British Gas ranked as worst supplier of last resort

Research by MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) has seen customers rank British Gas as the worst supplier of last resort (SoLR) in terms of the overall transfer experience.

MSE polled a self-selecting group of 12,000 respondents on their experiences with the process.

More than 2 million households have been transferred to a new supplier in the past year as soaring wholesale energy costs have seen off almost 30 retailers.

British Gas has taken on more than 700,000 customers of nine failed suppliers since January 2021, more than any other company. New customers of the Centrica-owned supplier were the least happy of those going through the SoLR process, according to MSE’s research.

The company was given an overall net experience score of -56, with 58% of customers rating the transfer experience as ‘poor’, 40% rating it as ‘ok’ and just 2% describing it as ‘great’.

Both Shell Energy and EDF also fared poorly in the survey.

Just two firms received positive overall feedback – Eon Next and Octopus Energy, with the former being served by the latter’s Kraken platform.

Credit balances

Elsewhere, the research highlighted how in some cases customers had waited more than a year to receive their owed credit balances.

In total 12% of customers taken on by EDF from Green Network Energy in January 2021 said they were still waiting for their balances at the time the survey was taken between January and February this year.

MSE said at least 20% of those moved to a new firm in September and October 2021 reported they still had not received their credit balance more than three months later.

That figure rose to nine in 10 among customers moved from PFP Energy or People’s Energy to British Gas, who had been waiting more than four months at the time of the survey.

Writing to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee recently Centrica chief Chris O’Shea called for suppliers’ licences to be revoked if they fail to ensure that customer credit balances are “properly” protected.

Communication

At least half of those contacting British Gas, EDF and Shell Energy by phone, email or live chat (for any reason) said they had not found it easy to do so.

Just 34% of those with British Gas said it was easy to contact their supplier, rising to 49% of EDF’s customers and 50% of Shell’s. This contrasts with the 80% of Octopus Energy customers who found it easy.

The journey for the former customers of People’s Energy and PFP Energy varied significantly compared to the journeys of average customers.

Former PFP Energy customers gave a net experience score of -71, whereas the average score for transfers involving more than 50,000 customers was -27. Similarly former People’s Energy customers gave a net experience score of -58.

MSE also looked at other aspects of the transfer process:

Customers moving to Shell and EDF similarly reported problems with the SoLR process.

Responding to the findings, a British Gas spokesperson said: “As a responsible business, in the last six months we’ve stepped in to take over the energy supply of over 700,000 customers from eight different failed suppliers. This is the largest proportion across the industry in terms of number of customers and in terms of number of failed suppliers.

“Unfortunately, each of these suppliers has its own process in terms of how they share data, including around credit balances and we are reliant on their processes. In some instances this has taken longer than we would have liked and we appreciate this is unsettling for customers.”

They added that more than 95% of credit balances have now either been applied or will be shortly.

A spokesperson for EDF said it had had been appointed to take on more than 600,000 customers.

They added: “From the outset of a SoLR we ensure that the customer is reassured and kept updated via our communications, dedicated website and FAQs.

“We do understand customer’s frustrations when going through the supplier of last resort process and we know this is a worrying time for customers with wholesale energy costs at an all-time high. We continue to offer support to customers in need.”

Shell Energy said taking on the accounts of half a million customers from five failed energy suppliers presented the “unique challenge of dealing with five different sets of administrators”.

A spokesperson added: “While we recognise it may have felt frustrating at times for customers, our teams have worked tirelessly to make these transfers as painless and as quick as possible. Our focus was on reconciling the data to ensure that we give customers the right information regarding credit balances. In some cases this took longer than we’d have liked.

“Almost all customers who joined us via SoLR are fully set up as Shell Energy customers, but we recognise that for some customers this has been a frustrating journey as they waited to receive their credit balance and we are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.”

Meanwhile, Ofgem said it expected SoLRs to proactively help onboard their new customers and ensure they are able to get in touch using normal channels.

A spokesperson added: “We are engaging with each SoLR and monitoring their progress in a number of areas – contacting customers, issuing bills, refunding credit balances where appropriate, and also customer engagement and complaints.

“Where there are delays or issues in any of these areas, we are engaging with suppliers to improve their performance.”