Salons' fury at npower blunder

Red-faced bosses at gas and electricity giant npower are being reported to the Department of Trade after a sales campaign wrongly claimed to have the blessing of the National Hairdressers Federation.

A swarm of angry crimpers and stylists are up in arms over the campaign and have accused the power company of mis-selling. Npower says that it is keen to straighten out the situation and has written a letter of apology to 2,000 hairdressers and salons nationwide.

But it's not enough for hairdressers' federation secretary general designate Eileen Lawson, who is reporting npower to the Department of Trade and to the regulator Energywatch.

"We are very very angry," she said. "We believe this is a serious case of mis-selling."

Npower has blamed staff at a telephone marketing agency it used during the campaign aimed at hairdressers, who wrongly suggested there was a tie-in between the energy company and the National Hairdressers' Federation.

Npower spokeswoman Beverley Harrington said: "There is no suggestion whatsoever of any mis-selling. It was an absolutely honest mistake."

The federation contacted npower within days of the promotion being launched, and npower immediately stopped the campaign, said Miss Harrington.

The federation claims, however, that it took another four days for npower's marketing team to stop making the false claim.

Miss Harrington declined to name the agency involved.

Around 50 salons that signed up to npower as their energy supplier under the campaign had been offered the chance to cancel.