PFP Energy: Reviews, 2020 Tariffs & Complaints

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PFP Energy was established in 2015 and has received encouraging reviews in its first few years of operation. However, things appear to have taken a downward turn in the last few months, particularly since acquiring Better Energy’s customer base at the turn of the year.

Read on for PFP Energy reviews and see how its customer service and prices compare to the competition.

PFP Energy Reviews

Although over the years PFP Energy reviews have been mostly positive, something appears to have changed in the last few months, with the supplier today scoring an average rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars on consumer website Trustpilot.

A large section of these negative reviews come courtesy of PFP’s purchase of Better Energy in December 2019, with many customers claiming they were not informed about the switch until receiving their first bill from PFP Energy.

Others expressed concern about miscalculated and overestimated bills, even if they had previously submitted meter readings.

This is matched by its somewhat disappointing performance in the latest survey conducted by Citizens Advice. PFP Energy came a lowly 28th out of 40 energy suppliers for customer service.

This marks a slump in customer satisfaction since 2017, when the supplier ranked 3rd out of 31 energy firms in a Which? Survey, scoring higher than many more established suppliers.

Let’s delve further into PFP Energy customer reviews and see how the supplier fares against the competition when it comes to customer satisfaction and price.

Customer service

Here at Selectra, we review customer service based on ease of contact, wait time and overall customer experience.

PFP Energy offers a number of different ways of getting in touch, with its customer service call centre, an online web chat and a contact form on its website, as well as accounts on Facebook and Twitter.

Its call centre operates reduced hours compared to some other suppliers, opening from 9am until 4.45pm during the week, while remaining closed during the weekend, which caused some discontented customers to leave negative feedback.

In its most recent customer satisfaction survey, Citizens Advice found an average call centre wait time of just over three minutes, which is far from the worst, but many suppliers will pick up the phone in an average of one or two minutes, at most.

PFP Energy’s customer webchat operates the same hours as its call centre. We attempted to contact the supplier using this function on its website, but unfortunately were unable to get through, despite a number of attempts at different times throughout the day. However, for many customers that were connected, the experience was far from satisfactory.

“Call wait times are extremely long, online chat help service have referred me back to the help line. They aren't cheap either.”

“Another thing is that this company is Always closed!! They work 9-5 Monday to Friday which means I can only call them in my wasted lunch breaks.”

It’s fair to say it’s not all bad news for the supplier, however. Despite many recent PFP Energy reviews focusing on the negatives, 56% of customers on Trustpilot still left 5 stars out of 5 or an ‘excellent’ rating, with much of the praise directed at particular customer service advisors.

Some other positive PFP Energy customer reviews did cite its reduced opening hours as an issue, but mentioned that a customer service agent would usually be in touch as soon as possible after sending a message via the contact form on its website.

“Being used to doing things over the phone, and my working hours not being compatible with the phone lines at PFP, I was reluctant to stay with them. However, I entered an online chat with Georgia and she made the process really easy - nothing I asked was too hard for her. She went above and beyond to get me the best deal and to process a refund I was due.”

“I’ve been with PFP for several years now and I have never been disappointed with their services! Customer services are excellent and very helpful. If you can’t reach them on the phone either e-chat or send an email message and they do get back to you the very next day!”

Billing and account management

In addition to customers having difficulty contacting their supplier in the first place, among the main gripes we observed in PFP Energy reviews were increased direct debits and large, unexpected bills.

Concerned about billing issues?Contact Ofgem for advice on how to resolve matters with your energy supplier.

Missed meter readings and unexpected bills

One trend we found in online PFP Energy reviews was customers continuing to receive estimated bills, despite submitting meter readings every month. This, in turn, led to increased Direct Debit payments or users finding their bills out of step with their actual energy usage according to their meter.

When customers refused to pay this or could not afford to cover their Direct Debit, some received communication from the energy firm threatening extra charges, interest, disconnection or debt collection.

