Electricity suppliers

Satisfaction with electricity suppliers continues to improve: this year 75 percent of those who took part in our survey rated their company’s performance “good” or “very good”, up from last year’s 73 percent.

These results are an improvement on the 65-69 percent average satisfaction ratings that electricity suppliers received in previous years.

The best

Powershop was the clear leader: 96 percent of its customers were satisfied, up from 92 percent last year. “Buying power online as needed gives a sense of control rather than helplessness in the face of market forces” said one. “I like their feedback re quantity/cost of power our household has used each week” was another typical comment. And most importantly: “Easy to use. Saved us heaps of money."

Powershop’s closest rivals (Energy Online, Energy Direct NZ and Meridian Energy) rated between 84 and 81 percent. Energy Direct NZ and Energy Online have consistently rated well in our surveys, and satisfaction with Meridian Energy is up from last year’s 75 percent.

The not-so-good

Only 55 percent were satisfied with bottom-ranked Empower. There were complaints about high charges and poor service.

Of the large companies, Contact Energy was the lowest rated (66 percent). People found it inflexible and difficult to deal with over “issues”.

The most common problems with an electricity supplier were poor communications and inaccurate estimates.

Switching over
Dissatisfied electricity customers can always change suppliers – depending on where you live you should have a choice of between 4 and 9 retailers.

Overall, 15 percent of our survey respondents had changed electricity suppliers during the previous year. The most common reason was “I found a better deal” – usually by visiting our free Powerswitch site or as a result of an approach from another company.

See the Survey results for full details of all the ratings.