“Winter Aid” agreement: The largest energy company shuts down its phone lines after a storm of calls.
Denmark’s largest energy provider, Andel Energi, announced on its website that it was shutting down its phone lines to customer calls due to the huge number of calls the company was receiving about the new payment schemes announced by the finance minister on Friday (see the last paragraph of the article). The announcement stated that the company could not keep up with the exceptional volume of calls but was busy answering customer questions.
Andel Energi has about 1.2 million customers and is the largest energy company in Denmark, according to the company.
The company did not provide information on how customers can now contact Andel Energi or on the expected duration of the phone shutdown.
Increase in the number of employees
In recent months, several energy companies in the country have had to increase their staff, according to the business website Finans on Friday. This is attributed to the numerous inquiries the companies are receiving about new payment plans, as well as other related questions. According to the company, they were handling approximately 2,000 calls per hour this week at their customer center and are prepared to receive around 4,500 customer calls per day, but they are currently overwhelmed with more than they can handle.
Request to pay in installments according to the new agreement
The new agreement on winter aid includes a scheme that companies must manage, whereby households and businesses can request to freeze part of their energy bills by applying to their energy provider. The scheme will begin on November 1, which entails new tasks for energy companies.
It is worth noting that the energy assistance agreement allows households and businesses to request to pay part of their bills over six years to energy companies, with the government paying the money owed to the energy companies if customers default on payment. On this point, the Minister of Finance confirmed during the press conference on Friday that this is not an invitation for customers to abandon paying the amounts due, at all.
