According to Ofgem’s latest customer service indicator, SSE saw complaints rise from 3,357 per 100,000 customers between April and June, to 3,475 in the third quarter of 2015.

Interestingly, 78% off SSE customers polled said they were satisfied with the ease of contacting the supplier.

The other Big Six firms – British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Npower and Scottish Power – saw a fall in the number of complaints registered.

The statistics also reveal that Npower saw the sharpest decline in complaints over the course of a year, falling from 6,258 in the third quarter of 2014 to 2,898 in Q3 in 2015.

Of the independent energy suppliers, Utility Warehouse had the greatest number of complaints at 1,322 per 100,000 customers in Q3.

Co-operative Energy also saw a large jump in complaints from 548 during April and June in 2015 to 1,270 in the third quarter.

This also translated to the largest number of complaints accepted by the Energy Ombudsman, as 136 per 100,000 Co-op customer complaints were passed on after failing to be resolved.

James Padmore, head of energy at comparethemarket.com, said: “Given that almost three quarters (73%) of people who switched energy through our website last month moved from one of the Big Six, these figures at first glance seem surprising. The Big Six certainly don’t appear to be gaining in popularity, despite the overall fall in complaints. So while most of the Big Six may be getting less complaints, this doesn’t seem to be stemming the tide of people moving away from them.”

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