Ecotricity Reviews: Customer Service & Complaints
Ecotricity claims to be Britain's greenest energy company. So are its customers raining praise on the supplier? Find out customer's thoughts on Ecotricity with our comprehensive Ecotricity reviews guide.
Ecotricity reviews: An overview
In Selectra’s thorough Ecotricity review, we look at how this environmentally-clean supplier has been received by its customers across the UK. From briefly glancing at Ecotricity reviews, we can tell that customers have had quite mixed experiences. The table below shows the average customer ratings from Citizens Advice, Which? and Trustpilot.
| Customer review site | Average Ecotricity review score |
|---|---|
| Citizens Advice | 49% |
| Which? | 75% |
| Trustpilot | 66% |
Now let's break down the Ecotricity reviews into different categories: customer service, tariffs and pricing, and bills and meter readings. This way, you can see where Ecotricity is excelling and where it needs to improve.
Ecotricity customer service reviews
Most people would agree that customer service is crucial when deciding to stay with an energy supplier long term. Its important to know you can count on your supplier to answer whenever you need help.
Ecotricity's Customer Service Codes of Practice states, “Outstanding customer service is at the heart of what we do." The supplier says it works hard to ensure the best customer service for its customers — always treating customers fairly and with respect. Let's have a look at Ecotricity customer service reviews to see what customer's have said.
From reading through the Ecotricity reviews on Trustpilot, we found the reviews relating to customer service to be rather mixed. Customers who left positive reviews praised the customer service team for being helpful and efficient.
“I have been with Ecotricity for a number of years. I chose them because they offer exclusively sustainably generated electricity and are innovators in generation and supply. Their customer service is personal, intelligent and efficient. They have set the standards that other suppliers have to match up to.”
More recently, there seems to have been an increase in negative Ecotricity reviews over the past few months. The main point of frustration appears to be long call-wait and email response times. When we tried calling Ecotricity, it took just over 14 minutes for us to get through to a representative.
“Worst customer service ever. They are totally impossible to get hold of, massive call queues and they literally take months to respond to emails. When you finally do get hold of them they agree to help and nothing happens.”
You can consult the list of Ecotricity's contact numbers and emails in Selectra's Ecotricity Contact guide.
Tariffs and pricing reviews
Ecotricity tariffs are among the most expensive energy tariffs on the market — only beating out Good Energy tariffs (which are the most expensive). The average household in London that pays via direct debit would spend around £1,411 per year on gas and electricity bills with Ecotricity's variable tariff (Numbers valid as of May 2021).
“Unfortunately, I chose to use Ecotricity on the recommendation of a friend. Their charges are ridiculous, the standing charge was over 3 times what I was paying with my previous supplier. I have since changed to a supplier with sensible charges, and my bills are a third of what they used to be with Ecotricity.”
Ecotricity says the reason for such high tariff prices is to cover the costs of producing its own green energy. The company also says it invests its profits into various green energy projects. If you're interested in joining Ecotricity because it offers 100% renewable electricity, there are various other renewable energy providers to choose from with tariffs that cost a fraction of what Ecotricity charges.
For help finding the best energy tariff in your area, check out the following guides:
Billing and meter reading reviews
According to Ecotricity's complaints data, billing was the main reason for customer complaints during the past quarter — making up 49% of all those made. From looking at the Ecotricity reviews that concern billing on Trustpilot, it appears that most of the unsatisfied customers reported receiving unexpectedly high bills due to estimated readings (even though they claim to have submitted regular meter readings).
“I supply regular accurate meter readings but their billing system is all over the place meaning you will suddenly find a bill for hundreds coming through the door.”
Citizens Advice gave Ecotricity just two out of five stars for accurate and on-time billing. In its latest survey, 88.4% of customers reported that they received an accurate bill within the past year. While this seems like a high percentage, it still means that approximately 23,000 of Ecotricity's 200,000 customers did not receive an accurate bill over the past year.
Reviews of the Ecotricity app
Ecotricity says that its smartphone app allows you to easily manage your energy account on the go. The app allows you to perform the following actions:
- Submit meter readings
- View your real-time balance
- Make payments and view previous payments
- Report meter problems
- Edit your personal contact details
So how well do customers rate the app? Lets have a look at the Ecotricity reviews on Google Play and the App Store to find out.
The following table shows the average ratings for the Ecotricity app. The maximum possible score is five stars.
| Platform | Average rating |
|---|---|
| Google Play | 4.6 stars |
| App Store | 2.1 stars |
The majority of customers that left Ecotricity reviews on Apple's App Store gave the app just one star. Many customers complained about the app not working, saying it either doesn't recognize login details or transfers users straight through to the website. Ecotricity is working on updating the app, as is clear with the Goole Play Store app, whichpreviously stood at just 2.2 stars- so we hope these issues with the iPhone app can soon be fixed.
How do Ecotricity reviews compare to other suppliers?
How do Ecotricity reviews compare to those for other energy suppliers? According to the survey from Citizens Advice (from July to September 2020), Ecotricity ranks number 31 out of 36 energy suppliers — just behind Utilita and in front of EON.
Let's have a look at the the top energy suppliers and how they compare to Ecotricity in terms of customer service, according to Citizens Advice. This organisation regularly compares energy suppliers across the following categories:
- Number of complaints per 10,000 customers
- Average call-wait time
- Customers who had an accurate bill within the past year
- Bills and statements sent on time
- Switches completed within 21 days
- Customer guarantees
| Rank | Energy Supplier | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | So Energy | 4.6 |
| 2 | Green | 34.45 |
| 3 | Igloo Energy | 4.4 |
| 4 | M&S Energy | 4.35 |
| 5 | EDF Energy | 4.35 |
| 31 | Ecotricity | 2.45 |
How well does Ecotricity handle complaints?
In the event that your need to file a complaint with Ecotricity, hopefully it will be resolved quickly. Let's take at Ecotricity's complaints data to see how the provider performs when it comes to dealing with complaints.
The following data from Ecotricity's website shows their complaints information per quarter over the past year. From the table, we can conclude that Ecotricity has become increasingly less efficient in solving complaints by the end of the following working day.
| Time period | Total complaints received | Total complaints resolved | Percentage resolved by end of next working day | Percentage resolved within eight weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October - December 2019 | 1,349 | 1,333 | 47% | 97% |
| January - March 2020 | 2,089 | 1,940 | 33% | 99% |
| April - June 2020 | 1,849 | 1,658 | 23% | 99% |
| July - September 2020 | 1,651 | 1,411 | 17% | 93% |
We mentioned in the previous section that the main reason for complaints during this past quarter was billing issues. What else did customers complain about? We've listed the top reasons for Ecotricity complaints during the third quarter of 2020 below. By categorising complaints, we can see clearly where Ecotricity’s strengths and weaknesses lie.
- Billing — 49% of total complaints
- Customer service — 26% of total complaints
- Metering — 9% of total complaints
- Payments — 7% of total complaints
- Prepayment — 6% of total complaints
- Credit management — 5% of total complaints
- Transfers — 2% of total complaints
- Customer set up — 1% of total complaints
- Correspondence — 0.5% of total complaints