Ombuds service reports increase in complaints about energy providers

With 7,055 complaints received last year, there’s been an increase of five percentage points compared to 2018. Last year also marked the highest number of complaints received since 2012.

The number of complaints lodged by consumers about local energy providers has steadily been increasing for years. In the past, most complaints related to metre problems and billing issues. Todays, most consumers contact the ombuds service to report aggressive or questionable marketing practices. The energy providers Essent and Luminus attracted the highest number of complaints in 2019. 

“Every year, there is an increase,” the Dutch-language ombudsman Eric Houtman told Radio 1. “When I began working 10 years ago, this was only a minor issue.”

There are a number of things that door-step energy salesperson should always tell consumers, Houtman explained. Salespeople are for instance required to identify the energy supplier for whom they are working, the ombudsman said. They are also required to give customers a price estimate based on their current energy consumption. “But in practice, a lot of this doesn’t happen,” Houtman said. 

The ombuds man recommended a series of steps to curb the increase in complaints about energy providers. First, he said, lawmakers should envisage adopting a ban on door-to-door selling of energy contracts.

He also suggested that all energy providers should be forced to advertise price components as a single energy price per kilowatt hour. Most energy companies today mention varying fixed fees, making it hard for consumers to compare contracts and suppliers.

Finally, Houtman also called for a previous pricing mechanism to be reintroduced that allowed the energy market regulator Commission for Electricity and Gas Regulation to keep energy providers’ price increases in check by benchmarking local prices to those in neighbouring countries.

Photo: Belga / Jasper Jacobs