Archive for September, 2009
Plain English Campaign judge energy bills – it’s no X Factor
September 25th, 2009
About a quarter of people struggle to understand what they owe when looking at energy bills. According to the latest Which? Switch energy satisfaction survey, its bill clarity that causes the most pain.
On average, Which? members are three times more likely to find gas and electricity bills difficult to understand than other bills received regularly.
Around a quarter of members surveyed said that they struggle to understand how much they owe their energy suppliers when looking at bills.
Some customers are much happier with their suppliers’ bill information than others but, when Which? asked the Plain English Campaign to look at a selection of bills, all had issues. They were peppered with ‘gobbledygook and technical jargon’, including the use of a minus sign for a credit amount, red and green print making it difficult for people with visual impairments and failure to explain terms such as ‘calorific value’ and ‘kWh@p’ mean.
But it’s not just bills that annoy customers. Overall, the ‘big six’ energy suppliers received some of our worst customer satisfaction scores when compared with other industries. Just as in the Which? 2008 survey, customer service and value for money are also pretty poor.
In the latest Which? survey The Utility Warehouse Discount Club was rated the TOP energy company for the 2nd year running.
The Survey’s results, was undertaken in May and June 2009; it was based on 3,357 responses for gas suppliers and 3,957 for electricity suppliers.
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