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Best and worst energy companies
Npower has once again been named as the nation’s worst energy supplier.
Figures from the Which? annual energy firm satisfaction survey reveal that scores have increased overall, but the so-called Big Six are still at the bottom end of the spectrum.
The slight improvement that npower has made on last year doesn’t even put pressure on its nearest competitor, ScottishPower.
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Npower comes last again
Which’s annual energy firm satisfaction survey looks at independent suppliers as well as the Big Six.
Customers were asked to rate the suppliers on a variety of things including customer service, value for money and accuracy of bills. Each supplier was given a customer score based on their overall satisfaction rating and the likelihood of being recommended to a friend.
As you can see, it’s the smaller names such as Ecotricity and Good Energy that really do well, with the exception of Spark Energy, which has fallen four places since the last survey.
Supplier | Customer service | Value for money | Accuracy and clarity of bills | Complaints handling | Helping you to save energy | Customer score |
Ecotricity | 5/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 84% |
Good Energy | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 82% |
Ebico | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | No data | 4/5 | 81% |
Ovo Energy | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 80% |
Utility Warehouse | 5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | 76% |
Flow Energy | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 | No data | 4/5 | 73% |
The Co-operative Energy | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 61% |
Budget Energy* | 4/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | No data | 3/5 | 61% |
M&S Energy | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 57% |
Sainsbury’s Energy | 4/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 58% |
First Utility | 2/5 | 4/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 54% |
Firmus Energy* | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | No data | 2/5 | 53% |
SSE Airtricity* | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 51% |
Extra Energy | 3/5 | 4/5 | No data | No data | 4/5 | 51% |
SSE | 4/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 4/5 | 2/5 | 50% |
E.ON | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 50% |
Spark Energy | 2/5 | 4/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 50% |
British Gas | 3/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 49% |
EDF Energy | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 49% |
Power NI* | 3/5 | 1/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 48% |
ScottishPower | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1/5 | 41% |
npower | 1/5 | 1/5 | 2/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 35% |
*Northern Ireland
Source: Which?
The Big Six have performed rather poorly for the last four years, although cheaper suppliers such as Extra Energy and First Utility still have some work to do too.
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A mammoth number of complaints
Meanwhile, the most recent Big Six energy firm complaint figures from Citizens Advice broadly mirror Which's findings with npower and ScottishPower bottom. Npower received an incredible 647.9 complaints per 100,000 customers between April and June 2014. That’s compared to 33.7 complaints per 100,000 customers that SSE received.
Here’s the full breakdown of the Big Six suppliers.
Supplier | Complaints per 100,000 customers between April and June 2014 |
SSE | 33.7 |
E.ON | 79.2 |
British Gas | 81.4 |
EDF | 82.7 |
ScottishPower | 256 |
npower | 647.9 |
Complaints about npower rocketed after it installed a new billing system, and since ScottishPower introduced its own revamped billing system its complaints have jumped too.
Npower has been bottom in every quarter since 2012.
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