ScottishPower most complained-about energy firm says ombudsman

The Energy Ombudsman has revealed complaint figures for the first time.

The Energy Ombudsman has released complaint figures about energy suppliers for the first time, with ScottishPower the most complained-about firm.

ScottishPower was the focus of 8,840 complaints over the first quarter of the year, with billing the top issue for customers

ScottishPower has been plagued by problems related to its new billing system for a while now. Complaints levels got so bad that regulator Ofgem actually banned the firm from selling energy for 12 days back in March.

The Energy Ombudsman has published complaints figures for the 10 biggest suppliers in the UK for the first time, in order to give households the chance to make better-informed decisions when choosing which supplier to go with.

Here’s how they stack up, ordered by the number of complaints per 100,000 customers.

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How the Energy Ombudsman works

The Energy Ombudsman can investigate disputes between households and energy suppliers that have been ongoing for eight weeks or more, or those that have reached deadlock. Customers must contact their supplier directly first, before they can escalate the complaint to the service.

Between April 2014 and March 2015 the Energy ombudsman received 140,092 complaints and 46,632 were resolved.

More than three quarters (78%) of complaints were settled quickly via informal routes, while the rest were resolved following a more lengthy investigation. The most common financial reward for people who had a problem was £100.

Citizens Advice complaints figures

Citizens Advice complaints figures released last month largely correspond with the Energy Ombudsman.

The service also found ScottishPower was the most complained-about energy supplier.

In the final quarter of 2014 ScottishPower received a whopping 1,163 per 100,000 customers, the highest number of complaints ever recorded against one energy firm.

In fact, complaints about ScottishPower increased by an incredible 588% over the year.

Here’s how the Big Six suppliers shape up over the last year according to Citizens Advice, based on the number of complaints per 100,000 customers.

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Customer satisfaction

The findings from the energy ombudsman and Citizens Advice broadly match up with the Which? annual energy firm satisfaction survey which came out earlier this year.

The survey looks at independent suppliers as well as the Big Six.

Customers were asked to rate the suppliers on a variety of things including customer service, value for money and accuracy of bills. Each supplier was given a customer score based on their overall satisfaction rating and the likelihood of being recommended to a friend.

As you can see, it’s the smaller names that really do well, with the exception of Spark Energy, which has fallen four places since the last survey.

*Northern Ireland

Source: Which?

The Big Six have performed rather poorly for the last four years, although cheaper suppliers such as Extra Energy and First Utility still have some work to do too.

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