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UK Energy Supplier Complaints (2024)
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 Q2 2023, energy supply companies averaged 1,666 complaints per 100,000 customers (a slight improvement from 1,863 in Q1 2023). However, the rate of complaints is quite different depending on the size of the supplier. The large suppliers (e.g. British Gas, Bulb, EDF Energy, EonOVO, Octopus Energy, Scottish Power, nPower) have the highest complaints rates, with around 1,766 complaints per 100,000 customer accounts. The sweet spot seems to be small-sized companies, which had only 389 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 Q2 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 37.2% | 389 |
| Medium | 46.0% | 1,048 |
| Large | 67.6% | 1,766 |
| Average | 56.8% | 1,666 |
Another important metric is how quickly complaints are resolved. Generally speaking, just over half of complaints are resolved by the energy company by the next working day. For this metric, at first glance it seems that the larger the company, they better they are at resolving complaints by the next day. But perhaps it's just that customers of large companies have more of the small problems that can be resolved by the next day—that theory is supported by the data which shows that customers of large companies simply have more 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, Foxglove, Green Energy UK and Ecotricitry (all small companies) had the lowest complaints rates in Q2 2023, each with under 250 complaints per 100,000 customers. At the other end of the spectrum, large providers Ovo and EDF had complaints rates over 2,000 per 100,000.
Energy Company Complaint Rates, by company
| Rank (1 = least complaints) | Category | Size | Complaints received per 100,000 accounts Q2 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foxglove | small | 20 |
| 2 | Green Energy UK | small | 120 |
| 3 | Ecotricity | small | 250 |
| 4 | E | small | 350 |
| 5 | Tru Energy | small | 360 |
| 6 | Utilita | medium | 651 |
| 7 | Bulb | large | 718 |
| 8 | So Energy | medium | 829 |
| 9 | Octopus Energy - Start Q3 2020 | large | 1,126 |
| 10 | Shell Energy | medium | 1,179 |
| 11 | Utility Warehouse | medium | 1,292 |
| 12 | Scottish Power | large | 1,546 |
| 13 | Good Energy | small | 1,700 |
| 14 | British Gas | large | 1,786 |
| 15 | Eon | large | 1,885 |
| 16 | OVO | large | 2,101 |
| 17 | EDF Energy | large | 2,547 |
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.
Of large suppliers, the company with the worst resolution rate in Q2 2023 was Scottish Power, which only resolved 54% of customer complaints by the next working day. The large supplier with the best resolution rate was BUlb, with an 80% 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 | 82% |
| 2 | Bulb | large | 80% |
| 3 | OVO | large | 78% |
| 4 | Utility Warehouse | medium | 74% |
| 5 | Eon | large | 71% |
| 6 | Octopus Energy - Start Q3 2020 | large | 70% |
| 7 | British Gas | large | 62% |
| 8 (tie) | Good Energy | small | 58% |
| 8 (tie) | EDF Energy | large | 58% |
| 10 | Scottish Power | large | 54% |
| 11 | Foxglove | small | 52% |
| 12 | Utilita | medium | 40% |
| 13 | Shell Energy | medium | 38% |
| 14 | SO Energy | medium | 32% |
| 15 | Tru Energy | small | 14% |
| 16 | Green Energy UK | small | 10% |
| 17 | Ecotricity | small | 7% |
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 at the end of 2022 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 the largest energy providers so you can compare:
| Top 5 Complaints (Q3 2022) | British Gas | EDF | E.ON | OVO | Scottish Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billing | 23% | 23% | 13.5% | 18% | |
| Metering (Inc Prepayment) | 21% | 21% | 7.6% | 13% | |
| Non-smart billing and meter reading | 16.7% | ||||
| Smart billing and meter reading | 9.0% | ||||
| Payments/Direct Debits | 19% | 18% | 12.2% | 19.1% | 30% |
| Debt | 5.5% | 7.1% | |||
| Credit Management | 4% | ||||
| Customer Service | 14% | 9% | 42.3% | 27.2% | 34% |
| Change of Supplier/Switching | 2% | ||||
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|
| Avro Energy | 0330 058 2005 | [email protected] |
| Bristol Energy | 0808 281 2222 | [email protected] |
| British Gas | 3332029532 | [email protected] |
| Bulb | 0300 303 0635 | [email protected] |
| Daligas | 0800 111 4568 | [email protected] |
| E | 0333 103 9575 | [email protected] |
| Ecotricity | 0345 555 7 100 | [email protected] |
| EDF Energy | 0333 200 5100 | [email protected] |
| ENGIE | 0800 170 1112 | [email protected] |
| ENSTROGA | 1158572572 | [email protected] |
| Entice Energy | 0330 403 0040 | [email protected] |
| Eon | 0345 052 0000 | |
| ESB Energy | 0345 60 70 372 | [email protected] |
| Foxglove Energy | 0800 017 9896 | [email protected] |
| GnERGY | 01252 494141 | [email protected] |
| Go Effortless Energy | 03333 444109 | |
| Good Energy | 0800 254 0000 | [email protected] |
| Green Energy UK | 01920 486156 | [email protected] |
| Green Network Energy | 0800 520 0202 | [email protected] |
| Green Star Energy | 0800 012 4510 | [email protected] |
| Gulf Gas & Power UK | 0800 830 3670 | |
| Igloo Energy | 0333 405 5555 | [email protected] |
| iSupply Energy | 0330 202 0298 | [email protected] |
| Nabuh Energy | 0330 0414 902 | [email protected] |
| nPower | 0800 316 9328 | [email protected] |
| Octopus Energy | 0808 164 1088 | [email protected] |
| Orbit Energy | 0333 103 8277 | [email protected] |
| Ovo | 3303035063 | [email protected] |
| PFP Energy | 01772 395777 | |
| Pure Planet | ||
| Robin Hood Energy | 0800 030 4567 | [email protected] |
| Scottish Power | 0800 027 0072 | [email protected] |
| Shell Energy | 0330 094 5800 | [email protected] |
| So Energy | 0330 111 5050 | [email protected] |
| SSE | 0345 026 2658 | [email protected] |
| Together Energy | 3331501699 | [email protected] |
| Tonik Energy | 0333 344 2686 | [email protected] |
| Utilita | 0345 2072 000 | [email protected] |
| Utility Point | 03455 57 78 78 | [email protected] |
| Utility Warehouse | 0333 777 0 777 | |
| Yorkshire Energy | 1134510700 | [email protected] |
| Zebra Energy | 0161 498 8100 | [email protected] |
| Zog Energy | [email protected] |
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).