Victorian Energy Market report 2018-19

How well your retailer responds to a question about a bill, or a complaint about a service issue can be a good indicator of the quality of a retailer’s’ customer service standards.

For consideration if customers are thinking about signing a new contract or switching retailers, we report on customer service standards to help consumers better understand the market. 

Complaints to retailers

Customers mainly complain about:

• billing issues, including overcharging or mistakes on bills
• marketing complaints, including concerns about particular sales tactics
• customer transfer complaints, which could be related to failing to transfer a customer to another retailer within a certain time and
• other complaints, which could be about poor customer service

Retailers reported that Victorian residential energy customers made 119,160 complaints to retailers in 2018–19, an increase of 2 per cent on 2017–18.

In 2018–19, there was an average of 2.9 and 2.2 complaints for every 100 residential customers for electricity and gas, respectively. This has stayed the same for the past three years (see figure 3.10).

Similar to the previous year, billing issues were the most common type of complaint. Billing complaints rose by 13 per cent while all other categories decreased (see figure 3.9).

Simply Energy had the highest number of reported complaints with 7 complaints per 100 electricity customers, and 7.42 per 100 gas customers. This is more than double the Victorian average for 2017–18 (see figures 3.11 and 3.12). 

For electricity, Sumo had the largest increase in complaints per 100 electricity customers with an increase of 88 per cent (shown in figure 3.11). In contrast, Tango Energy had the largest reduction in complaints per 100 electricity customers with a decrease of 67 per cent.

For gas, Sumo had the largest increase in complaints per 100 gas customers with an increase of 42 per cent (shown in figure 3.12). In contrast, Alinta Energy had the largest reduction in its complaints per 100 gas customers with a decrease of 58 per cent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_{Figure includes only retailers with at least 1,000 residential electricity customers. QEnergy (9.28 per 100 electricity customers), Next Business Energy (1.73 per 100 electricity customers), Energy Locals (2.50 per 100 electricity customers), Blue NRG (0.0) and CovaU (6.13 per 100 electricity customers) were excluded.}

_{Figure includes only retailers with at least 1,000 residential gas customers. Tas Gas Retail (0.52) and CovaU (3.72) were excluded.} 

Increase in calls to retailers in 2018–19

In 2018–19, retailers received an average of 23 calls per 100 electricity customers each month (excluding sales enquiries). This was around a 17 per cent increase in total calls from the previous year, as shown in figure 3.13. 
 

Customers waited less time for their calls to be answered

Although the number of calls forwarded to an operator increased 17 per cent on the previous year in total, the speed with which these calls were answered improved. For 2018–19, customers waited on average 56 seconds for their calls to be answered. This was a reduction of a third compared to the waiting times in 2017–18, as shown in figure 3.14.

Sumo customers waited the longest time when calling their retailer, waiting over four and a half minutes (271 seconds) before speaking to an operator. However, this was  halved when compared to last year. Seven retailers had an average wait time of over 60 seconds. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_{Figure includes only retailers with at least 1,000 residential electricity customers. Powerclub (30 seconds), Energy Local (20 seconds), Next Business Energy (16 seconds), CovaU (9 seconds), Elysian Energy (9 seconds) Blue NRG (8 seconds) and QEnergy (4 seconds) were excluded.}

Where should I go if I still have concerns or complaints with my energy retailer?

If you have a question about your service, for example, about your energy bill, first contact your retailer.

If you cannot resolve the issue with your retailer, you can contact the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) on 1800 500 509. EWOV is an independent and free dispute resolution service. It will only consider an investigation if you have already tried to resolve your complaint with your retailer.

Cases and investigations carried out by the Energy and Water Ombudsman (Victoria)

One indicator of the effectiveness of a retailer’s complaints process is the proportion of complains that are not resolved at the retailer level and subsequently become investigations by EWOV. In 2018–19, EWOV received 24,053 cases related to electricity and gas retailers. EWOV also carried out 4,031 investigations related to disputes involving retail electricity and gas customers.  This was a decrease on the previous year with 26,946 cases and 4,805 investigations in 2017-18. The rate of investigations carried out by EWOV varied greatly by retailer, ranging between 0.08 to 0.26 investigations per 100 energy customers, as shown in figure 3.16. 

Sumo had the highest rates of investigations for large and medium retailers, at 0.17 investigations per every 100 energy customers respectively. People Energy, a small retailer, had the highest rate of investigations at 0.26.

_{Figure includes only retailers with at least 1,000 residential energy customers in 2018–19. Blue NRG, CovaU, Next Business Energy, Online Power & Gas and QEnergy were excluded. A ‘case’ refers to all customer contacts with EWOV. Each case is registered as either an enquiry or a complaint. An ‘investigation’ is opened where an assisted referral does not resolve a customer’s complaint.}