Extra Energy tops worst complaints handling score for third quarter in a row

25th November 2016
Extra Energy has come bottom of Citizens Advice’s latest energy complaints league table for the third consecutive quarter – with customers continuing to report billing problems. The firm has ranked lowest in the table – which measures how well energy suppliers are handling customer complaints – since the start of 2016.  However Extra Energy has improved on its score from last quarter with a complaints ratio of 1505.7 per 100,000 customers, compared to 1791.2.

Scottish Power and npower continue to improve their performances and move up the rankings. Both firms were previously fined by Ofgem for customer service failings caused by the introduction of new billing systems. People were hit with backdated or inaccurate bills and also struggled to get through on the phone to resolve their problems.

Billing problems were a key issue Extra Energy customers reported to Citizens Advice – including cases where people didn’t get a bill for over a year. Extra Energy customers also had problems switching to another supplier – with delays getting final bills and problems with money being taken out after accounts had been shut down.

Citizens Advice’s latest complaints table of the 22 largest energy firms in Great Britain, for July to September 2016, shows:

  • Both npower and Scottish Power continue to improve – with both suppliers’ complaints ratios dropping by around a third on last quarter.

  • Newcomer Places for People Energy replaces SSE at the top of the table with a record score of 19.0 complaints per 100,000 customers.

  • iSupply’s complaints ratio has more than doubled to 818.5 per 100,000 customers  – with the firm dropping to second from bottom in the table.

Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said “People’s time and money is being wasted trying to get energy firms to sort out complaints. All energy suppliers should be delivering a first rate service as standard and resolving their customers’ problems quickly instead of letting them drag on. It’s good to see that some energy firms are starting to get to grips with billing issues that have been causing such a headache for their customers. It’s crucial that all suppliers act fast to clear up these problems sooner rather than later.”

Citizens Advice publishes the quarterly results to show customers how well energy suppliers are dealing with complaints. Suppliers’ scores are calculated based on the seriousness of the complaint against them and how long it took to resolve. Firms with lower complaints ratios are better at resolving complaints than those with high scores.

Ranking for quarter July- September  2016

Supplier

Complaints ratio July – September 2016

Complaints ratio April- June 2016

1

Places for People

19.0

N/A

2

E (Gas and Electricity)

27.0

35.8

3

SSE

27.2

22.5

4

EDF Energy

32.1

30.5

5

British Gas

79.0

79.5

6

E.ON

83.4

85.8

7

Ovo Energy

90.3

91.7

8

Utilita

112.9

95.6

9

Flow Energy

120.4

132.9

10

Utility Warehouse

133.2

108.5

11

Ecotricity

164.5

176.7

12

Good Energy

176.6

153.2

13

GB Energy

198.5

125.4

14

First Utility

228.6

281.0

15

npower

266.9

383.4

16

Economy Energy

420.4

178.3

17

Spark Energy

438.6

371.9

18

Scottish Power

446.3

571.5

19

Green Star Energy

459.9

265.0

20

Co-Operative Energy

679.1

850.3

21

iSupply

818.5

347.2

22

Extra Energy

1505.7

1791.2