Customer service standards at energy companies have fallen to a record low as households are being hit by soaring bills, Citizens Advice has said.
The rise in bills is down to wholesale gas prices soaring in recent months. Demand increased as economies reopened following Covid restrictions, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine has fuelled fears over supplies, pushing prices up further. It warned that "without swift action" to tackle poor customer service, standards "will only worsen when bills are expected to hike again this winter"."At a time when customers need all the support they can get, it's worrying to see service performance is the worst on record," said Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice.
Utilita, which was rated the worst of all, said it had "issues" with Citizens Advice's approach to recording complaints, "regardless of whether we are at fault". "We acknowledge that we can do better, but we strongly believe Citizens Advice employs a methodology that is unfairly weighted against us as a smart prepay specialist."
He said since the statistics were recorded, the company had recruited more staff to cope with higher demand.
OVOEnergy is less than useless. Thanks to SSE for dumping us with them.