Energy news in general

Gerry1

Alnat1 said:

Chris_b2z said:

Historic data is published here

Why are there no stats for Octopus complaints?

Because both complaints were rejected?

MattMattMattUK

Chris_b2z said:

MattMattMattUK said:

I would be interested to see what the change in upheld complains is, I would expect that upheld complains do not move too much and there would be a lot more complains that are not upheld.

Historic data is published here

That data does not actually show the number of complaints upheld though, it does show that an approximate doubling of complaints since 2019, with the vast majority of those complaints being customers disputing bills. IT has a vague "complaint resolved" category, but that is different from complaints upheld. 

I would suspect that if complaints have been relatively flat for a decade, then complaints surge suddenly when prices double, whilst complaints in other areas of their business also remain relatively flat, that would potentially indicate that the uptick in complaints is potentially related to consumers rather than the suppliers themselves. It would also align with what we have seen on these forums where there have been many irate people ranting about how the energy company it ripping them off/scamming them/something worse, only for it to become evident that the issue is that the customer just does not understand their energy bills.

Xbigman

There was a campaign last winter to put in millions of complaints on the belief each complaint costs the energy company £500. I don't know the actual cost but I suspect its a lot less. That might explain a big chunk of the uptick, although certainly not millions.


Darren

ArbitraryRandom

There's probably some element of that - but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some reasonable percentage uptick purely because people are more aware/paying more attention to their energy use and billing. 

The complaints probably fall into the category of: 
- would have complained in previous years (has valid issue and price rise irrelevant)
- wouldn't have complained (no valid issue, driven by price rise)
- wouldn't have complained (valid issue, driven by price rise)

There's also a reasonable chance that more cases are 'partially upheld' - where perhaps the core issue isn't valid but the energy supplier or ombudsman offers some award for poor service handing the complaint (go away money) - which is frustrating given it then costs us all in increased standing charges down the line to cover the increased operational costs of invalid complaints... 

Chris_b2z

MattMattMattUK said:

he customer just does not understand their energy bills

That's one theory. It's also possible that the cost of living crisis has encouraged more customers to examine their bills and they are discovering genuine discrepancies.

MattMattMattUK

Chris_b2z said:

MattMattMattUK said:

he customer just does not understand their energy bills

That's one theory. It's also possible that the cost of living crisis has encouraged more customers to examine their bills and they are discovering genuine discrepancies.

The point was that there was a huge uptick in people on here claiming rip off/scam/fraud etc. and in not one case was that found to be the issue. There are the occasional issues with transposed meter reads, issues with wrong meters being used, night and day reads on E7 reversed etc. and even some cases of the energy supplier getting things totally wrong for some unknown reason, but none of those were scams or fraud. If I had to guess I would have said that upwards of 90% of them were customers not understanding billing (I have always paid £50 a month, now they want £100, it's a scam), and of the other 10% a significant chunk were caused by the customer (cancelled Direct Debits resulting in increased rates, underpaying, not submitting meter reads etc.), so whilst there were some genuine issues caused by the suppliers they were very much in the minority compared to genuine issues. 

The_Green_Hornet

Energy suppliers pay a total of £10.8 million for not meeting smart meter installation targets for 2022

Energy suppliers British Gas, OVO, Bulb, E.ON, Scottish Power and SSE will pay out a total of £10.8 million after missing smart meter installation targets for 2022.


The firms fell short of the installation targets set for 2022, culminating in a shortfall to install a total of 1,026,628 smart meters by the required deadline.


Following action by Ofgem, the companies have agreed to pay a total of £10.8 million into Ofgem’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Fund (EIVRF) in respect of them not meeting smart meter installation targets for 2022. The fund is used primarily to help consumers in vulnerable situations most at risk from cold homes and high energy bills

Energy suppliers pay a total of £10.8 million for not meeting smart meter installation targets for 2022 | Ofgem

MultiFuelBurner

Just over £10 per meter fine

QrizB

MultiFuelBurner said:

Just over £10 per meter fine

Which I guess they'll be fined again next year if they don't catch up with their quota, and the year after etc.

ArbitraryRandom

Out of interest, does the cost of any fines come from the 'profit' of the cap, or the operating costs?