A REDDITCH energy saving company has been slammed on BBC’s Watchdog programme for taking money off customers, failing to deliver the service it offers, and leaving hundreds of disappointed customers out of pocket.

The managing director of Energy Saving Group, Stephen Dickson, appeared on the programme to defend the company, as he was faced with a barrage of critical questions from presenter Anne Robinson.

Watchdog said it had received dozens of complaints from across the country criticising Energy Saving Group, based in Albert Street in Redditch, for the way it operates.

As part of the Government’s Feed-In Tariff scheme, homeowners can get paid for generating energy through solar panels on their roofs.

Energy Saving Group liaises with customers who want to take part in the scheme, arranging for an installer to come and fit the solar panels, and charges £500 to customers for the service it provides.

But the company has had to cancel many customers’ contracts, saying that the installer has changed criteria and so many roof spaces are no longer suitable for the scheme, even when surveyors have claimed they are.

And even though the contracts have been cancelled, many people have still not received their £500 back, because of what was referred to as a cash flow problem in a letter to customers from the company.

Ms Robinson asked Mr Dickson: “You have taken money from these people, they have no solar panels, what are you playing at?”

He said that out of the 18,000 customers they have dealt with in the last few months, just 3.8 per cent, or 700 customers, had experienced difficulties, owing to the fact that the installer in question had changed criteria. He said, of this 700, 500 had already been refunded.

When Ms Robinson pointed out that in a letter to customers, the company had claimed that several thousand customers had experienced cancellations, not just 700, Mr Dickson claimed it was a “mistake by one of the people in the office”. He also denied that people had not received refunds because of a cash flow problem within the company, something else that had been claimed in a letter to customers.

One Redditch customer who contacted the Advertiser said: “I turned on the TV where, to my horror, but yet no real surprise, was the company on Watchdog and the managing director being questioned with no answers as to when we are to see the return of our money.”

At the time of going to press Mr Dickson was unavailable for comment.