New table charts business energy complaints
24th January 2017

A league table helping small businesses compare how well energy suppliers are handling their complaints has been launched by Citizens Advice.

The new ranking, which will be published quarterly, measures how effectively suppliers are dealing with complaints from small business customers across Great Britain.   It follows the charity’s established quarterly complaints league table for household energy customers - first launched in 2012.

In the first new table – for Q3, 2016 – E.ON takes the top spot for its handling of business customers complaints, with a complaints ratio of 21.1 per 10,000 customers. SSE comes second with 29.0 per 10,000. Extra Energy delivers the worst complaints handling performance - receiving a ratio of 1225.4 per 10,000.

Common problems reported by Extra Energy business customers included not being billed for long periods of time and then getting hit with large catch-up bills. In many cases this is  followed by swift action to recover debts, without taking into account billing errors or customers’ ability to repay.

Citizens Advice says small business owners can use the independent comparison tool to make informed choices about their gas and electricity supply - which could help them avoid delays and expense sorting out problems.

The new league table ranks the performance of the 15 largest firms providing energy to 10,000 or more small non-domestic customers. These business customers are defined as those who have 10 or fewer staff or a turnover of under £1.7 million.

Business Minister Margot James said: “All businesses need energy and deserve to have their complaints taken seriously by suppliers if things go wrong.

“This new tool from Citizens Advice shines a light on bad practice and will help small business owners make informed decisions when choosing who to get their energy from.”

The first table:

Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer body for energy customers and helps people - including small business customers - with thousands of energy issues every year. The charity publishes data on energy supplier performance to help consumers make informed choices on their energy supply.

citizensadvice.org.uk/energy