Consumer Direct takes on complaints

Consumer Direct takes over from watchdogs energywatch and Postwatch from today, with tougher rules to protect consumers.

Ofgem said the new regulations would "raise the bar" on customer service.

Consumers will no longer have to repeat all the details of their complaint every time they call, suppliers can no longer insist on having the complaint in writing and companies will publish the number of complaints they receive.

The watchdog is also recruiting 100 people to a new panel of energy consumers to help Ofgem focus on issues that matter most to customers.

The government decided to overhaul the consumer watchdog for the energy industry after calls to energywatch fell from 720,000 in 2006/2007 to 598,681 in 2007/8.

Energy customers with complaints can now contact Consumer Direct instead, which also deals with problems in other service sectors.

Ofgem chief executive, Alistair Buchanan, said: "Customer contacts to energywatch, including complaints, have been falling but there is no room for complacency.

"Ofgem's new standards will help raise the bar on customer service and give more confidence to consumers to engage in the energy market."

Energy suppliers are the lowest performing of all industries for customer satisfaction, according to research from Which?.

The consumer group has revealed five of the big six suppliers achieved satisfaction scores of less than 50 per cent.