here, unlocked, right outside his front door.
SC: Luckily I'm a 45 year old man. If I was an elderly person or a vulnerable person it could have been very stressful. I just think it's well out of order.
---Transcription Ends---
So let's get this straight: The BBC is bashing NPower for bullying customers and threatening to take them to court for no reason at all.
Why is it apparently okay for their TV Licensing arm to operate in that manner, but not NPower?
Don't forget that you can download a TV Licensing complaint letter to send to Watchdog. At the latest count more than 500 people had, but strangely the BBC refuses to do a Watchdog investigation into TV Licensing's antics.
Don't forget that you can download a TV Licensing complaint letter to send to Watchdog. At the latest count more than 500 people had, but strangely the BBC refuses to do a Watchdog investigation into TV Licensing's antics.
The BBC: Giving only half the story since 1922.
1 comment:
The problem with nPower's "bullying" is that it is computer generated. There is no malice in nPower, just too much automation and procedure. But that's nothing to the BBC License Fee bullying where people are actively sought out for fining and punishment.
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