Ofgem Orders Suppliers to Improve Complaints Handling

Legacy_user

Quote:

Ofgem has opened compliance cases into First Utility, Ovo Energy and Utilita over their poor handling of customer complaints.

Ofgem has also required all the other domestic suppliers included in its survey - British Gas, Npower, Utility Warehouse, SSE, EDF Energy, E.On and Co-operative Energy - to come up with plans to improve how they deal with complaints.

Unquote

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45663030

And, as usual, Ofgem never says what enforcement action it will take. I doubt that the suppliers named are losing much sleep.

brewerdave

Enforcement action SHOULD be automatic removal of Chief Execs' bonuses. THEN we would see an improvement in performance:rotfl:

matelodave

OFGEM should be investigating why they get it wrong so often - sort out the root cause of the complaints and then they'll go away.

It's not really all that difficult to get it right first time

IMO the main cause of complaints is lack of accurate and timely information from the supplier. I've tried communicating with both Octopus and Eversmart over the past few weeks and unfortunately they are both a shambles.

Octopus has a pretty website with no useful information and Eversmart has a basic one with no info at all.

System

No doubt in CEO’s offices across the Nation, a staff member has been called in and told to update letters such as this:

https://www.eonenergy.com/-/media/PDFs/General-PDFs/Tony-Cocker-response-to-Ofgem-letter-2016-10-12-Final.pdf?la=en&hash=A194A480760746E5F0289D1E576775F7098E0CAD

welshmoneylover

A lot of customer complaints are usually caused by customers themselves!
Eg, failing to provide correct reads when the move into or leave a property.
Failing to notify the supplier when they move in or out.
Failing to keep an eye on their DD payments.
They get into debt by not being more proactive and then blame the energy company.
They fail to pay their bills and then have the cheek to complain when a warrant is obtained.
So not all of it is down to the energy company.

System

welshmoneylover wrote: »

A lot of customer complaints are usually caused by customers themselves!
Eg, failing to provide correct reads when the move into or leave a property.
Failing to notify the supplier when they move in or out.
Failing to keep an eye on their DD payments.
They get into debt by not being more proactive and then blame the energy company.
They fail to pay their bills and then have the cheek to complain when a warrant is obtained.
So not all of it is down to the energy company.

You could well be right; however, whether the complaint is justified or not, all companies should follow their own complaints code. For example, there is no excuse for this:

quote: suppliers do not keep them up to date with the complaints process or give enough indication of how long it will take. unquote

quote: customers need to have confidence that when something goes wrong, their supplier will deal with it unquote

and so on.

I have just raised a written complaint against one of the Big 6 as they have now had over 8 weeks since the transfer of my supply to issue me with a Final Bill. The supplier in question is signed up to The Energy Switch Guarantee. I went for a written complaint as having contacted them on the day that we moved in with my details and meter readings; and e-mailed them again 4 weeks ago with confirmation that I had legally completed on the purchase of the property in July along with photographs of the two meters, their only response to date has been to ask me for a copy of my tenancy agreement! The supplier in question is the subject of Ofgem 'engagement' - whatever that means.

PS: I should add that the transfers have gone through, and industry-validated meter readings have been used to open my accounts with my new supplier.