Npower most complained-about energy firm

Npower has been forced to apologise and hand over £1m to vulnerable consumers after its poor customer service led to it being named as the most complained-about energy company.

The firm gets about five times as many complaints as the least-complained-about major supplier, E.On, according to analysis by Consumer Futures.

Sarah Harrison, senior partner at the energy regulator Ofgem, said: “Many npower customers will have noticed a serious deterioration in service levels over the past year. The huge growth in complaints about npower is wholly unacceptable.”

The company received 202 complaints per 100,000 customers from April to June of this year, three times as many complaints as its closest rival. The next highest number – 75 – was at the French state-controlled firm EDF Energy.

The company’s chief executive, Paul Massara, said: “In recent months, we’ve let many of our domestic customers down and I wanted to write to each of them personally to say sorry. We are working on this as our top priority.”