Shell Energy Services will pay about $84,000 for slamming retail gas customers in Georgia, according to a stipulation signed Tuesday by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC). The agreement resolves charges that the company switched 18 gas customers without their authorization during a telemarketing campaign last year and misinformed 516 other customers.

The approved agreement calls for Shell to do the following: contribute $50,000 to Georgia’s Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program; make restitution, including refunds of all charges plus payments of $100 each, to 18 consumers who were found to have had their natural gas service switched without proper authorization and pay them $5/day for every day they were switched without their authorization; and to pay 516 additional customers $50 each based on misinformation provided during the campaign.

PSC spokesman Bill Edge noted that this slamming case pales in comparison to the Energy America case last year. Energy America is a Centrica subsidiary. “They got hit big-time last year,” said Edge. “But they had many more instances of slamming. It was much more egregious than this. They left the Georgia market earlier this year and the customers were taken over by Southern Co. The PSC didn’t make them leave; their public reason was that the market was not financially viable. They probably ended up paying $625,000 in refunds and assessments.” It was the largest fine to date in the deregulated Georgia market, he said.

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