Finland's consumer authority receives more consumer complaints about electricity firm Fi-Nergy Voima than any other energy company, according to Jukka Kaakkola, leading expert at the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV).
Last year, the authority received nearly 1,000 complaints about the energy company, mostly about billing problems.
"Most complaints concern invoicing. Consumers have not received their reimbursement payment and [consumers'] prepayments for electricity have piled up," Kaakkola explained, referring to the practice of billing customers in advance for anticipated electricity use.
When such methods are done properly, energy firms eventually pay back customers for energy that wasn't used, but many consumers have complained that Fi-Nergy wasn't doing that.
Kaakkola said complaints about the firm have caused the authority more work than any other similar firm. There are more than 70 energy companies operating in Finland.
"It probably stands in a class of its own when you look at the complaints. The company's operating methods are not among the most correct," he said.
One customer's ordeal
Fi-Nergy related complaints began piling up in 2019, with the authority receiving a total of around 500 that year.
One of the complainants that year was Kati Arell who lives in the southwestern municipality of Kaarina. She had signed a fixed-term, two-year contract with Fi-Nergy, due to an attractive offer she found online.
"I made my decision based on price alone, I didn't suspect anything. No alarm bells went off," she explained.
However, while most electricity companies ceased billing customers based on future estimates about a decade ago, Fi-Nergy continues the practice. The firm's invoices based on consumption estimates were considerably higher than the amount of electricity consumers actually end up using. The scheme purportedly means that the difference would be evened out, and households would be reimbursed later.
"The terms of agreement stated that the company would regularly reimburse overpaid advance fees," Arell said.
It took months before she noticed that there was a problem, but when she did she saw that she hadn't been compensated a single time for the overcharges, and called the company.
"They said regretfully: 'Oh! We forgot to even out the invoice,'" Arell explained, noting that first exchange with the firm was only the first of many monthly calls.
"The reimbursements were not automatic, you had to request them several times," she said.
During last summer, according to Arell, the company didn't pay any compensation, prompting her to terminate the arrangement, midway into the two-year contract.
She said that Fi-Nergy agreed, and the contract ended in September.
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However, Arell still had several months of reimbursement fees outstanding and said she has been trying to claw them back for four months.
"I've called, sent emails and contacted consumer advisor, but still have not received anything," she said.
Arell noted that the sums are not huge but her resentment is, saying that the experience with Fi-Nergy has left her with a bitter aftertaste.
"I've had to use quite a lot of my own time to sort out this mess," she said.
Problems from the start
Fi-Nergy was founded in 2017 and currently has around 20,000 customers, but the consumer authority has been aware of problems since the firm first opened for business.
After the influx of complaints KKV filed a lawsuit with Fi-Nergy at the Market Court in April 2020, threatening the firm with fines of hundreds of thousands of euros if it doesn't change its invoicing practices.
Since the lawsuit hasn't yet been seen in court, Fi-Nergy has been able to continue operating as it has.
Replying to a query from Yle, the firm's owner, Håkan Gustafsson, acknowledged operational problems at the company due to a growth in its customer base.
"Internal improvements have been made. We have also enlisted help from outside experts, but it is clear that not all changes are immediately visible everywhere," Gustafsson said, adding that he was waiting for a decision from the Market Court.
"What we've done wrong has been clarified and what we have not done wrong has also been clarified," he said.
KKV's Kaakkola said that the authority had unsuccessfully attempted several times to persuade Fi-Nergy to mend its ways. In December KKV requested that the company repay all of its customers' undisputed claims by the end of 2020.
"Fi-Nergy has not yet responded to our request about how it will proceed with the reimbursements," Kaakola said.
Owner responds
Meanwhile, Gustafsson said he was taken aback by complaints that his firm had not sent its customers final invoices nor repaid the advance fees.
"We strive to do our best to ensure that invoicing goes smoothly. When a customer's contract expires, the final invoice follows in due course. This is how we run the company," Gustafsson said.
However the company's former customer Arell said she has still not received that treatment, more than four months since she severed her contract.
"I have not gotten a final invoice, let alone the money," she said.
The consumer authority's Kaakkola said customers should receive final invoices within six weeks of terminating contracts.
"And after that, the money should be paid back to the customer within two weeks," Kaakkola explained.
He said that he disapproves of the way Fi-Nergy has been permitted to continue to operate the way it has, adding that he was astonished by authorities' actions in the matter.
"I think one could show tougher methods on such actors. The hands of authorities are completely tied," Kaakkola said.
Owner familiar with threats of fines
Gustafsson has been threatened with fines by authorities several times over the years as he acted as an owner, shareholder, executive or employee of several electricity firms during that time.
One feature all of those companies shared is that at some point they eventually clashed with authorities.
Gustafsson has been associated with companies including 220 Energia, Market Energia, Werel and Suomen Energiayhtiö, all of which have been brought to the Market Court, threatened with fines or otherwise faced investigation by authorities.
According to the KKV, those firms, among other things, had problems with invoicing, agreement settlements and unilateral changes to customer terms of agreement as well as telephone marketing sales.
About a year ago the KKV issued a warning to consumers about Fi-Nergy's operations, due to shortcomings in contract agreements as well as invoicing and customer service practices. The warning was prompted by the roughly 500 consumer complaints filed in 2019.
Last year the number of complaints about the firm nearly doubled to a total of 930, but the KKV has not issued a new, similar warning.
Kaakkola said that was because the company has not been getting new customers.
"As far as we know, the firm has not acquired new subscribers. It has been a question of two-year fixed-term agreements which [are expected] to expire in days, Kaakkola said.
However, Gustafsson maintained that the firm's subscriber recruitment efforts continue.
"This year we intend to get 15,000 new subscribers," he said.
Advocacy group: Firm's methods detrimental
Local Power is an interest group that serves small, independent energy companies. The organisation's advocacy manager, Jari Nykänen, said that traditional power firms are good at complying with industry regulations.
On the other hand, he said that Gustafsson's methods were detrimental to the entire industry.
"In the field, we've heard about hundreds of cases of customers being disappointed. [That causes] problems for the entire industry and makes people wonder if everyone is doing this," Nykänen said.
For years now, Local Power has proposed Finland implement a concession procedure for electricity sellers in the country. At the moment, anyone can start an electricity company.
"If the electricity provider would have a concession, authorities would be able to better intervene," Nykänen said.
He urged consumers who feel they've been cheated to tell the consumer protection authority what happened.
"If customers don't complain, we can't develop our industry in the future," he noted.
Small, uphill battles
Meanwhile, even though former Fi-Nergy customer Arell did contact the authority, her problems with the company linger.
Arell does have the option to take her case to court for compensation, but said she doesn't want to do that.
"No, not for these sums. This is what the business is about. No one goes to court for a few dozen or hundreds of euros. People are left disappointed and empty-handed, and their money stays in Gustafsson's pocket," Arell lamented.
For his part, Gustafsson said he cannot explain why his company was the target of so many consumer complaints, adding that he has done his best in a competitive market.
"I don't know what prompted the complaints. It's difficult to say, maybe the threshold for complaining has become lower over the years," he said.