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UK Energy Supplier Complaints (2025)
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What are energy supplier complaints? They're essentially any contact from a customer who is not satisfied with any part of their service, from hard-to-understand bills to switching issues to technicians not arriving in a timely manner for a home visit. We've researched the market to learn which energy suppliers get the least and most complaints, as well as which complaints are most common.
- Rates of energy supplier complaints
- Top 5 complaints
- How to make a complaint about your energy supplier
Energy Supplier Complaints
In Q3 2024, energy supply companies averaged 1,141 complaints per 100,000 customers (an improvement from recent years). However, the rate of complaints is quite different depending on the size of the supplier. The large suppliers (e.g. British Gas, EDF Energy, Eon, OVO, Octopus Energy, Scottish Power) have the highest complaints rates, with around 1,525 complaints per 100,000 customer accounts. The sweet spot seems to be small-sized companies, which had only 261 or so complaints per 100,000 customers on average during the same time period.
Average Energy Company Complaints
| Average Energy Supplier Complaints, by size | Complaints resolved by next working day (%) | Average complaints received per 100,000 accounts Q3 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 95.8% | 261 |
| Medium | 61.0% | 1,004 |
| Large | 69.0% | 1,525 |
| Average | 68.6% | 1,141 |
(The average complaints data overall was calculated by weighting the complaints from small companies x1, medium x2 and large x3.)
Another important metric is how quickly complaints are resolved. Generally speaking, just over two-thirds of complaints are resolved by the energy company by the next working day. Historically the larger companies were better at this metric; but most recently, it's the small companies that are quickest at resolving complaints.
Best and Worst Complaints Rates
The level of service varies quite dramatically from company to company, with the worst energy suppliers having complaints rates more than 100X that of the best energy suppliers. For example, Outfox, Green Energy UK E and Ecotricity (all small companies) had the lowest complaints rates in Q3 2024, each with under 230 complaints per 100,000 customers. At the other end of the spectrum, large providers British Gas, Ovo and Octopus had complaints rates over 1,400, 1,800 and 2,000 per 100,000, respectively.
Energy Company Complaint Rates, by company
| Rank (1 = least complaints) | Energy Company | Size | Average complaints per 100,000 accounts Q3 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outfox | small | 20 |
| 2 | Green Energy UK | small | 70 |
| 3 | E | small | 210 |
| 4 | Ecotricity | small | 230 |
| 5 | Tru Energy | small | 540 |
| 6 | Utilita | medium | 671 |
| 7 | So Energy | medium | 1,043 |
| 8 | Eon | large | 1,067 |
| 9 | Scottish Power | large | 1,227 |
| 10 | Utility Warehouse | medium | 1,285 |
| 11 | Good Energy | small | 1,300 |
| 12 | EDF Energy | large | 1,361 |
| 13 | British Gas | large | 1,427 |
| 14 | Octopus Energy - Start Q3 2020 | large | 1,841 |
| 15 | OVO | large | 2,009 |
Best and Worst Complaints Resolutions
How quickly do energy companies resolve customer complaints? Many issues are simple to fix—perhaps a question about a bill or meter reading—and should be taken care of with a simple call to customer services.
As you can see in the data below, the small companies generally are best at quick complaint resolution, with E and Tru Energy really standing out.
Of large suppliers, the company with the worst resolution rate in Q3 2024 was British Gas, which only resolved 59% of customer complaints by the next working day. The large supplier with the best resolution rate was EDF, with an 81% next-day resolution rate.
Keep in mind that even when a high proportion of customers have an issue, if problems appear to be resolved quickly they may not be something to worry about. And many quickly-resolved issues relate to set up.
Energy Company Complaint Rates, by company
| Rank (1 = best complaint resolution) | Energy Company | Size | Complaints resolved by next working day (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | Small | 100% |
| 2 | Tru Energy | Small | 97% |
| 3 | Good Energy | Small | 94% |
| 3 | Green Energy UK | Small | 94% |
| 3 | Ecotricity | Small | 94% |
| 6 | Utility Warehouse | Medium | 82% |
| 7 | EDF Energy | Large | 81% |
| 8 | Octopus Energy - Start Q3 2020 | Large | 77% |
| 9 | OVO | Large | 73% |
| 10 | Outfox | Small | 71% |
| 11 | Utilita | Medium | 70% |
| 12 | Eon | Large | 63% |
| 13 | Scottish Power | Large | 61% |
| 14 | British Gas | Large | 59% |
| 15 | SO Energy | Medium | 31% |
Top 5 Complaints
What are the most common complaints people have with their energy supplier? We took a look at the top 5 most common complaints from the Big Six energy suppliers to see what goes wrong for customers most often. The top 5 most complaints from the Big Six providers were:
- Billing and meter readings: This metric captures how easy or difficult it is for customers to understand their bills (e.g., layout and content of the bill, amount outstanding, etc.).
- Metering: Metering complaints can arise when a technician is late or unable to attend a home visit appointments to read or change a meter (e.g., install a smart meter), whether due to bad weather, road traffic delays; or if they don't have the right equipment to finish a job.
- Payments: Payment complaints can relate to direct debit or prepayment meter payment queries, such as the size of the bill, the method of payment, a change in consumption or personal circumstances, or following a price change.
- Customer Service: This metric captures customer service experiences when speaking with call centre agents about services and products.
- Change of Supplier: Complaints related to setting up new accounts, for instance when a customer switches provider.
The most common gas and electricity supplier complaints vary from company to company, however. Energy suppliers are supposed to list their top 5 complaints on their websites for customers to see. While not all companies do this, the big companies do—here are the top 5 complaints for some of the largest energy providers so you can compare:
| Top 5 Complaints (Q3 2024) | British Gas | EDF | E.ON | OVO | Scottish Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | 31% | 35% | |||
| Metering (Inc Prepayment) | 14% | 6% | 14% | ||
| Non-smart billing and meter reading | 15% | 15.3% | 8.3% | ||
| Smart billing and meter reading | 7% | 5.5% | 10.1% | ||
| Payments/Direct Debits | 29% | 13% | 16.1% | 17.0% | 31% |
| Debt | 7.0% | 8.6% | |||
| Credit Management | 4% | ||||
| Customer Service | 17% | 35% | 36.2% | 36.4% | 8% |
| Customer Establishment | 1% |
How to complain about your energy supplier
To make a complaints about your energy supplier, call, email or go to their website to find an online complaints form. Below we've listed complaints numbers and email addresses for dozens of popular UK energy suppliers, listed by alphabetical order:
| Energy Supplier Customer Complaints | Contact Numbers | |
|---|---|---|
| British Gas | 3332029532 | [email protected] |
| E | 0333 103 9575 | [email protected] |
| Ecotricity | 0345 555 7 100 | [email protected] |
| EDF Energy | 0333 200 5100 | [email protected] |
| Eon | 0345 052 0000 | |
| Green Energy UK | 01920 486156 | [email protected] |
| Octopus Energy | 0808 164 1088 | [email protected] |
| Ovo | 3303035063 | [email protected] |
| Scottish Power | 0800 027 0072 | [email protected] |
| So Energy | 0330 111 5050 | [email protected] |
| Utilita | 0345 2072 000 | [email protected] |
| Utility Warehouse | 0333 777 0 777 |
If you have complained to your energy supplier and you're unhappy with their decision or you haven't been given a decision in 8 weeks, you can make a formal complaint to the energy ombudsman.
Additionally, you can contact Citizens Advice at any point in the complaints process—they have lots of information on their website and even have a helpline you can call for assistance (08082231133).