Complaint activity

Complaint summary Jul-Sep 2020

Complaints to EWON increased this quarter by 16.6% to 4,373 (up from 3,749 last quarter), due to an increase in complaints from electricity and gas customers. This increase may be due to the easing of COVID-19 government stimulus and subsequent financial pressures on consumers. The continued restrictions on various credit activities by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in its Statement of Expectations, together with government stimulus support, are likely contributing factors for the decline in complaints this quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

Electricity: The 3,149 electricity retail complaints we received during the period represent an 18.5% increase on last quarter’s 2,658 complaints. Network complaints decreased by 3.1%; 251 complaints compared to 259 in the previous quarter. Total electricity complaints rose by 15.4% to 3,454 compared to the previous quarter.

Gas: The number of gas retail complaints received during the quarter (673) increased by 29.4% compared with the previous quarter (520). The number of gas network complaints (50) increased by 29 from the previous quarter. At 739, overall gas complaints were 34.1% higher compared to the 551 complaints received last quarter.

Water: The number of water complaints received this quarter (156) decreased by 18.3% compared to last quarter (191).

Exempt entities: We received 111 complaints from embedded network customers this quarter. Of these, 81 were about authorised electricity retailers and 21 about exempt retailers.

The graph below shows an overview of complaint activity from July to September 2020.

Table 1 provides detailed information about the number of complaints received from July to September 2020 compared to the previous four quarters.

Table 1: Electricity complaints opened July to September 2020, including previous quarters
Case subject	Provider type	Jul 20 – Sep 20	Apr 20 – Jun 20	Jan 20 – Mar 20	Oct 19 – Dec 19	Jul 19 - Sep 19
Electricity	Exempt retailer	21	12	14	8	9
Electricity	Network	251	259	368	235	202
Electricity	Retailer	3,149	2,658	3,457	3,764	4,105
Electricity	Not allocated	33	63	101	80	100
Electricity	Total	3,454	2,992	3,940	4,097	4,416

Gas complaints opened July to September 2020, including previous quarters
Case subject	Provider type	Jul 20 – Sep 20	Apr 20 – Jun 20	Jan 20 – Mar 20	Oct 19 – Dec 19	Jul 19 -Sep 19
Gas	Exempt retailer	0	0	0	1	0
Gas	Network	50	21	31	42	40
Gas	Retailer	673	520	658	755	898
Gas	Not allocated	16	10	8	12	11
Gas	Total	739	551	697	810	949

Non energy/water complaints opened July to September 2020, including previous quarters
Case subject	Provider type	Jul 20 – Sep 20	Apr 20 – Jun 20	Jan 20 – Mar 20	Oct 19 – Dec 19	Jul 19 -Sep 19
Non-energy/non-water	Not allocated	24	15	22	20	9
Non-energy/non-water	Total	24	15	22	20	9

Water complaints opened July to September 2020, including previous quarters
Case subject	Provider type	Jul 20 – Sep 20	Apr 20 – Jun 20	Jan 20 – Mar 20	Oct 19 – Dec 19	Jul 19 -Sep 19
Water	Network	44	74	85	65	65
Water	Retailer	92	99	129	118	142
Water	Not Allocated	20	18	24	17	25
Water	Total	156	191	238	200	232

Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW

Complaint activity