Ombudsman Services | July 2020
Covid-19 has impacted some suppliers’ ability to offer normal levels of customer service. At the same time, many customers have experienced problems as a result of the virus, leaving them financially vulnerable and needing to contact their energy suppliers. Some of those customers will have experienced difficulty in contacting suppliers to discuss their accounts or raise complaints.
Below, we set out our approach to dealing with complaints about the level of customer service offered by energy suppliers.
Principles we will apply for issues raised between 23 March and 30 June 2020
Between the time the country entered lockdown on 23 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, suppliers may not have been able to offer the usual level of service to customers due to the disruption caused by Covid-19.
During this time, some suppliers may not have been offering all their usual communications channels to customers. We would not consider this, in itself, to represent a shortfall in service. However, we would have expected suppliers to continue to offer multiple contact channels and customers must have been given the opportunity to make contact with the supplier – particularly if they needed to raise an urgent issue. Customers who did not have access to digital contact channels would have needed access to other channels.
We also consider suppliers were entitled to prioritise urgent issues reported by customers and that there may have been a delay in them responding to non-urgent issues.
By urgent – we mean that the customer was off supply, their supply was in a dangerous state, that they were concerned about debt collection or were in vulnerable circumstances.
Suppliers should have logged non-urgent issues so they could be dealt with when the supplier was in a position to do so. If suppliers failed to log issues and customers had to report problems on multiple occasions, we may consider this to represent a shortfall in service.
Suppliers will need to demonstrate that they addressed non-urgent matters as soon as they were able.
Suppliers were entitled to ask customers to only use certain contact channels if they had an urgent issue to raise.
If a customer was told that a telephone line was only being used for urgent issues but ignored the message and tried to raise a non-urgent issue via the telephone – the supplier would be entitled to refer the customer to another channel when the call was answered– we would not consider this to represent a shortfall in service.
Suppliers needed to ensure that customers could easily find how to contact them (particularly with an urgent issue or if they were vulnerable).
Suppliers should have signposted complaints to Ombudsman Services: Energy within the usual timescales. A failure to signpost may be considered a shortfall in service.
Where appropriate, suppliers should have signposted customers to other sources of support such as their own Priority Services Register and other relevant agencies and charities – particularly in cases where the supplier could not offer immediate support themselves.
Principles we will apply for issues raised from 1 July 2020
From 1 July 2020, our expectation of the customer service offered by suppliers will return to what it was prior to 23 March 2020.
From 1 July 2020, Suppliers should be in a position to offer the full range of contact channels.
Suppliers should be able to accept contact from customers via telephone lines and should be deflecting non-urgent contact to other channels, except in exceptional circumstances.
Suppliers should be in a position to respond to issues, queries and complaints in the usual timescales.
Suppliers should continue to identify when a customer is in an emergency situation and ensure their issue is resolved as soon as possible.
Any backlogs of outstanding complaints and queries should be addressed as soon as possible.