Energy News

Energy companies receive 4m complaints a year

Wednesday 11 January, 2012

By Martin Fagan

Billing errors cause most anger while £4m of compensation is unclaimed each year, says Which?

More than four million consumers made complaints to their energy supplier in the past year, according to a report by Which?

Mistakes on bills and inaccurate meter readings caused the most complaints. The consumer watchdog’s research found the so-called “big six” energy companies - British Gas, Npower, EDF, Scottish Power, Eon and SSE - had the lowest levels of customer satisfaction among all of Britain’s energy firms.

At present, energy companies only have to publish the number of complaints that are still unresolved by the end of the next working day. Which? says this means energy companies do not have to publish the total number of complaints they receive, how long they take to resolve or even what the issue was.

However, Which? says its biggest cause for concern is that 90% of unresolved complaints do not go to the energy ombudsman for resolution. Which? has calculated Brits could be missing out on £4 million a year in unclaimed compensation.

So jaded have consumers become, with their lack of faith in energy companies to resolve issues, 40% of people told Which? they have had a problem in the last two years, but almost a quarter did not make a complaint.

Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?, said: “At a time when domestic bills have gone through the roof, the government must do more to answer fundamental questions about why the energy market is allowed to work against the interest of the consumer.”

He added: “Regulator Ofgem should publish the truth about the full level of complaints in this essential service. Energy suppliers should be held publicly accountable for putting right the problems their customers are reporting.

“It is a sign of the level of frustration with this industry that so many people have a problem but don’t complain, even when they could be missing out on compensation.”

Which? says its annual energy company satisfaction survey paints a “bleak picture” of consumer contentment with their energy supplier.

Good Energy tops the table with the highest customer score (84%), followed by Utility Warehouse (78%) and Ecotricity (77%). Of the “big six” companies, SSE comes first with a customer satisfaction score of 51%, and Npower comes last with 41%.