Citizens Advice reveals the energy companies with the worst customer service: is your provider on the list?

EDF has been named the energy company with the worst customer service by consumer group Citizens Advice.

Utilita was the second worst company in terms of customer problems, with British Gas in third place.

However, no energy company performed well in Citizens Advice’s rankings, with only one receiving a rating of more than 3.3 out of 5 stars.

Citizens Advice assessed customer service between January and March this year, when a record number of people contacted the charity with energy problems.

Average ratings have fallen by 10.5 percent compared to the same period last year and have stagnated since the end of 2023.

According to Citizens Advice, customer service has still not reached the levels it enjoyed before the energy crisis.

Due to the higher prices, many more people had to rely on support from their suppliers and, for example, had to take on debt or be forced to install prepaid meters.

The latest star rating places EDF and Utilita at the bottom of the table, with Ecotricity at the top.

EDF had a rating of 3.45 stars at the end of 2023, making it the third best energy company in terms of customer service at that time.

According to Citizens Advice, EDF fell to the bottom of the rankings as the average waiting time for calls rose from just under a minute to over five minutes in less than a year.

An EDF spokesperson said: “We are aware that our call answering times did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves and we are determined to improve and return to providing the market-leading service our customers expect.”

“We have recruited and trained more staff in our Sunderland, Brighton and Exeter offices and are close to completing the complex migration of our private customers to a new IT system. As we move through this process, more customers are contacting us.”

Citizens Advice added that waiting times for customer calls had improved across all energy companies, but common problems in resolving complaints had dragged down their ratings.

Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “When millions of people are struggling to afford basic necessities, it is completely unacceptable that energy companies are failing to provide adequate support to their customers.”

“Citizens Advice has long called for Ofgem to be given more power to hold suppliers to account for their customer service. This includes clearing the backlog of complaints before next winter.”

A spokesperson for Utilita said: “We cannot underestimate how savvy consumers are today. You will recognise that the star rating is at odds with other market-wide supplier ratings – including those from Ofgem, Trustpilot and Which? – where Utilita consistently scores highly.”

“The latest star rating is also an anomaly when comparing its results with those of the energy customer satisfaction survey. The in-depth report, commissioned jointly by Citizens Advice and the regulator, ranked Utilita second for customer service among medium to large providers.”

“We therefore look forward to ongoing dialogue to bridge the gap between the perception conveyed by Citizens Advice’s star rating and the reality offered by other rankings.”

A British Gas spokesperson said: “We have invested heavily in our customer operations. This includes recruiting 700 additional staff for our UK contact centre at the end of last year, introducing longer call centre opening hours and providing additional training to our dedicated colleagues to support customers in financial difficulty.”