Energy suppliers responsible for thousands of nuisance calls

Published 31 March 2020

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Almost 3,600 complaints about nuisance calls from energy suppliers were made in 2019, a freedom of a freedom of information request (FOI) has revealed.

The FOI submitted by communications company Quadient to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) found that a total of 3,581 complaints about nuisance calls and texts were made by consumers.

In total there were 2,800 complaints about live calls, 581 for automatic calls and 200 text-related complaints.

Even more (3,866) complaints about nuisance communications were made about companies offering energy saving and home improvement services. These include 3,256 for live calls, 428 for automatic calls and 182 about texts.

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Accident claims topped the list with almost 38,000 complaints, followed by telecoms at almost 24,000. Meanwhile more than 5,000 complaints were received about debt management companies and more than 4,000 complaints about the banking sector.

Results split by industry

Topic Live calls Auto calls Text messages Total
Accident claims 18,671 18,769 533 37,983
Adult content 66 37 167 270
Banking 1,205 2176 802 4183
Broadband, phone, TV or other telecoms services 6,115 16,959 575 23,649
Call blockers 636 44 25 705
Charities 116 15 48 179
Competition 255 119 500 874
Computer scams 1,224 1,092 223 2,539
Debt management 1,528 2,616 902 5,046
Energy saving and home improvement 3,256 428 182 3,866
Energy supply  2,800 581 200 3,581
Gambling 279 43 845 1,167
Health 338 47 615 1,000
Holidays 200 27 343 570
Insurance (including car, life and home) 3,066 492 234 3,792
Lifestyle surveys 1,777 64 53 1,894
Oven cleaning 103 1,515 18 1,636
Payday loans 126 54 593 773
PPI 1,443 189 422 2,054
Pensions 243 40 25 308
Silent/no answer 1,237 1,908 57 3,202
None of the above 9,503 9,144 6,764 25,411
Total across all industries 56,324 58,425 14,605 129,354

Andrew Stevens, Quadient principal, banking and financial services, said among the reasons behind nuisance calls for energy suppliers were companies phoning to request meter readings when customers have smart meters installed.

Stevens added: “From damaging long-term relationships to risking an ICO fine, businesses will face the consequences if they can’t give consumers the information they want, when they want it, on the channel they request.

“Considering more consumers will now be trapped at home and on edge about possible news, there is a huge obligation to act responsibly. Customer communication teams need to put the groundwork in – this means logging key details, such as which channels customers prefer to be contacted over, and what time of day suits them best. It means ensuring this information is available to all departments that interact with customers, so that contact remains consistent, relevant and useful.”