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Energy firms have been failing vulnerable customers, the sector's watchdog has said, as people face a cold and costly winter.

Ofgem told all 17 firms in its review to improve, with Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, Tru Energy and Utilita found to have severe weaknesses.

Failings included setting debt repayments so high that customers could not top-up their pre-payment meters.

The regulator ranked firms in its review in three categories:

• Severe weaknesses: Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, Tru Energy and Utilita

• Moderate weaknesses: E (Gas & Electricity), Ecotricity, Green Energy UK, Octopus and Shell

• Minor weaknesses: British Gas, Bulb, EDF, E.ON, Ovo, Scottish Power and Utility Warehouse

Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said customers face "pot luck" when calling their energy provider for help, and that making the service consistent was an urgent priority for him. He said that an elderly man's energy supply was simply cut off through the smart prepayment meter and he was left for almost two weeks without any power.

"He didn't know what was going on," said Mr Brearley. "He thought he was experiencing a blackout."

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 10:45 am Not just related to Bulb performing badly, either: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63704037

Energy firms have been failing vulnerable customers, the sector's watchdog has said, as people face a cold and costly winter.

Ofgem told all 17 firms in its review to improve, with Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, Tru Energy and Utilita found to have severe weaknesses.

Failings included setting debt repayments so high that customers could not top-up their pre-payment meters.

The regulator ranked firms in its review in three categories:

• Severe weaknesses: Good Energy, Outfox, So Energy, Tru Energy and Utilita

• Moderate weaknesses: E (Gas & Electricity), Ecotricity, Green Energy UK, Octopus and Shell

• Minor weaknesses: British Gas, Bulb, EDF, E.ON, Ovo, Scottish Power and Utility Warehouse

Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said customers face "pot luck" when calling their energy provider for help, and that making the service consistent was an urgent priority for him. He said that an elderly man's energy supply was simply cut off through the smart prepayment meter and he was left for almost two weeks without any power.

"He didn't know what was going on," said Mr Brearley. "He thought he was experiencing a blackout."

Mirrors my experience from earlier this year, when Utility Warehouse wanted to double my direct debit, despite me being hundreds of pounds in credit, and with a usage history that showed my account was going to get more in credit, even after the April increase, over the coming year. Their customer service lady refused to listen to my point and treated me like an imbecile. In the end I asked to speak to a supervisor, who, after a few minutes of behaving like the lady I'd been speaking with, changed tack. It turned out that UW automatically flag any account holder that's over 65 as being likely to be mentally impaired and unable to make rational decisions . . .

To their credit they did agree to remove this flag from my account, but I assume they have many thousands of customers that have their accounts flagged in the same way, probably without their knowledge. Had I not been insistent they would have almost doubled my DD and I'd now be well over £1k in credit with them.

Fintray wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 11:28 am Look on the bright side for Bulb as they are only classed as having a minor weakness for customer service, seems to miss the point the company went belly up and has been funded by the taxpayer.

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 11:33 am

Fintray wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 11:28 am Look on the bright side for Bulb as they are only classed as having a minor weakness for customer service, seems to miss the point the company went belly up and has been funded by the taxpayer.

Indeed, that bit staggered me, TBH, as Bulb's current problems seem to be mostly focussed on a failure to buy ahead and hedge since they failed. A failure to hedge for the future is what caused them to fail in the first place. One might have hoped that someone would have learned a lesson from the cause of their original failure, but it seems not.

Oldgreybeard wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 11:33 am

Fintray wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 11:28 am Look on the bright side for Bulb as they are only classed as having a minor weakness for customer service, seems to miss the point the company went belly up and has been funded by the taxpayer.

Indeed, that bit staggered me, TBH, as Bulb's current problems seem to be mostly focussed on a failure to buy ahead and hedge since they failed. A failure to hedge for the future is what caused them to fail in the first place. One might have hoped that someone would have learned a lesson from the cause of their original failure, but it seems not.