Energy customers `missing out on millions in compensation'

Which? survey finds that customer complaints about 'Big Six' suppliers have risen to four million but are not being pursued

The so-called ‘Big Six’ energy companies – British Gas, EDF, E.ON, npower, SSE and Scottish Power – received over four million customer complaints last year, according to Which?

And the consumer champion’s research says that customers could be missing out on up to £4 million in compensation by not taking their complaints to the Energy Ombudsman.

Which? conducted a customer survey and found that 40% of Big Six customers had a problem with their company. It also found that tens of thousands of complaints were still not resolved eight weeks later.

The most common problems were: billing and meter problems, including mistakes on bills; inaccurate meter readings and missing bills.

But 23% of people who had said they had a problem with their energy supplier did nothing about it.

Industry regulator Ofgem fined npower £2 million last October for failing to handle customer complaints properly. And it fined British Gas £2.5 million in July for the same offence.

There was some good news for energy customers today though with an announcement from EDF Energy that it is cutting gas prices by 5%. This follows recent price cuts by smaller players Co-operative Energy and Ovo. It's now expected that the rest of the Big Six will follow suit.

If you have complained to your energy company but you feel your complaint hasn’t been dealt with satisfactorily, you should contact the Energy Ombudsman.

More: Compare energy tariffs with lovemoney.com | Four big gas and electricity scams to avoid this winter | Gas costs, not green measures, to blame for energy prices

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