Report on electricity and gas complaint statistics

29 November 2012
Report on electricity and gas complaint statistics

In the six-months to 30 September 2012 the office of the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Scheme (EGCC) received 1,209 complaints about electricity and gas companies.

Until now statistics about the EGCC’s workload have only been published in the Annual Report. In May the Board advised member companies of the move to report statistics every six months and to include the names of member companies against certain statistics. This report is available on the publications page of www.egcomplaints.co.nz.
The statistics give numbers of:
enquiries - where the EGCC simply provides information
complaints - where a person expresses dissatisfaction with goods or services
complaints that reach deadlock (deadlocked complaints) - where a complaint is unresolved after a certain period of time, or the Commissioner is satisfied certain criteria have been met

The numbers of deadlocked complaints will be reported by member company, along with the company’s share of the total number of deadlocked complaints received in the period. Because there is great variation in the size of the member companies the report also shows market share, expressed as a percentage of the retail or network markets.

The Board believes publishing members’ names will provide member companies a benchmark and drive best practice in the industry. Members will be able to use the data for goal setting, and the Board believes this has the potential to reduce complaints and therefore the costs of the EGCC. Consumers also have an interest in this information and the Board and Minister of Consumer Affairs agree the information should be available to everyone.

The EGCC is the approved complaint resolution scheme for the electricity and gas industries. It can look at almost any complaint about an electricity or gas company. In the period covered by these statistics the EGCC was able to look at complaints where the amount in dispute was less than $20,000. From 1 October 2012, this was raised to $50,000, or up to $100,000 with the agreement of the member company. All retail and network companies must be members. The EGCC provides an option for complainants who have not been able to resolve complaints with the company.

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