SSE sees fewest complaints of major suppliers - 08/03/2012

Energy supplier SSE has topped a new table showing the number of complaints made against the Big Six energy suppliers, while E.ON came bottom.

Figures compiled by Consumer Focus covering the last three months of 2011 showed there was an overall decrease in the number of problems being reported across the industry, with four of the Big Six suppliers seeing fewer issues.

The exceptions were Scottish Power - which remained static - and E.ON, which saw the number of complaints increase by seven per cent.

Overall, the Big Six had an average of 83 complaints per 100,000 customers. SSE has the lowest number of problems, at 40.1, while EDF received 188.5 complaints - far higher than the next-worst performing company, which was npower with 97.8.

As a result of this, EDF was handed a zero-star rating for the second survey in a row – the worst performance of the Big Six firms. By contrast, SSE received the maximum five stars for the third consecutive quarter.

Of the Big Six suppliers, npower was the only one to see a change in its star rating compared with the previous three-month period, regaining the three-star rating it lost between July and September.

This may be good news for the company, as it was recently criticised after revealing a 34 per cent increase in profits for 2011 on the back of higher domestic energy bills.

Director of energy at Consumer Focus Audrey Gallacher said the overall fall in problems is welcome, although she added: "There are still many problems energy customers are experiencing which need to be resolved."

She stated it is disappointing EDF remains at the bottom of the customer complaints table and said the firm's users will "rightly expect" steps to be taken to improve its performance.

"A line needs to be drawn under these issues so the company's customers know they have a service they can rely on," Ms Gallacher continued, adding providing consistently good customer service and tackling problems quickly and effectively will be the key to rebuilding trust in the industry.

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