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Economy Energy has finished bottom of the Citizens Advice’s league table of energy suppliers for the second consecutive quarter.
The firm received a score of 1.8 out of five for its customer service for the period from June to September, while Spark Energy dropped 11 places in the Citizens Advice rankings, coming 18th out of the 19 companies featured.
Spark received a score of 1.85 out of five for customer service, down from 3.7 for the previous quarter.
At the other end of the scale, First Utility rose to the top of the table with a score of 4.4.
Citizens Advice said it developed the star rating system to help people find the right energy supplier for their needs. Suppliers are awarded a score out of five stars based on a combination of five factors, including how complaints are dealt with, and how highly customers rate the customer service.
Economy Energy customers reported problems to Citizens Advice including billing errors when they switched supplier, and being unable to contact the company.
Citizens Advice said one Economy Energy customer came to it after five months of trying to contact the company to get an accurate bill.
Spark Energy customers reported billing issues to Citizens Advice as well as problems with how the company collects debts – one person came to it after receiving a bill of £1,500 from Spark for a property they had moved out of.
“When it comes to customer service, some energy suppliers appear to be getting worse rather than better,” said Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice.
“It’s encouraging that some companies have made improvements in how they treat their customers, but we’re concerned that customers are still being let down through inaccurate billing or aggressive debt collection practices.”
“Energy companies must do more to improve their offer to consumers,” she added. “This means dealing with complaints effectively, being easy to contact, and being clear in the bills they send customers.”
The top five were:
- First Utility
- EDF
- Flow
- Utility Warehouse
- Ovo
The Utility Week Consumer Debt Conference takes place on 27 February 2018 in Birmingham. It offers the opportunity to network with leading suppliers in credit management, benchmark billing and collection practices, develop innovative ways to reduce bad debt and more.
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