The research revealed that “confused sales staff” sometimes failed to offer customers the cheapest energy deal, as well as offering the wrong deals, and not mentioning important details such as exit fees up front.
In 93 per cent of calls made by Which? during the survey, they were offered the cheapest tariff, up from 75 per cent the previous year.
Scottish Power and Southern Electric (a trading name of SSE) were rated best for offering the best tariff, informing about exit fees, and promptly answering the phones. British Gas and Npower were rated the worst.
Southern Electric, EDF Energy and British Gas offered their cheapest deal in all 12 of the calls in the survey – a marked improvement for British Gas, which only offered the best deal in 4 out of 12 calls in the previous survey.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said consumers are less likely to be presented with the best deal if sales staff are confused by the tariffs they are offering.
He added that “the government must go further with their proposed reforms and require all suppliers to use single unit prices for their tariffs” so customers can be confident they are getting a fair deal and spot the cheapest tariff at a glance.