Fast growth drives up complaints against independents, says Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice has pointed to the fast growth of independent suppliers as a key factor behind the high number of customer complaints revealed in its latest complaints table.

Citizens Advice’s head of retail markets Gillian Cooper said: “If you look at all the small suppliers, most of them have been growing quite rapidly. Some of the independent companies at the bottom of the table have taken on large numbers of new customers and that may be causing some teething problems with complaints.” 

Cooper said the table showed a “mixed bag” amongst independents. “Some are quite good at handling complaints, some are less so, similar to the big six in that respect,” she said.

Only independent supplier Ecotricity featured in the top five suppliers for customer complaints.

Some of the fastest growing suppliers, such as First Utility, Spark Energy and Extra Energy all feature in the bottom six in the table, accompanying big six suppliers Npower and Scottish Power, both of which have experienced problems with customer complaints following the introduction of billing systems.

However, not all suppliers are suffering teething problems from quickly expanding their customer bases, with Cooper pointing to Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Star as performing well on handling customer complaints.

“There are eight small suppliers in the top 12 and their performance is significantly better than the companies at the bottom of the table.

“What it also shows is that some of the big six have invested a lot of money in getting their complaints performance up to scratch.”

Citizens Advice compiled the complaints data from customer interactions with three bodies in the framework for energy consumers who need advice or regress; Citizens Advice, the Consumer Service and eight week cases made to the energy ombudsman.