Extra Energy remains complaints laggard

Citizens Advice league table ranks supplier performance for small business customers

Extra Energy has failed to raise itself off the bottom of a league table for complaints handling published by Citizens Advice.

The quarterly ranking system, which was launched in January, rates the 15 largest energy suppliers for small business customers in the UK on the effectiveness of their complaints handling.

Extra Energy recorded a complaints ratio of 1231.2 per 10,000 customers, marginally worse than its performance last quarter when it recorded a complaints ratio of 1225.4 per 10,000.

Common problems for Extra Energy business customers included not being notified when a contract was coming to an end and subsequently rolled onto a more expensive tariffs. When this happened, small businesses had problems cancelling their contracts, said Citizens Advice.

SSE displayed the best performance with a complaints handling score of 11.7 per 10,000 customers. Last quarter’s best performer, Eon, was ranked second, despite having improved its complaints handling score from 21.1 per 10,000 to 17.9 per 100,000 customers.

Commenting on the latest results, Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy warned that problems with energy bills and contracts can cause “serious setbacks” for small businesses – which are defined as enterprises with 10 or fewer staff or a turnover of under £1.7 million.

“Firms rely on a smooth service from energy suppliers to grow and develop. Problems such as inaccurate bills or contract issues can undermine these efforts and waste small businesses’ precious time and money,” she said.

Guy urged “all energy suppliers” to “step up efforts to resolve issues quickly and satisfactorily and ensure they are delivering consistently high quality service for their small business customers”.

Extra Energy has also scored poorly in the past in league tables for consumer complaints. For three quarters in a row in 2016, it came bottom of the Citizens Advice complaints handling league table for the 22 largest domestic energy suppliers.