Best and worst power companies: Consumer NZ

Trustpower is rated the worst performer in Consumer NZ’s latest survey of satisfaction with power companies.

Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy says its annual survey found just 43% of Trustpower customers were happy with the service they were getting.

“Trustpower’s rating was significantly lower than the industry average of 52%. It’s the worst score any of the big five power companies have earned in our past three surveys,” Duffy says.

Contact Energy also scored below average with a 45% satisfaction rating.

The top three places went to smaller brands. Flick Electric got the highest rating with a satisfaction score of 76%. Nova Energy (74%) and Electric Kiwi (71%) were next. Flick Electric and Electric Kiwi are recipients of Consumer NZ’s People’s Choice award.

Consumer NZ’s survey finds the cost of electricity remains a major cause of complaint for consumers.

“For one in three, household power costs were a big worry. Over the past year, 17% said they had trouble paying their power bills,” Duffy says.

That figure jumped to 45% among customers of prepay retailer Globug. About half of Globug customers had borrowed from family or friends, or needed assistance from Work and Income to help pay their power bills.

Across all consumers, 12% had overdue fees added to their bill because they couldn’t pay on time.

Duffy says late-payment fees were often disguised as “prompt-payment discounts”. These discounts acted as a penalty for consumers who missed paying by the due date.

“Trustpower has a 15% penalty if you miss paying by the due date. That’s more than you could be charged by payday lenders, which have interest and fees capped at 0.8% a day,” he says.

Four of the five major retailers were still using prompt-payment discounts. Only Meridian Energy has removed them entirely, Consumer NZ says.

The Electricity Price Review, which reported to the government in May 2019, recommended banning prompt-payment discounts and that retailers should be allowed to only charge reasonable late-payment fees.

About 1507 New Zealanders aged 18 and over were surveyed in March and April 2020.