Which? puts Ecotricity top in handling customer complaints

11 January 2012

Green energy supplier Ecotricity has topped a customer complaints handling league table for all energy companies, alongside a survey by the UK’s leading consumer campaign group Which?

Which? has picked up the baton from Ecotricity who has been compiling the Customer Complaints League Table for the last two years, allowing people the chance to compare the service of different energy companies in order to provide greater choice to customers.

Which? has now joined Ecotricity in demanding energy regulator Ofgem to provide more information on complaints to energy companies.

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: “It's great to have the endorsement of Which? and reiterates the need for Ofgem to publish the customer complaints record of all energy providers in the one place. But they still won’t – so it's up to us and (now) Which? to continue doing so.”

Which? Switch (below) has shown that Ecotricity received just 28 recorded complaints from customers in the 12 months to October 2010, equal to just 0.55 per 1,000 customers – a figure rounded up to 1 by Which? but actually more than four times better any other supplier.

(Table: Which? magazine – Energy Complaints, How satisfied are you? – p16, February 2012.)

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: “People tend to switch energy supplier for three reasons. For a better price, a greener outcome or better customer service.

“Customer service is the one that people have the least amount of information to compare – to actually identify a better service.  But it doesn't have to be this way.

“Most people won’t know that Ofgem require all energy companies to publish their customer complaint records – because they quietly get buried on energy company websites – and customers never see them. 

“Ofgem should be publically reporting these figures all in the one place, so that customers can make an informed choice when comparing the customer service record of energy suppliers, just like they can when comparing tariffs. What otherwise is the purpose of collecting the data? 

“We asked Ofgem but they said no.  It’s a stance made all the harder to understand given the regulator’s recent encouragement for people to switch supplier – as some kind of antidote to high energy bills, and Big Six market dominance.

“So for the last two years we’ve been doing the leg work, assembled the data and published it ourselves.”

Ecotricity won ‘Best Independent Supplier’ at the Energy Excellence Awards in London in November.

In a showcase of the top energy suppliers in the UK gas and power market, Ecotricity claimed the award for its innovative ‘not-for-dividend’ business model and pioneering attitude to customer service.

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