Turku Energy had disconnected the power supply of an 80-year old man for non-payment of his bills. When the daily Turun Sanomat published a story about the senior’s plight one week before Christmas, locals stepped up to help.
The paper said that as the story spread, there was widespread indignation over the action of the power company, particularly in social media networks, with hundreds condemning the act on the social networking site Facebook. Many netizens offered to pay the man’s 90-euro electricity bill.
Turku Energy said that for confidentiality reasons, it does not usually accept payments made by third parties on behalf of their customers, but the company decided to make an exception on this occasion.
“We made an exception in this case because there were so many willing to make a donation,” Turku Energy communications chief Anne-Mari Repola-Mäkinen told Turun Sanomat.
On Christmas Eve the company announced that it had received contributions from private individuals that would allow it to reconnect the elderly man’s electricity supply.