ScottishPower rated among the worst energy suppliers

Consumers rank firm low for fifth year running in Which? survey

SCOTTISHPOWER has been rated among the worst energy suppliers for consumer satisfaction in a major study for the fifth year running.

The latest annual Which? energy company satisfaction survey of 23 suppliers rates the Glasgowbased firm in the bottom three once again. It was warned in September by the energy services regulator Ofgem over its “unacceptable” consumer care record.

Smaller energy firms topped the consumer watchdog’s table for sixth year in a row with OvoEnergy top of the pile with a customer score of 78 per cent.

The UK’s biggest energy satisfaction survey asked almost 9,000 people to rate their energy provider on their customer service and the way they deal with complaints, value for money, accuracy and clarity of bills, and whether they feel the energy company helps them to save money.

Npower was the lowest-scoring supplier for the seventh year running, with a customer score of just 44 per cent followed by ExtraEnergy (49 per cent) and ScottishPower, whose 50 per cent rating was six percentage points higher than last year.

Perth-based SSE remained in the bottom half of the survey of 23 UK energy firms, but improved it’s rating from 52 per cent to 56 per cent.

It comes just two weeks ahead of the Which? deadline for energy suppliers to submit plans on how they will help customers stuck on the most expensive deals.

The survey put all Big Six suppliers in the lower half of the table again this year with lower customer scores than many small suppliers.

When ScottishPower, part of the Spanish Iberdola Group, was fined £18 million by Ofgem in April, last year for customer service failures it was criticised for “unacceptably long call waiting times”.

It received more than one million complaints between June 2013 and December 2015.

Ofgem said the fine was due in part to failures in complaint handling and resolution and followed an enforcement investigation.

In September ScottishPower and npower both recorded the highest proportion by far of “very dissatisfied” complainants in the biennial poll by Ofgem.

The regulator found 64 per cent of consumers were “very dissatisfied” with how ScottishPower dealt with complaints – up from 50 per cent two years ago.

Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan wrote to all suppliers surveyed to demand an improvement – and warned ScottishPower of possible future enforcement action.

When ScottishPower was rated among the worst energy suppliers for consumer satisfaction levels in January 2015, through a Which? consumer study, the firm said it had migrated all of its customer accounts on to a new £200m customer service IT system the previous year.

A ScottishPower spokesman said: “On customer service, complaints, billing and accuracy, weareonaparwithothersofthe Big Six. On value for money, compared to the other major suppliers, we have the lowest number of customers on standard tariffs, are currently the cheapest in the market and will continue to offer competitive pricing.”

‘‘ The survey put all Big Six suppliers in the lower half of the table again this year