Utility suppliers 'are worst for billing accuracy'
Published On 25 September 2007
Consumers think utility suppliers are the worst type of company for providing accurate bills, a new study has shown.Deemed less accurate than organisations like the Inland Revenue and council tax departments, the uSwitch study found that consumers were particularly unhappy about how inaccurate bills from utility companies were.
In fact, 8.2 million customers said that they had received an incorrect utility bill in the last two years and 10.4 million Brits have unexpectedly found themselves in debt to their energy supplier following an inaccurate estimate to their energy supplier.
What's more, 15 per cent of customers have had to wait over six months, or are still waiting, for their supplier to resolve their complaint.
"This is not about individual suppliers letting the side down - this is a wake-up-call for the entire energy industry which has been compared with others and found to be sorely lacking," commented Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com.
"Customers can help themselves by providing meter readings to their suppliers on a quarterly, if not more frequent, basis.
"This, coupled with suppliers' own regular readings, should hopefully help tackle the major discrepancies between estimated and actual bills, which we believe are the root cause of the industry's poor track record for accuracy."
