By Rebecca Styles
Research Lead | Hautū Rangahau
Powershop customers are fed up with high power bills and ongoing problems with the company’s new app.
Data from Consumer NZ’s power comparison website, Powerswitch, shows 2,871 people initiated a switch away from Powershop between 1 April and 31 July this year – 1,656 more than in the same period last year.
The recent exodus comes amid the rollout of Powershop’s new app and rising power prices. It’s a fall from grace for the retailer who, earlier this year, was named the best power company in our survey.
Since April, Powershop has seen the most switches initiated out of all power companies, by a long shot. Contact Energy, in second place, had just 1,900 switches initiated between April and July.
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What customers are angry about
Almost 60 people have got in touch with us complaining about Powershop’s app and big power bills. Here’s what they told us.
Bigger-than-expected power bills
On 1 April, power prices went up across the board, partly due to increased lines charges. At the time, Powershop – which is owned by Meridian, one of the big four gentailers – gave customers estimates of how much more their bills would be.
However, people are getting much bigger bills than expected. The people who contacted us reported actual power bills increasing by 15–30%. In some cases, bills had doubled.
“We used to be below $300, now we can hardly stay below $600,” one Powershop customer said.
Problems with the app
Dissatisfaction with prices has been exacerbated by problems with the new Powershop app, which the company began rolling out in April.
We wrote about early issues with the app that same month – and it was these issues that made us decide not to give Powershop our People’s Choice award for 2026, even though it had performed well in our survey conducted during March and early April.
A common complaint is that historical billing information has been removed from the app, meaning customers can’t compare last year’s spend to this winter. While usage data is there, what they paid for it isn’t. Customers want both.
Customers also feel there aren’t as many powerpacks or discounts available. Powerpacks are unique to Powershop, allowing customers to buy power in advance at discounted rates. They had been a valuable tool for customers wanting to manage their power budgets.
Powershop has told us the same number of powerpacks are available. However, with the new app, customers no longer have to buy “standard power”, which was previously offered as a powerpack.
Powershop paused the rollout to incorporate customer feedback but has now started again. Customers have told us they still aren’t happy with it.
Paul Fuge, manager of Consumer NZ’s Powerswitch price-comparison website, says Powershop has been a strong performer up until recently and he hopes they’ll get back on track soon.
“I hope the company can put its current challenges behind it and return to the strong form that has made it a popular choice for many New Zealand households. Powershop has played an important role in providing a different and innovative way for people to buy and manage their electricity.”
What’s behind the price increases?
We think one reason customers have been hit with higher bills is that Powershop has put them on time-of-use plans. Around 25% of customers were moved to the “Get Shifty” plan in April.
Since then, all new customers with smart meters have been put on the Get Shifty plan. Only those who don’t have a smart meter are now able to access a flat rate.
While customers were informed of the change in April, we don’t think the information provided was sufficient to show how it could impact bills.
Other factors in price rises are down to:
increases in the retail price, which is the power company’s cost of doing business and profit
seasonal pricing, when the price of power changes depending on the season
line and distribution charges
the phase-out of low fixed charge tariffs.
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What is a time-of-use plan?
With a time-of-use plan, you pay a lower rate for power during off-peak times – but the rate during peak times is often higher than it would be under a standard flat-rate plan.
That means you might save money if you’re able to shift your power usage to certain times, but if you can’t, a time-of-use plan might end up costing you more.
Households in certain parts of New Zealand might be especially disadvantaged by Powershop’s time-of-use plan. We’ve noticed that seven lines companies in the South Island and one in the North Island have network charges that are concentrated in peak periods, with very limited off-peak charges.
While some energy retailers spread these costs across multiple regions, Powershop uses location-specific pricing, meaning customers in these regions might face especially large power bills.
What Powershop says
We asked Powershop if they were confident customers were being charged correctly. They said they were.
“Our standard energy pricing has always been seasonal to reflect the market price of electricity, but without the risk of the big unpredictable price spikes you can get with spot pricing. Powershop has always operated this way, and nothing has changed. Your seasonal pricing goes up slightly in autumn and winter when demand is higher, and down again over spring and summer.
“The network component of your bill also includes your network’s seasonal changes. But there are no surprises – you can always see what your prices will be month to month.”
They also acknowledged, “Some of the new app experiences have created some confusion and frustration. We’re focused on putting this right for our customers by improving how clearly information is explained, and we are making regular updates to the app based on customer feedback.”
Powershop has added more staff to its customer support team to handle the queries and bring down phone wait times. It’s asking customers to get in touch if they need support with the app.
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