Tesco pulls the plug on energy firms

Tesco has banned energy firms from marketing their electricity and gas services in its stores – with the lure of extra Clubcard points to switch supplier – following customer complaints over an E.On campaign.
The initiative, which ran in about 40 stores, saw field marketing agents representing E.On offer Tesco customers a £10 Clubcard voucher if they agreed to ditch their current supplier and join E.On instead.
However, with shoppers unlikely to have details to hand about what they were paying with their existing supplier – or which tariff they were on – concerns were raised over potential mis-selling practices.
E.On is no stranger to such accusations; earlier this month the company agreed to pay £12m to vulnerable customers, after an investigation by regulator Ofgem found that it had broken energy sales rules. The company also committed to compensating any customer that it had mis-sold to, including automatic payments to some vulnerable customers.
The vast majorty of Tesco’s third-party sampling, demonstration and instore activity is handled by Arc London, which directly hires field marketing reps to has run campaigns for the likes of Cadbury’s, Oral B, Lindt, Purina One. However, it is not known whether the agency was behind the E.On campaign.
Havas EHS has handled E.On’s direct marketing account since December 2011, when the power firm pooled its business into a single agency. Part of EHS’ brief was promote a tie-up with Tesco, which allowed E.On’s customers to pay their utility bills using Tesco Clubcard vouchers.
A Tesco spokeswoman said: “Customers told us their concerns so we have reviewed which companies we allow into stores. We are moving to a new policy, which will not include third party utility companies.”
A spokeswoman for E.On confirmed it had held a number of locally organised store events but said that no further selling in Tesco would take place.

Tesco pulls the plug on energy firms

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