SCOTTISH Power has been rated amongst the worst energy suppliers for consumer satisfaction in a major study for the fifth year running.
The latest annual Which? energy company satisfaction survey of 23 suppliers rates the Glasgow-based firm in the bottom three once again.
It was warned in September by the energy services regulator Ofgem over its "unacceptable" consumer care record.
Read more: Herald View - ScottishPower must now reconnect with customers
Smaller energy firms topped the consumer watchdog's table for sixth year in a row with OvoEnergy top of the pile with a customer score of 78 percent.
The UK's biggest energy satisfaction survey asked almost 9,000 people to rate their energy provider on their customer service and the way they deal with complaints, value for money, accuracy and clarity of bills and whether they feel the energy company helps them to save money.
Npower was the lowest-scoring supplier for the seventh year running, with a customer score of just 44 percent followed by ExtraEnergy (49 percent) and ScottishPower, whose 50 percent rating was six percentage points higher than last year.
Perth-based SSE remained in the bottom half of the survey of 23 UK energy firms, but improving it's rating from 52 percent to 56 percent.
It comes just two weeks ahead of the Which? deadline for energy suppliers to submit plans on how they will help customers stuck on the most expensive deals.
The survey found that the all Big Six suppliers sit in the lower half of the table once again this year with lower customer scores than many small suppliers.
When ScottishPower, part of the Spain-based Iberdola Group, was fined £18 million by Ofgem in April, last year for customer service failures it was criticised for "unacceptably long call waiting times", and received over one million complaints between June 2013 and December 2015.
Ofgem said the fine was due to in part to failures in complaint handling and resolution and followed an enforcement investigation.
Read more: Herald View - ScottishPower must now reconnect with customers
In September ScottishPower and npower both recorded the highest proportion by far of "very dissatisfied" complainants in the biennial poll by Ofgem.
The regulator found that 64 per cent of consumers were "very dissatisfied" with how ScottishPower dealt with complaints - up from 50 per cent two years ago Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan wrote to all suppliers surveyed to demand an improvement - and warned Scottish Power of possible future enforcement action.
When ScottishPower was rated amongst the worst energy suppliers for consumer satisfaction levels in January, 2015, through a Which? consumer study, the firm said that it had migrated all customer accounts on to a new £200 million customer service IT system the previous year and that although it believed it would deliver real benefits in the long-term, the installation process was challenging.
Eight months later, when it was ranked bottom for customer care in another Which? survey, it reiterated the issues with its IT system and said it had recruited 500 additional customer advisers to call centres which had improved its response to queries.
In June, last year, a Citizens Advice study found the firm was rated one of the worst energy suppliers in the UK for complaints.
A ScottishPower spokesman said: “On customer service, complaints, billing and accuracy, we are on a par with others of the ‘Big Six’. On value for money, compared to the other major suppliers, we have the lowest number of customers on standard tariffs, are currently the cheapest in the market and will continue to offer competitive pricing for both new and existing customers.”
Read more: Herald View - ScottishPower must now reconnect with customers
A spokesperson for SSE said: “SSE has a strong track record in customer service having regularly topped industry league tables for complaints handling. We’re happy to see that our score and position in the Which table has improved this year.
“However, we know there’s always room to improve. That’s why we regularly engage with our customers through our customer forums, asking them how they think we can do better and then putting in place systems to make this happen."
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