Complaints about energy firms rise by nearly a quarter in a year

Customer complaints are on a rise the past year in the United Kingdom, as consumers' grievances rise by 23%. This was revealed in a statement by the Energy Ombudsman earlier this week.

The chief ombudsman, Lewis Shand Smith, claimed that the rise of customer complaints in the UK had risen due to the customers becoming more vocal in filing their complaints. According to The Guardian, the billing for each houshold was the source of most complaints, with nearly eight out of ten complaints centered around it. Innacurate and late billings are part of the issues. Customers with problems switching either suppliers or tariffs also make up a fair number of the complaints, around %9 of the total.

ITV reports that the annual breakdowns of complaints by the energy firms will be made available by the ombudsman sometime next month, but provides statistics for each major company. In the third quarter of last year, ScottishPower received the most complaints of the three major companies, with a total of 4,554 complaints, which is a 27% increase from the last quarter. Npower came in second with complaints rising to 3,581, and British Gas surprisingly had a fall of 1% from the previous quarter's number of complaints, with 1,305 complaints. 

Money Saving Expert provided statements from spokespersons from two of the three companies. A Scottish Power spokesperson said: "In the Q3 statistics Scottish Power reduced the volume of ombudsman cases received by 27% against the previous quarter, and by nearly 50% since the start of the year." And claims that have installed a new £200 million IT system to improve their customer services this year. Meanwhile, an Npower spokesperson says that they are focusing on improving on their overall customer services, and claims that their total complaints last year dropped by 70% compared to 2014.

The energy ombudsman investigates more serious complaints between customers and suppliers, where both sides reached a deadlock after being in dispute for more than eight weeks maximum. British Gas has not released a statement concerning this issue as of yet.

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UK, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Lewis Shand Smith, customer complaints, Scottish Power, Npower, British Gas, energy firms

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