Scottish Power received 1,163 complaints per 100,000 customers from October to December last year, a 488 per cent increase throughout the year that Citizens Advice branded as “staggering”.
Scottish Power said the sudden rise in complaints was due to the introduction of a new £200 million customer IT system which meant some customers did not receive a bill and others struggled to have their problems resolved.
It said it has responded to the results by adding 700 new customer service advisors to its team, and worked closely with Ofgem to meet targets on call waiting times, outstanding bills and ombudsman complaints.
Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “New billing systems are routinely failing energy customers. In the last few years, four of the largest firms have introduced new billing systems, and their implementation has caused chaos for consumers. Thousands of customers have been hit by delayed and incorrect bills which have resulted in extreme frustration and significant debts.”
“It’s encouraging that Npower is now turning the corner, but Scottish Power still has a very long way to go.
“We have negotiated with Scottish Power to ensure customers affected by its problems get a fair deal. We will keep working with the supplier to make sure the billing and customer service problems are resolved.”
Scottish Power said it apologised unreservedly to customers and remains ‘fully committed’ to resolving outstanding issues.
Scottish Power’s retail and generation chief executive Neil Clitheroe said: “The levels of service fell short of our expected standards and, although there have still been challenges, we have been working hard to make significant improvements in recent months.”
“Recently our call answering times have been amongst the best in the industry and outstanding complaints have been reduced significantly.”
Before the new system was introduced Scottish Power was banned from selling energy for 12 days in March for failing to make the necessary customer service improvements to respond to complaints by Ofgem.
The record number of complaints placed Scottish Power at the bottom of Citizen’s Advice complaints league table with almost twice as many complaints as the second worst performer, Npower.
Npower has routinely occupied the bottom of the table, but Citizens Advice said it has made improvements recently, although is still ‘performing poorly’ relative to the other big six with almost five times as many complaints.
Complaints also decreased for SSE, British Gas, EDF Energy, with SSE retaining the top spot in the table.