Energy Supplier's customer service

shaank

shaank

shaank

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2009
Posts
2,579
Location
Edinburgh
Is this even something that exists? I'm currently with one of the large suppliers and they are terrible when you need to contact them, I'm talking about over an hour waiting on hold no matter what number you call, and typically you get a rude 'customer service agent' who just doesn't care, doesn't resolve the issue, and I've even been hung up on twice in the last week now before the person even speaks, and that's after waiting for ages on hold. Annoying!

So - if we can get the option to change supplier - who actually is decent to use?

Or does anyone have any particularly frustrating and amusing stories about the bad service experienced? :)
 
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I haven't been charged for two years and the company I am with don't care, they know I can't move supplier while there is an outstanding debt and they have no idea what to charge me.

The regulator don't believe they have a role in my case yet.
 
Gilly said:
I haven't been charged for two years and the company I am with don't care, they know I can't move supplier while there is an outstanding debt and they have no idea what to charge me.

The regulator don't believe they have a role in my case yet.
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haha that's bizare - how can they not know what to charge you lol? surely original meter readings vs current at whatever the energy prices are on your contract?

I'm getting the impression from having google'd my issues that basically most of the companies are as bad on this as each other :(
 
We had two leaks. One on the meter and one on their side. They don't know what they owe them.

Our bill went from ~£40pcm to £360pcm and they didn't see anything wrong with it.
 
Npower have, again, failed to set up my DD correctly, I phone them on almost a monthly basis now, it's absolutely ridiculous. I have an outstanding balance on there because they repeatedly fail to take the full amount, I really have no idea what's so difficult about me phoning to say "please take £x/month" and them actually doing it?!
 
I've not been able to log into the Npower site since October. At first it gave an error saying 'we're aware of the issue...' so I didn't bother reporting it till February. On three occasions they promised to resolve within 30 days. They only managed to get me a bill after a year!

Npower are a bloody disaster of a company.
 
Thompson_NCL said:
I've not been able to log into the Npower site since October. At first it gave an error saying 'we're aware of the issue...' so I didn't bother reporting it till February. On three occasions they promised to resolve within 30 days. They only managed to get me a bill after a year!

Npower are a bloody disaster of a company.
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I'm planning on leaving them as soon as our balance is paid off... Unfortunately they're making that as difficult as possible, since it's actually increasing due to the fact the DD they set up doesn't even cover our usage!!

I keep having to make manual payments to try and take chunks off it. Absolute joke!
 
It's Scottish Power that I referred to in the OP - but I'll rule Npower out as a possible move me thinks lol!

Our issues with SP are around them not setting up the account properly, we get the DD taken each month, but no actual bills for the last 4 months, enter meter readings online only for them to dissapear, even the original meter readings are now not present, so no energy useage can be calculated, and thus no bill generated it seems. They continually say 'we will sort it in up to 2 days' then they don't.

Also when I log in there are 2 accounts against our property, both with the same account details, but different meter readings :) useful!

According to their website you get a complaint reference and once you have this get a call back from a dedicated team - that's never happened lol. So I'm on hold while typing this to see if I can get it sorted out and get a complaint reference to escalate it.
 
shaank said:
It's Scottish Power that I referred to in the OP - but I'll rule Npower out as a possible move me thinks lol!

Our issues with SP are around them not setting up the account properly, we get the DD taken each month, but no actual bills for the last 4 months, enter meter readings online only for them to dissapear, even the original meter readings are now not present, so no energy useage can be calculated, and thus no bill generated it seems. They continually say 'we will sort it in up to 2 days' then they don't.

Also when I log in there are 2 accounts against our property, both with the same account details, but different meter readings :) useful!

According to their website you get a complaint reference and once you have this get a call back from a dedicated team - that's never happened lol. So I'm on hold while typing this to see if I can get it sorted out and get a complaint reference to escalate it.
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ARRRRGHHHHHH - just after posting that (and being on hold for 71mins) someone answered and instantly cut me off. Brilliant.
 
Just to chime in a little on the positives of other Gas/Elect provider...

M&S does Energy and their Customer Service (I've been on the phone to them when I joined and when we had a meter reading issue), both were perfect, quick to answer their phone and resolve quickly. The prices aren't too shabby too, they do run on the back of SSE.

Come end of next month, I'll need to shop around again to get good prices. Hopefully they give the best or close second again.

e: When I left NPower, they gave me endless problem, especially when they, at one point, thought my meter read all the way round when my actual reading was lower than their stupid estimate. Who the heck uses over 9999units of gas in 3 months, in a 2 up 2 down house for 2?!
 
I've had long waiting times regardless of what provider I've used. However, I've always found EDF (my current supplier) to have great customer support.
 
I am about to leave Npower to go to First Utility, mostly due to CS. I was in quite a lot of credit and they ignored requests to change my DD amount or refund me until I logged a complaint. They would also try and up my DD amount significantly despite being in a lot of credit and with up to date readings.

In saying that their complaints department were superb, shame they didn't work in their main CS area.
 
I used to work in debt recovery, we dealt with cases on behalf of Npower. They would regularly send inappropriate balances our way, accounts where they actually owed money, balances in dispute, accounts that had been paid already, incorrect details etc. Bloody nightmare to deal with.

Suffice to say I would never consider them when switching.
 
FortuitousFluke said:
I used to work in debt recovery, we dealt with cases on behalf of Npower. They would regularly send inappropriate balances our way, accounts where they actually owed money, balances in dispute, accounts that had been paid already, incorrect details etc. Bloody nightmare to deal with.

Suffice to say I would never consider them when switching.
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Yeah, they failed to transfer an outstanding balance when I moved house, despite me asking them to do so at the same time as I set up the account for the new address.

I only found this out 18 months later when I received a letter from a debt collection agency!
 
I was with Scottish Power until recently. Things took a rather steep nose dive from about last year - I could phone them up and be on hold for the best part of an hour before I spoke to anybody. Sometimes, just when I thought I'd got through to someone, they would could me off before either of us said anything - meaning I had to phone and wait again.

My best advice with Scottish Power is don't take no for an answer. If you ask to raise a complaint, they'll tell you somebody will get back to you soon, but what they don't tell you is that their definition of "soon" is about a week! Demand they put you through to somebody straight away in the complaints team - they tried to fob me off with the old "we'll try for 5-10 minutes" knowing full well the complaints queue was much higher than that. But persist and they'll sometimes wait until somebody in the complaints team finishes their tea break.

I found that once you'd raised a complaint, Scottish Powers phone system actually put me through to the complaints team without even telling me - sometimes I wasn't sure if I was through to customer services or complaints until I'd asked. Just like any company, hit them where it hurts - demand to be compensated for your stress and time.
 
First Utility FTW, excellent in every way. Variable direct debit so you only pay what you have actually used instead of paying fixed amounts each month which is usually more than you need to pay and they can cash in on millions of pounds held in their accounts gaining interest. With First Utility you get an email once a month asking you to submit a meter reading online and no paper bills, no hassle, online account etc. They also guarantee to always be cheaper than the big six energy companies.

Best move I ever made.

Edit - Some areas they now supply smart meters that auto send your readings.
 
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