Fortum customers felt duped into paying for services they never asked for

Customers of Norway’s largest electricity supplier have felt duped into paying thousands of kroner for services they say they never asked for. They fear that many older people are exposed to the same.

Einar Lunde and Guttorm Vik from Bærum will warn other elderly people after their meetings with the salespeople of Fortum, which is Norway’s largest electricity supplier:

Both ended up paying thousands of kroner for additional services that have been added to their electricity bills – without them having asked for it and without first discovering it.

– It is absolutely incredible that they let me pay for such services at all. It feels like pure robbery! says Lunde.

– For almost three years, Fortum has let down quite a few thousands in unnecessary electricity expenses from me. For me it has been a very expensive lesson, says Vik.

Will warn other seniors

Lunde (81) was a news anchor and foreign correspondent for NRK for over 40 years. Vik (80) was a diplomat for many decades.

A third electricity customer, Ole-Erik Iversen (79), who is professor emeritus and former senior physician at Haukeland in Bergen, has also contacted Aftenposten.

– I understood that I had been tricked, but at first I didn’t know how. Because it was too subtle, says Iversen.

The three separately contacted the newspaper after recent articles about the electricity suppliers’ sale of so-called additional services.

Added more services in SMS

At the time, the three agreed to power agreements that Fortum’s salespeople offered over the phone.

But then two of them. Iversen and Vik, were to confirm their yes in these conversations by replying to an SMS from Fortum, and several different additional services were also added to the SMS.

They say that they did not realize that they did not just say yes to the electricity contract itself when they accepted via SMS, but also the additional services.

Vik replied to the SMS, but then added that he did not understand its content (see the screenshot below). He then received no response from Fortum (at the time Hafslund Strøm), but nevertheless settled down to the fact that things were in order.

Lunde says that in the SMS he received, additional services were not mentioned.

Like the vast majority of electricity customers, they did not go through each monthly invoice carefully, but paid with Avtalegiro.

Vik only discovered after three years that he also paid for two additional services. This after reading Aftenposten’s articles.

Then he went through the invoices and saw that he paid for so-called guarantees of origin. Fortum charges over NOK 2,000 a year to guarantee that the electricity is made with renewable energy.

– Since the scheme was launched, I have been fully aware that this guarantee of origin is pure sham, says Vik.

– I am 100 per cent sure that I would never order such guarantees as I per telephone ordered electricity. I would have said flatly no thank you if I had been asked.

NOK 1,000 for a winter-closed cabin

Lunde and Iversen ordered company subscriptions from Fortum because they both have sole proprietorships.

– At that time, electricity prices had skyrocketed, and I did not react to the high bills until in April 2022 I received a bill of almost NOK 1,000 for our winter-closed cabin in Sandefjord. Where the power was off! says Lunde.

Lunde was able to stop the additional services after paying NOK 2,300 for them. But he has calculated that they would cost him over NOK 13,000 over the course of a year.

The previous NRK profile encourages the country’s many small AS and sole proprietorships to check what they are paying for.

Vik is concerned about older customers:

– I think there can be little doubt that they take advantage of older people’s lack of computer skills. They flaunt services they don’t need. The elderly often have no idea that they are paying for this either.

Ole Kroken

Business manager at Fortum

– Non-representative cases

Fortum replies that they do not want to go into detail in the media about the three customers’ stories.

– First of all, we must apologize that they are left with a negative experience. We obviously want customers to make good and informed choices, says the reply from business manager Ole Kroken.

– But as one of the market leaders in Norway, we also have a high number of interactions with customers. This leaves room for the possibility that deviations from our routines may have occurred in individual cases.

The hook indicates that the electricity suppliers’ obligation to provide information has been tightened since two of these sales took place. According to Kroken, Fortum has also taken action itself.

– We have also introduced an internal certification program for everyone who works with direct customer contact. These cases are therefore not representative of our current processes and routines for sales today.