Call Enel Energia, or she will call you. And maybe you will also receive a surprise bill, as has happened to many Italians in recent years. Victims of what is defined as an "unfair commercial practice", the unfortunate people had to pay for supplies they had never requested. Their case had already attracted the attention of the Antitrust in the past, which in September 2008 had issued a resolution against the energy company, subsequently punished with a 50 thousand euro fine. Unfortunately, however, Enel did not want to fall in line and continued to sign contracts in a cheerful way. For this reason, the Authority led by Antonio Catricalà announced today the start of a new proceeding against him.
In detail, the company activated the “Energia pura casa” and “Vantaggio 5+” offers for some users, which guaranteed supplies of electricity and natural gas, respectively. Too bad the customers didn't know anything about it. The procedure could follow different channels. In some cases Enel Energia agents went directly to people's homes, asking them to show their bills and thus acquiring the necessary data. They justified the visits by speaking of a "regulatory obligation to comply", then made consumers sign the forms already completed without specifying that they were new contracts.
Other times the communication was done through call centres. At the end of the call, customers believed that the company would simply send them illustrative documents, but after a few days they received a letter stating that the offers had already been activated. Finally, the most unfortunate only realized the operation by reading the bill, without the company having contacted them in any way. But in these cases who was to sign the contracts? Nobody. These were fake signatures. Sometimes the activation has even been done in the name of people who have been deceased for years. Some consumers were able to cancel contracts on time, but it was useless. They continued to receive absurd letters and bills.
