Power retailer fined for cutting off ‘wall of shame’ clients in disconnection blitz

Power and gas retailer Sumo Energy ran a disconnection blitz in 2020 during which staff allegedly taped the names of 1500 customers who had missed bills to a “wall of shame” and cut off 143 of them without proper warning.

An investigation by the Victorian Essential Services Commission into Sumo’s plan to disconnect large numbers of customers in the lead-up to the 2020 Christmas holidays has revealed a “concerning compliance culture” within the business, resulting in penalties totalling $500,000 for allegedly unlawful disconnections.

On December 14, 2020, while many Victorians were financially stressed due to the state’s COVID-19 lockdowns, Sumo allegedly disconnected 142 customers from power or gas before the legally required warning period of six business days had expired. Another customer was cut off without warning despite actively participating in a payment plan, the investigation found.

Commissioner Kate Symons said electricity and gas were essential services, and customers should only ever be disconnected by a retailer as a “measure of last resort”.

She said the investigation found Sumo had developed a plan to disconnect 1500 customers by Christmas and had altered customers’ billing schedules to fast-track disconnections and cut short the time required to allow customers to seek help.

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“It had the names of customers that Sumo sought to disconnect taped to a wall that staff referred to as the “wall of shame”. It set up a separate telephone queue and staff were instructed to transfer customers calling about an actual or pending disconnection to that queue. Call wait times were long, an average of 45 minutes, with some customers eventually hanging up,” Commissioner Symons said.

“Customers being disconnected from essential services in this way is completely unacceptable.”

Bendigo woman Sarah Neliman, 43, said she had unsuccessfully attempted to contact Sumo several times to arrange a payment plan before her power was cut off. “I tried to call back and call back, but there was no answer,” she said. “It left me in a difficult position – all the food I had in the fridge, it all went off; I had no food, no electricity … I had to go to a friend’s place for a few days.”