It is difficult not to feel sorry for Brazilian football fans following their team’s ignominious exit from the World Cup. Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool FC manager famously said,
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”
While the competitiveness of your favourite football team may not be truly life threatening the performance of your energy supplier could well be. This makes the publication of Citizens Advice’s energy supplier complaints league important for all of us. The league table shows npower firmly at rock bottom in sixth place, with Scottish Power above in fifth. Both suppliers have introduced new billing systems which have prompted a rise in complaints. Npower complaints rose from 306.8 for every 100,000 customers to 592, in the last quarter of 2013.
Complaints per 100,000 customers in Jan-March 2014
1 SSE 34.1
2 British Gas 75.4
3 E.ON 83.6
4 EDF 84.5
5 Scottish Power 197.7
6 npower 592.4
Average 151.0
Following the publication of this information by Citizens Advice, the energy regulator, Ofgem has launched an investigation into npower’s billing problems. Npower has also committed to writing off outstanding payments for vulnerable customers (those who receive Warm Home Discount) who have not had a bill for six months
The knock-on effect of poor billing systems can be devastating for households struggling to make ends meet. Many people do not have the spare cash to cover the cost of a large bill that suddenly lands on their doorstep following a delay.
Here are some tips on how to deal with energy suppliers