MSE News: Energy suppliers told to improve 'frankly awful' satisfaction levels 26 September 2014 at 12:28PM in Energy 15 replies 2.1K views

Former_MSE_Paloma

Ofgem has written to the big energy suppliers demanding they take action on the poor handling of complaints ...

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Energy suppliers told to improve 'frankly awful' satisfaction levels




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[Deleted User]

Good timing here, as yesterday I started an official complaint against npower due to their handling of my leaving to go to Scottish Power. And SP have not covered themselves with glory either on this transfer. So gone from bad to bad,great choice made by me

little_monkey

I have changed suppliers a few times over the years and i can say that Scottish Power has been by far the worst.I never ever got through on the phone,emails ignored,website a mess,promises not fulfilled.

Consumerist

. . . We are already formally investigating Npower about complaints handling and other customer service issues, and this should send a strong signal to all suppliers that, where necessary, we will take action."

:rotfl:

Yes, as far as Ofgem is concerned, an investigation is action.

BUT WHEN WILL THEY ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ?

They are slower than Europe in coming to a decision because they seem to think they have to ask (consult with) the enrgy companies for permission to tell them off.

WE WANT A REGULATOR ! Pretty Please.

Bubblebath

Way to go, Ofgem! :cool:

If I understand this article correctly, Ofgem has written to all 6 of the major suppliers about this.

Yet Sky News claims complaints against only five of the 'big six' energy firms continue to rise.
http://news.sky.com/story/1342598/ofgem-warns-energy-firms-over-complaints

And the BBC reports:

Ofgem said customers of small suppliers were as critical, and on some aspects more so, of the way their complaint was handled compared with customers of the six largest suppliers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29368343

Yet Ofgem don't seem to have bothered about contacting those which number significantly more than 6.

Habibiboo

little_monkey wrote: »

I have changed suppliers a few times over the years and i can say that Scottish Power has been by far the worst.I never ever got through on the phone,emails ignored,website a mess,promises not fulfilled.

Totally agree with Little Monkey ... swapped my dual fuel account from them in June after using MSE's Cheap Energy Club and still having issues as they still haven't closed my electricity account. Today I received another statement and a "thank you for paying by direct debit" letter even though I'm all square with them (apart from what they owe me) and don't have supply from them any more. Receiving this today is the complete opposite of what was said to me last week when I phoned.

On hold twice today to their 0800 number and still not successful in speaking to anyone yet.
Being equally unsuccessful in recovering the credit balance that I had with them too.

I'm willing to make allowances, but this can't all be down to them having a new IT installation this year, the reason they state in the MSE article surely? My current situation with is from them just not listening or taking the appropriate action ~ and they have no excuse, they closed the gas account but not the electric.

Thank goodness Ofgem is can tackle things at the general customer-care level, but where individual issues are concerned it really is hard to get a satisfactory outcome.

Hoof_Hearted

Did anyone at SP think about testing their new £200 million computer system before using it?

martyp

I definitely concur with Scottish Power issues. I have their Unifi monitoring system and since June it hasn't worked and every time I go to Unifi support they refer me to SP and vice versa. I had a complaint with them before that and they closed my account down and refunded my balance 'in error' and it took 2 or 3 calls to sort that out. The last few months my account hasn't updated, my balance with them is nearly £200 in credit yet on the site it gives options as to what to do with credit balances yet nothing happens (e.g. refund the extra etc.) and I also believe they're supposed to pay interest on credit balances? Can't see any evidence of that yet.
I called up again today and for the 3rd time in the last few weeks I was waiting well over half an hour before getting to speak to someone. The first time I got through they cut me off. This time I got through but although the bloke was very nice and helpful he was unable to get my account billed and hadn't heard of Unifi (one of their products). He suggested I messaged them through my online account which I had done twice to get default responses from some offshore division which were totally unrelated to my query and just batted me back to Unifi support.
It's irritating as I'm on a fixed plan for Unifi and there's an extra charge for having Unifi energy monitoring which hasn't worked for about 4 months no so is next to useless. I really liked the system when it worked and I could be saving £180 or so switching to another supplier possibly now so am strongly considering this as I just have a basic standalone energy monitor the same as I had before Unifi.
The last update said it would review my direct debit amount now but they can't bill me so are unable to review it they told me. So I'll probably continue overpaying or underpaying possibly.
(I used to work for the other big 'failure' so didn't go with them!)

martyp

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Did anyone at SP think about testing their new £200 million computer system before using it?

Several of the big 6 energy suppliers made the clever decision to save a few pennies by outsourcing their IT to a bunch of useless people abroad. This kind of result is no doubt testimony to how jobs should be kept in the UK. Mind you Scottish Power claim to have employed 250 more people but whether that's in the UK or not...?
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/27/npower-cuts-1400-jobs-outsourcing-india
http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2010/julyaug/0107.htm
http://www.releaseitlimited.co.uk/release-it-service-transition-news-feed/npower-calls-in-service-partners-after-troubled-sap-rollout-disrupts-billing-systems

scaredofdebt

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Did anyone at SP think about testing their new £200 million computer system before using it?

Not enough.

Npower paid £300M (and rising) for their even more useless system.

maas

gsmlnx wrote: »

Good timing here, as yesterday I started an official complaint against npower due to their handling of my leaving to go to Scottish Power. And SP have not covered themselves with glory either on this transfer. So gone from bad to bad,great choice made by me

out of the frying pan and into the fire :rotfl: