Heating & energy

Energy providers

Updated: 28 Jul 2011
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Introduction

More than 11,000 members told us about the service they receive from their energy supplier.

Each year we ask our members to rate the performance of their electricity or gas company. Overall satisfaction has improved – but some companies still rate much better than others.

Find out how well your supplier rates – maybe it's time to switch?

Electricity suppliers

Powershop website

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.

Gas suppliers

Gas

Satisfaction with suppliers of reticulated (piped) gas was lower (at 70 percent) than for electricity. The happiest customers – at 83 percent satisfaction – received their gas as LPG in 45kg cylinders.

Reticulated gas

With a 79 percent satisfaction rating, Energy Direct NZ still tops the list of reticulated (piped) gas suppliers. But it’s down 4 percent from last year.

Contact Energy again holds the wooden spoon, although its 63 percent rating this year is an improvement on last year’s 61 percent.

Three-quarters of those on reticulated gas also used the same supplier for their electricity – and they were slightly more pleased with the supplier (compared with customers who used two separate companies for gas and electricity). They especially liked the “dual fuel” discounts and the convenience of receiving a single bill.

4 percent had had problems with their reticulated gas supplier – most commonly poor communications and inaccurate estimates.

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

Bottled gas

In areas where there’s no reticulated gas, people can buy "bottled" LPG gas in 45kg cylinders. They pay an annual fee and then a fee for each cylinder delivered. These customers have more contact with their supplier because whenever an LPG cylinder bottle is empty they have to contact the company and arrange a replacement. So customer service and delivery times are important.

Overall customer satisfaction was high, at 83 percent. Elgas was the clear leader: 88 percent of its customers were satisfied. The other companies rated between 79 and 83 percent (there was little difference between them).

7 percent of bottled-gas users reported problems, most commonly delays in delivery.

We didn’t include responses relating to gas in 9kg cylinders for use in cooktops or barbecues because most people take their bottle to a filling or "swappa" station.

Survey results

Our survey was conducted in June 2011: 11,276 members rated their electricity supplier; 2571 rated their reticulated (piped) gas supplier; 1120 rated their supplier of bottled (45kg cylinder) gas.

Electricity ratings table
Reticulated gas table
Cylinder gas satisfaction table

 

Guide to the tables

Suppliers listed are those for whom we received at least 30 responses. A = Contact has owned Rockgas since 2007.

  • Satisfied shows the percentage of respondents who rated the supplier’s performance as “good” or “very good”.
  • Average is the percentage of all respondents who rated their supplier’s performance as “good” or “very good”.

 

Customer complaints

Judi Jones

Judi Jones

"Customers should let their company know if there is something amiss – and if there is, the company should sort it out", says Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Judi Jones (pictured).

"If this does not happen, then customers can complain and companies should make it easy for customers to do this. At the end of the day, if the matter is not resolved, my office can independently investigate."

Companies that are members of the complaints commissioner scheme should tell customers about the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner's office if a complaint reaches deadlock. Ms Jones says it is a concern that many customers still don't know the scheme exists and that, in the interests of keeping the costs of the scheme low, her office relies on member companies to do this.

For more information on how to make a complaint, see Powerswitch.

Our advice

We think consumers should be much more willing to change supplier.

Our member survey results tells you how companies rate on performance; Powerswitch tells you how they rate on price. You might find you can get both better service and a better price by switching.

More help