Energy customers on hold for longer than a Corrie episode

SOME energy firms are keeping customers waiting on the phone for around the time it takes to watch an episode of Coronation Street, a snapshot investigation by Which? has found.

And some firms took around the length of time to answer that it would take to watch half of a rugby match.

In a mystery shopping investigation, the consumer group made 384 calls to 32 energy providers to reveal how long it took for customer service teams to answer.

Which? called each provider 12 times at different times of the day and on different days of the week.

Boost Energy, a pay-as-you-go supplier owned by Ovo Energy, was the slowest to answer calls. On average, customers were left waiting for 40 minutes and 58 seconds before their calls were answered – around the equivalent time period to half of a rugby match. One caller was left waiting for two hours, 39 minutes before their call was answered.

Boost said: “With our waiting times during the last quarter averaging eight minutes, we’re disappointed not to meet our usual high standards.”

British Gas was the second slowest provider to answer calls. It took 23 minutes and 32 seconds on average to pick up calls – a similar length of time to a typical episode of Corrie minus the ad breaks.

British Gas told Which? it has faced challenges but is recruiting more staff and supplying home workers with new technology.

Many call centres have faced challenges as they adapted to new ways of working due to the pandemic. However, at the time of the Which? investigation in September and October, the consumer group said that while some were coping well, others appeared to be struggling.

Around a third of energy firms kept customers waiting for more than 10 minutes on average before their calls were answered – including three other large energy companies.

On average, Npower took 21 minutes and 46 seconds to answer calls, while E.ON only picked up after 19 minutes and 40 seconds. EDF Energy customers were left waiting 13 minutes and 26 seconds on average before their calls were answered, Which? said.

An E.ON statement said: “Our own data shows that our average call wait times are significantly lower than the figures stated here.”

Npower said: “Our own data shows an average wait of around seven minutes.”

Together Energy, which recently acquired the domestic customer base of Bristol Energy, was the fastest energy provider to pick up calls, with customers waiting for 51 seconds on average.