“When given meter readings they still ignore them and send high estimates. What was costing me £20 a month is now being estimated at £160 a month. I would not recommend changing to them and wish I had never done so.”

Others saw promises of price freezes broken and delayed Direct Debit reimbursements. The latest customer satisfaction survey by Citizens Advice backs this up, with PFP Energy scoring 3 out of 5 stars for clarity of bills and 0 out of 5 for keeping its word on customer guarantees.

Issues for former Better Energy customers

PFP took on Better Energy’s customer base following the latter’s collapse in December 2019.

This proved to be an issue for many now receiving their gas supply from a provider they had never heard of before, with either little or no notice.

Some PFP Energy reviews left by former Better Energy customers claimed that owed credit on their previous account had disappeared. Many of these out of pocket customers were now locked in an anxious battle to claim the debt from their new supplier.

“Out of the blue an email from PFP in December told me I was getting gas from them. I dumped it as spam.”

Tariff reviews

For the next part of our PFP Energy reviews page, let’s take a look at how its prices stack up against the competition.

For our price comparison, we have used PFP Energy’s Together fixed dual fuel tariff, paid by monthly Direct Debit. The supplier also offers prepayment and variable tariffs, though these types of plans are usually more expensive.

Firstly, let’s see how the Together tariff does against like-for-like plans from the traditional ‘Big Five’ suppliers.

*Information correct as of April 2020. Quotes based on a three bedroom house in London with an average annual electricity usage of 3,100kWh and gas consumption of 12,000kWh.

This is based a three bedroom house in the South East of England with a medium energy usage. To work out your own energy consumption, use our energy usage calculator - you might even save more!

Here at Selectra, we’re big advocates of smaller energy suppliers. With lower overheads and more competitive pricing, they’re usually able to offer significantly cheaper tariffs than the traditional Big Five. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here, as the larger provider pipped PFP Energy every time in our test.

On top of this, each one of these suppliers offers the Warm Home Discount, among other energy grants and schemes, which PFP Energy does not.

Next up, we compared the same PFP Energy tariff against its direct competition, to see if it fares any better against similar-sized suppliers.

*Information correct as of April 2020. Quotes based on a three bedroom house in London with an average annual electricity usage of 3,100kWh and gas consumption of 12,000kWh.

Unfortunately PFP Energy loses out to every supplier listed here too. Smaller providers are usually able to offer cheaper tariffs to their customers, so it’s no surprise to see PFP Energy beaten when comparing its immediate competition.

Yorkshire Energy offers the cheapest of the tariffs we tested, coming in at almost £200 less than PFP Energy, while Avro Energy’s Simple and SuperFixed tariff led to savings of £162, while also offering the Warm Home Discount to its customers.

PFP Energy complaints

Now we know how its prices compare, let’s see how many complaints were officially submitted by PFP Energy customers compared to similar-sized providers. Ofgem publishes reports of complaints registered on a quarterly basis and makes this data publicly available on its website.

*Complaints data from Q4 of 2019. Domestic customers only.

As we can see, despite many underwhelming PFP Energy reviews online, just over 1% of its customers officially lodged complaints with the supplier during the last quarter of 2019.

With 86% of issues resolved the next day and 100% dealt with within the eight week cut-off point, compared to other similarly sized providers, such as Green Network Energy and Yorkshire Energy, it would seem that PFP Energy is at least trying to rectify its customer complaints in a timely manner.

Is PFP Energy any good?

We give each supplier a rating based on its individual performance in price comparisons, complaints received and average ratings left on other consumer websites.

While its complaints data shows that it is quick and effective in dealing with customer issues, actually getting in touch in the first place may be an issue. We also found it to be quite expensive when compared to other suppliers offering similar tariffs.

For this reason, we’ve given PFP Energy a final score of 2 out of 5 stars. It’s certainly not the worst energy supplier on the market, but there are definitely cheaper options available. To see which provider may be a better match for you, take a look at our energy supplier reviews or give us a call on 020 3936 0059 today.