Which? estimates energy and broadband customers lost nearly £300 million to poor customer service in the last year
Which? surveyed more than 4,000 people to uncover how many people had a customer service issue in the year to May 2024 and how poor customer service impacted their finances, time and emotional wellbeing.
As well as the huge losses in terms of money and wasted time, the consumer champion estimates 8.9 million energy consumers and 9.2 million broadband consumers experienced emotional harm as a result of poor customer service.
In the energy sector, one in five (17%) who had contacted their energy provider said they gave up trying to get their problem resolved due to the issues they experienced with customer service. Almost a third (32%) of these consumers said that this left them financially worse off. On average, they estimated they were £137 worse off as a result.
In total, Which? estimates that 1.2 million energy customers were left £166m worse off due to customer service issues forcing them to give up trying to get their issue resolved.
In the broadband sector, one in seven (14%) who contacted their broadband provider said they gave up seeking a resolution due to problems they experienced with the customer service. Three in 10 (29%) said that this left them financially worse off, and on average they estimated they were £93 worse off as a result.
In total, Which? estimates that 950,000 consumers were £89m worse off due to giving up contacting their broadband provider.
A small proportion of consumers (1 to 2%) said they did not even contact their energy or broadband providers due to previous bad experiences with their customer service. This adds an additional £37 million to consumers being worse off due to poor customer service in the energy sector and an additional £6 million in the broadband sector, bringing the total estimated loss to poor customer service across both sectors to £298m.
Which?’s survey also looked at how much time consumers lost trying to resolve customer service issues. Over a third of people who contacted their energy firm (35%) and broadband provider (36%) reported having at least one problem that wasted their time. These issues included: not being able to reach customer service, phone calls being disconnected, being passed between departments and long call waiting times.
On average, Which? estimates those who experienced time-wasting customer service issues lost almost 2 hours (112 mins) of their time due to energy customer service problems and 1 hour 38 minutes of their time due to broadband customer service problems.
The consumer champion estimates that consumers experienced time harm in 17.3 million customer service problems with their energy supplier and 18.3 million problems with their broadband provider in the past year.
This means that in total, energy and broadband customers spent an estimated 27.3 million hours in a year on customer service issues - 13.9 million hours for energy customers and 13.4 million hours for broadband customers.
Unsurprisingly, poor customer service also has a huge impact on consumers’ wellbeing. Over half of respondents that experienced at least one customer service problem reported feeling frustrated (55% of those having energy problems, 57% of those having broadband problems), around a quarter (25% in energy and 29% in broadband) said they felt angry and a fifth reported feeling helpless (21% in energy and 19% in broadband).
One respondent to Which?’s customer service tool said: “I had to contact customer service via my mobile phone, which is a pay-as-you-go, so it cost in the region of £50 to £70 as I was passed from one department to another and kept waiting. It took two months to get it resolved and no compensation. I kept a running list of what I did and also recorded the conversations. It made me feel stressed, anxious, frustrated and angry.”
Concerningly, more than one in ten of those who had experienced a customer service problem reported feeling upset or distressed. Feelings of helplessness and upsetness were most commonly reported amongst customers who did not receive a response to their email (43% feeling helpless and 41% upset) or spoke to an unhelpful or dismissive advisor (38% helpless and 33% upset).
Separate Which? research named Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas the worst energy and broadband firms for customer service. The consumer champion wrote to all three firms about their consistently poor performance. Although British Gas and Virgin Media say they are making improvements, our research shows many of their customers remain dissatisfied. Which? will continue to monitor these changes and whether they make a meaningful difference for customers.
Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said:
“Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service in the energy and broadband sectors - with nearly £300 million lost to poor service in a single year. The impact in terms of wasted time and on people’s emotional wellbeing is just as concerning.
“It is never OK for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.
“Previous Which? research named Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas the worst energy and broadband firms for customer service. Any firms falling short in the energy and broadband sector need to up their game and give consumers the customer service they deserve. No-one should have to spend hours going round in circles, put themselves through emotional turmoil or lose their hard-earned money because of poor customer service.”
-ENDS-
Notes to editors
Which? Customer Service Counts campaign
Customer service is in a dire state in vital areas and some companies are routinely failing their customers – leaving them frustrated and stuck in endless loops trying to get help. Over the past six months, thousands of people have got in touch with us to share their experiences of shoddy customer service. Which? is calling for any companies falling short to urgently improve and make it easier for customers to get timely and effective solutions to their problems when they need help.
Which? has a customer service tool consumers can use to report their worst experiences of customer service.
Which? names and shames Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas for poor customer service.
Read more about the campaign here
Research
Yonder, on behalf of Which?, conducted an online survey of 4,101 nationally representative adults aged 18+. The survey was conducted between 3rd and 15th May 2024. The data is therefore reflective of customers’ experiences between May 2023 and May 2024.
Those who had contacted their energy or broadband provider were then asked further follow-up questions to understand the harms faced.
To calculate time, emotional and financial harm, Which? asked respondents which problems, if any, they had experienced when contacting their energy or broadband provider in the last year.
Respondents who had experienced at least one problem when contacting customer services were asked a series of questions that included how they felt as a result of experiencing these problems (emotional harm), how much time, if any, they wasted in minutes for each of the problems experienced (time harm), whether they gave up seeking a resolution as a result of the problems, and whether they were left financially worse off as a result (financial harm), and if so, by how much in pounds.
Estimates have been scaled up by the UK adult population estimated by the ONS.
The full report will be published here.
About Which?
Which? is the UK’s consumer champion, here to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. Our research gets to the heart of consumer issues, our advice is impartial, and our rigorous product tests lead to expert recommendations. We’re the independent consumer voice that influences politicians and lawmakers, investigates, holds businesses to account and makes change happen. As an organisation we’re not for profit and all for making consumers more powerful.The information in this press release is for editorial use by journalists and media outlets only.
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