This week, we’re discussing whether or not you’re happy with your energy supplier. We’ve had the results of our annual satisfaction survey, but did the results surprise you? And who will get our Comment of the Week?
Although Npower came bottom of the table, Derek reported he’d experienced some good customer service from the company:
‘I have been with Npower for more than four years as all the comparisons regularly show me that it offers competitive tariffs for my usage. When I have phoned them I have always got a rapid response and my requests have been implemented faultlessly. My only complaint is the number of tariffs and the rapid changes in them, but that goes for most other providers as well.’
However, Wendy doesn’t share quite the same experience:
‘I certainly don’t share your experience of Npower. I had solar panels fitted in July and they seem to have messed up at every stage of the FIT process, as I’ve had to chase them at least a dozen times overall.’
Direct debit problems
Direct debit issues came up in reference to a whole range of suppliers. JBS had problems with OVO Energy:
‘I switched to OVO as I wanted to give a smaller company a chance, but they keep trying to raise my Direct Debit to way above the level needed. The first time they did it, I refused, complained and they stopped. I renewed and not long after, they tried to raise it to a level that, by their own admission, would leave me hundreds in credit for my power!’
Stephen O’Malley had a similar experience with EDF Energy:
‘I myself am with EDF and sadly they are exactly the same. They tell us they don’t want us to be paying sums that leave us with large amounts of credit in our accounts, and then a few months later start to insist that you raise them again.’
Switching energy providers
And we’ve some switchers in the crowd. Aliceada told us:
‘I took part in the Big Switch and swapped to Co-op Energy, the switch was done very quickly and I had no problems with either SSE (my previous supplier) or Co-op. The savings quoted seem to be on course but I won’t know for sure until the end of the year. Very happy so far.’
And Joyce Lomax has been inspired to switch other utilities:
‘I switched to M&S Energy for electricity and gas a year ago and was happy so also switched to them for phone also. Happy up to now.’
But one of the secrets to being able to switch with ease is simple energy tariffs. A point that Ant picked up in his comment:
‘A simple way to compare is what we all need and is what the government should have insisted on.’
Don’t worry Ant, we’re with you on that. We’re lobbying the government for a single unit price – so energy prices can be easily compared at a glance allowing people to find the cheapest deal.
Congratulations Ant – you’re this week’s Comment of the Week and will be featured on the Which? Convo homepage! What do you think of your energy supplier? Did they do better or worse than you expected in our satisfaction survey?
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