Mine energyThe number of complaints about energy suppliers has increased sharply in the past year. This is evidenced by the development of the complaints index of the Flemish energy regulator VREG and the Federal Energy Ombudsman Service. While nine of the eleven energy suppliers achieved a maximum five-star score in April 2022, only two players still achieved that goal a year later. Mijnenergie.be He runs through the numbers.
By Kurt DiMahn, in association with Mijnenergie
source:
Mijnenergie.be
It is clear that the past turbulent energy year has left its mark on the services provided by energy suppliers. The Complaints Index is based on the number of second-line complaints VREG and the Federal Ombudsman Service have received in the past four quarters, per 5,000 household customers.
Complaints do not have to be well-founded to be counted. A complaint does not necessarily mean that the power supplier did something wrong. It indicates that the supplier has not fully succeeded in explaining why there is no basis for the customer’s first line complaint.
advice: Do energy suppliers offer their cheapest prices if the social rate is lost?
More complaints = fewer stars
The more complaints, the worse the complaints index and the fewer stars the resource gets.
In April 2020, Bolt Energie, Ecopower, Electrical Company Merksplas, Eneco, Energie.be, Engie Electrabel, Luminus, Octa+ and TotalEnergies succeeded in limiting the number of complaints to a maximum of three per 5,000 households.
A year later, only the electric company Merksplas and Ecopower retained the maximum of five stars. Bolt Energy, Angie Electrabel and Energy only gave 1 star.
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The maximum points, but also the customer’s downtime
But who are the two lesser known players?
Merksplas Electricity Company It sells electricity and natural gas under the commercial brand name Ebem. Merksplas Municipality is the sole shareholder. For electric power, the company relies on decentralized production units and independent commercial parties, which means that only Ebem is not dependent on certified producers.
To ensure service and reduce purchase risk, Ebem introduced a turnaround service for customers in September 2022. This was recently lifted, but there is still a (limited) waiting time for new customers.
ecopower It is the largest energy cooperative in the country and provides electricity from its own wind farms and friendly cooperatives. Since Ecopower has reached the maximum number of customers to whom the company can supply green electricity from citizens, a temporary customer shutdown applies.
Read also: “Special Energy Price” Test purchase is not cheaper than the cheapest offer on the market.
All kinds of complaints
Previous analysis by the Federal Energy Ombudsman Service shows that the nature of complaints varies.
In addition to the problem of prepaid bills, which seems to have disappeared somewhat now, in 2022 16.2 percent of complaints were about problems with meter reading, for example in the event of death or transportation. The Federal Ombudsman Service has also received many complaints about billing problems, for example due to delays in billing.
These problems are by no means gone today and, according to the ombudsman, can be attributed to the new IT system that all power suppliers have been using for a year and a half. The Ombudsman hopes for improvement, but is afraid that software problems will not be resolved this year. Fluvius is committed to ensuring that all files that have been stuck on their side this year are resolved.
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