Most people have no idea how their energy supplier is rated. They receive bills, occasionally call customer service, and stay put unless something goes badly wrong. But there's more public data on supplier performance than most households realise - and some of it is genuinely alarming.
Here's how to check whether your supplier is earning your loyalty, and what to do if it isn't.
Three organisations publish regular, official data on energy supplier performance in the UK:
Ofgem publishes quarterly complaint figures per 100,000 customer accounts, plus a biennial deep-dive into supplier customer service standards. In Q4 2025, the market-wide average was 1,011 complaints per 100,000 accounts - a 15% improvement on the previous year, though still far higher than pre-crisis levels.
Citizens Advice publishes its Energy Star Rating quarterly, scoring suppliers across complaint handling and how easy they are to contact. The scale runs from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). By mid-2025, the average rating across the market had returned to pre-energy-crisis levels at around 3.07 - but that's still a mediocre score, and three in five households are served by a supplier that scores below average.
The Energy Ombudsman publishes data on complaints accepted for independent investigation - the ones suppliers failed to resolve themselves. This is the most serious tier: it represents customers who've exhausted their supplier's own process and still haven't had their problem fixed.
You can find all three datasets online. The Citizens Advice Star Rating at citizensadvice.org.uk is the most accessible place to start - search your supplier's name and you'll see their current score.
In mid-2025, Ofgem completed its fourth "deep dive" into customer service standards - and found weaknesses at all 17 of the UK's largest suppliers. Every single one.
The problems identified included customers being left on hold for hours, abandoned call rates as high as 50% at some suppliers, inconsistent staff training, and complaint resolution rates well below acceptable levels. Ofgem issued a provisional enforcement order against E.ON specifically for severe deterioration in call wait times.
Eleven other large suppliers - including British Gas, EDF, OVO, ScottishPower, and SO Energy - were found to have moderate weaknesses. Even Octopus, which regularly tops customer satisfaction surveys, received a minor weakness finding.
This doesn't mean all suppliers are equally bad. But it does mean that even if you're with one of the "better" suppliers, there's a reasonable chance your experience of billing errors, query resolution, or switching support will fall short of what you'd expect from, say, a bank or an insurance provider. Ofgem itself has noted that energy lags other sectors on customer service.
There are a few common reasons:
Inertia. Switching feels complicated, even though it typically takes around 15 minutes and requires no action on switching day itself - the new supplier handles the transfer.
Fear of problems. Particularly after the energy crisis of 2021–22, when several small suppliers went bust, some households are cautious about moving to a less-established name. This is understandable but worth revisiting: the regulatory environment has tightened significantly since then.
Not knowing there's a better option. If you've never compared your supplier's service rating and price simultaneously, you may not realise that a higher-rated supplier is offering the same energy for less.
Poor supplier service isn't just an inconvenience - it has real financial consequences.
If you're overbilled and can't get through to your supplier to dispute it, you may end up overpaying for months. If you're in credit and the supplier takes time to return funds, that's your money sitting with them. If a switching request is mishandled, you can end up on the wrong tariff for a billing period. The Energy Ombudsman reports that billing errors are consistently among the top complaint categories.
The calculus when choosing a supplier should include service quality, not just unit rate. A slightly higher unit rate at a well-run supplier can be cheaper in practice than a headline-grabbing rate from one that takes three weeks to answer emails.
If your supplier is in the bottom half of the table, it's worth at least checking whether a better-rated supplier is also offering a more competitive price. The two things are not mutually exclusive - there are suppliers that score well on both.
If your supplier scores poorly and you're on a standard variable tariff (the default tariff most households are on), you have two things to optimise simultaneously: price and service quality.
The best approach is to compare tariffs across the whole market, filter for suppliers with a reasonable rating, and then work out which combination of price and service makes sense for your circumstances.
That's what EnergyScan does automatically. Upload a recent bill and we'll compare your current tariff against every available deal - including suppliers' service ratings - and identify where you'd genuinely be better off.
Not ready to upload a bill? Start with our free price cap checker to see how your current rates compare to what's available in your region:
EnergyScan is an independent energy monitoring service. We earn a disclosed commission of £20 per fuel when you switch through us. We never earn more by recommending a more expensive tariff.
Last updated: 2026-03-06.
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