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Eon Energy has apologised for its slow performance on switching customers and issuing credit refunds.
The shortcomings were revealed in the latest update on the Energy Switch Guarantee (ESG) published by Energy UK.
The ESG is a series of commitments by retailers to hit certain standards and targets around the switching process, such as ensuring switches are completed within five working days or less.
The latest results, covering Q4 2022, show that Eon, Octopus Energy and Shell all had shortcomings.
Eon was significantly below the target of 98% of switches completed in five working days or less, achieving just 75.6%.
It also failed to hit 90% of credit refunds issued within five working days or less after the final bill, achieving 80.6%.
A spokesperson for the company told Utility Week: “We are aware that our most recently reported performance with regards to the Energy Switch Guarantee (ESG) is below our usual standards.
“We are continuing to work with the ESG to identify and rectify the underlying causes of this and apologise to any customer who has been impacted by our shortcomings at the end of last year.”
Octopus failed to hit the target of 90% of final bills issued within six weeks or less, achieving 81.6%.
Both suppliers have submitted formal action plans to the ESG’s independent chair Matt Cole, informing him of how performance will be improved to meet the ESG standard in the next quarter.
Shell Energy meanwhile also failed to hit the target for final bills, but fared better than Octopus at 87.5%. The supplier expects to be fully compliant in the next quarter.
Switching up – but from a low base
According to the latest figures by Energy UK, published today (12 April), 175,334 customers switched to a new electricity supplier in March this year.
This is a month-on-month increase of more than 26,500 and up by 62% compared with the same period last year.
“Whilst switching is slowly increasing, it is important to note that this rise is from a low baseline and that the vast majority of consumers are staying with their current supplier. There was a 17.8% growth in customers switching month-on-month between February and March 2023,” the trade body said.
In March 2023, of all switches:
- 18% were from larger to small and mid-tier suppliers
- 15% were from small and mid-tier to larger suppliers
- 64% were between larger suppliers
- 3% were between small and mid-tier suppliers
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