Customer complaints about energy firms leapt by almost a quarter last year, the energy ombudsman has said. Grievances by consumers jumped by 23% to 65,168 last year, compared with 52,937 in 2014. The independent adjudicator said billing continued to be the most common problem, accounting for more than eight out of 10 complaints in 2015. Late and inaccurate domestic bills were perennial issues. Customers who had problems switching either suppliers or tariffs accounted for 9% of grievances. The chief ombudsman, Lewis Shand Smith, said: “Energy complaints rose by nearly a quarter over the course of last year as customers continue to be more vocal about their discontent with suppliers.” The figures were published as the big six energy suppliers find themselves under renewed pressure to cut bills amid falling wholesale prices. Dermot Nolan, chief executive of energy watchdog Ofgem, said this month that customers should be seeing bigger cuts in their bills and that suppliers were still overcharging. One bright spot in the data showed complaints in the final three months of the year fell by 29% to 10,896, compared with 15,370 in the same period of 2014. “Towards the end of the year, we’ve seen some suppliers take some encouraging steps, particularly when it comes to improving their billing processes, but there’s still more that can be done,” said Smith. “We encourage anyone experiencing an ongoing issue to speak to us – be it for advice or resolution, we’re here to help and our complaints process is easy to use and free to consumers.” However, in the third quarter of last year, the body said Scottish Power received the most complaints, totalling 4,554, but down 27% from the previous quarter. Npower came second with complaints rising by 24% to 3,581, while British Gas was third with 1,305 complaints, a 1% fall on the second quarter of last year. The energy ombudsman investigates serious complaints between customers and suppliers where both sides have been in dispute for more than eight weeks and have reached deadlock. Annual breakdowns of complaints by firms will be made available next month. • This article was amended on 27 January 2016. An earlier version said complaints to Scottish Power went up 27% in the third quarter of last year compared with the previous quarter. In fact they went down 27%.
Customer complaints about energy firms rose by almost a quarter last year, according to the energy ombudsman. Consumer grievances jumped by 23% to 65,168, compared with 52,937 in 2014. The independent adjudicator said billing remained the most common problem, accounting for over eight out of 10 complaints in 2015. Late and inaccurate domestic bills were perennial issues. Customers who had problems switching either suppliers or tariffs accounted for 9% of grievances. The figures were published as the big six energy suppliers faced renewed pressure to cut bills to reflect falling wholesale prices. Ofgem, chief executive of energy watchdog Dermot Nolan, said this month that customers should be seeing bigger bill cuts but suppliers were still overcharging.