Complaints to big six energy suppliers still rising, says Ofgem

Ofgem says that in the first nine months of the year there have been almost 4.9m complaints, compared with 5.5m for the whole of last year. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Claims by the big six energy suppliers to have improved the way they work in the face of widespread public criticism were dealt a blow when regulator Ofgem said that complaints against them were running higher than ever.

The watchdog said on Wednesday that in the first nine months of the year there had been almost 4.9m complaints, and it estimated that the total for 2014 “will exceed last year’s figure” of 5.5m.

Ofgem said it would now publish quarterly figures from the energy suppliers showing how the six largest companies compare on resolving complaints.

The move to make the industry more transparent is part of a wider strategy of trying to improve the performance of a sector which is already under investigation for alleged profiteering.

“Suppliers must turn around their awful record on dealing with customer complaints,” said Sarah Harrison, Ofgem’s senior partner in charge of enforcement.

The figures customers can compare include how many complaints each supplier receives per 100,000 of its customers, and how many complaints are resolved by the end of the next working day.

The latest figures for the third quarter of 2014 show British Gas, which has the largest market share, received a total of 405,000 complaints, followed by npower with 320,000 and EDF Energy with 240,000.

Only last Friday, Ofgem warned Scottish Power that it could be forced to suspend its sales operation if it does not sort out failings in customer service that have dogged the company for nearly a year. Npower is also currently being investigated by Ofgem for almost identical problems on an even larger scale.

The industry body, Energy UK, said that most customers were happy with their energy provider, “but, in an industry which serves 27m households, sometimes things can go wrong”. It added: “Eighty per cent of complaints are fixed by the end of the next working day with no more than a phone call. But all problems, no matter how minor, are important and if a customer has any concerns about their service, they should contact their supplier as soon as they can.”