The consumer champion has challenged firms to make urgent improvements after the study, based on questioning 4,000 people, revealed how poor customer service impacted people’s finances, time and emotional wellbeing.
As well as the huge losses in terms of money and wasted time, Which? estimated that 8.9 million energy consumers and 9.2 million broadband consumers experienced emotional harm as a result of poor customer service.
In the energy sector, one in five (17%) who had contacted their energy provider said they gave up trying to get their problem resolved due to the issues they experienced with customer service. Almost a third (32%) of these consumers said this left them financially worse off, with an average loss of £137.
In total, Which? estimated that 1.2 million energy customers were left £166m worse off due to customer service issues forcing them to give up trying to get their issue resolved.
In the broadband sector, one in seven (14%) people who contacted their broadband provider said they gave up seeking a resolution due to problems they experienced with the customer service. Three in 10 (29%) said that this left them financially worse off, and on average they estimated they were £93 worse off as a result.
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In total, Which? estimated that 950,000 consumers were £89m worse off due to giving up contacting their broadband provider.
A small proportion of consumers (1-2%) said they did not even contact their energy or broadband providers due to previous bad experiences with their customer service.
This equates to an additional £37m to consumers being worse off due to poor customer service in the energy sector and an additional £6m in the broadband sector, bringing the total estimated loss to poor customer service across both sectors to £298m.
Which?’s survey also looked at how much time consumers lost trying to resolve customer service issues. More than a third of people who contacted their energy firm (35%) and broadband provider (36%) reported having at least one problem that wasted their time. These issues included not being able to reach customer service, phone calls being disconnected, being passed between departments and long call waiting times.
The consumer champion estimated that consumers experienced time harm in 17.3 million customer service problems with their energy supplier and 18.3 million problems with their broadband provider in the past year.
This means that, in total, energy and broadband customers spent an estimated 27.3 million hours in a year on customer service issues – 13.9 million hours for energy customers and 13.4 million hours for broadband customers.
More than half of respondents that experienced at least one customer service problem reported feeling frustrated, around a quarter felt angry and a fifth reported feeling helpless.
‘Dire state of customer service’
Separate Which? research named Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas the worst energy and broadband firms for customer service. The consumer champion wrote to all three firms about their consistently poor performance.
Although British Gas and Virgin Media said they were making improvements, Which? research shows many of their customers remain dissatisfied.
Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “Our research lays bare the dire state of customer service in the energy and broadband sectors – with nearly £300m lost to poor service in a single year. The impact in terms of wasted time and on people’s emotional wellbeing is just as concerning.
“It is never ok for firms to provide sub-standard customer service, but in essential sectors providing vital services millions rely on every day such as energy and broadband, it is completely unacceptable.
“Previous Which? research named Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas the worst energy and broadband firms for customer service. Any firms falling short in the energy and broadband sector need to up their game and give consumers the customer service they deserve. No one should have to spend hours going round in circles, put themselves through emotional turmoil or lose their hard-earned money because of poor customer service.”
