The Trouble with Energy Company Reviews on Trustpilot (and other sites)

Why energy company reviews only tell half the story

When you are looking to change your energy supplier, reading customer reviews is usually the first step. With the Ofgem price cap set at £1,663 a year for a typical dual-fuel household paying by Direct Debit as of July 2026, moving to a cheaper fixed tariff can save you real money. But before you hand over your bank details, you want to know if the new company will answer the phone when things go wrong.

For most people, that means checking Trustpilot. Third-party review sites are incredibly popular because they offer a quick, unfiltered look at what real customers think. If a supplier has thousands of five-star ratings, it feels safe to assume you will have a smooth experience. If their page is full of angry comments about missing bills and long wait times, it acts as a clear warning sign to stay away.

However, relying purely on review sites has major blind spots. Energy billing is complex, and the way companies collect these reviews often paints a skewed picture of their actual customer service. While Trustpilot is a valuable tool, it should not be the only metric you use to judge a supplier.

The honeymoon phase: why timing skews reviews

One of the biggest limitations of customer reviews in the energy sector is timing. Energy suppliers often integrate automated review invitations directly into their sign-up systems. Because Ofgem's Faster Switching rules mean changing suppliers now takes just five working days, the initial process is usually quick and painless.^[1]

A few days after your supply transfers over, you will likely receive an email asking you to rate your experience. At this stage, you are in the honeymoon phase. The website was easy to use, the switch happened on time, and you have not yet received your first statement. Naturally, many people leave a glowing five-star review based purely on how easy it was to sign up.

Fast forward six months, and the situation might be very different. Your smart meter might have stopped sending readings, your direct debit might have increased, or you might be struggling to get a refund for a credit balance. Most people do not go back and update their original five-star review when they encounter these long-term issues.

This creates a volume bias. A supplier's Trustpilot page can easily fill up with thousands of positive reviews from brand-new customers, masking the experiences of long-term customers who are stuck in a queue trying to resolve a complex billing error. The overall score reflects the efficiency of the onboarding software, rather than the quality of the customer support team.

Understanding Trustpilot labels and AI summaries

There is a common misconception that energy companies only invite their happy customers to leave reviews, while deliberately ignoring those who have complained. This practice, known as review gating, is strictly banned by Trustpilot. If an energy supplier uses the platform's official invitation tools, they must invite all customers equally, regardless of their experience. Breaking this rule can lead to official warnings or the suspension of their profile.

To help you understand where a review came from, Trustpilot uses specific labels. A 'Verified' label means the review was collected automatically through a system integration tied to a specific transaction, such as completing a switch. An 'Invited' label means the business manually sent a link or uploaded a customer list. Both labels confirm the customer was asked to leave a review, which is standard practice across the industry.

In 2026, finding out what customers actually think is much easier than it used to be. You no longer have to scroll through pages of one-star reviews to figure out why people are unhappy. Trustpilot now features AI-generated review summaries at the top of business profiles. These summaries instantly group customer sentiment into themes like 'Customer Service', 'Billing', or 'Smart Meters'.

Why customer reviews are highly subjective

Another reason to treat review sites with caution is that individual feedback is highly subjective. Energy is a grudge purchase, and people often leave negative reviews for things that are entirely outside the supplier's control. For example, a customer on a standard variable tariff might leave a one-star review because their monthly bill went up, even though their tariff rates may have changed under the Ofgem price cap.^[1]

Similarly, you will often see complaints about direct debit increases during the winter months. While some suppliers are genuinely poor at communicating these changes, the increase itself is a standard part of how energy billing works to cover higher heating usage. A bad review in this context does not necessarily mean the company has done anything wrong.

On the other hand, some customers will leave a perfect rating simply because nothing went wrong, or because they liked the design of the mobile app. While a functional app is useful, it does not tell you how the company behaves when a genuine problem arises. Relying solely on these subjective opinions makes it hard to compare two suppliers fairly.

The hard data: Citizens Advice Star Ratings

If you want to know how an energy company actually treats its customers, you need to look at objective data. The Citizens Advice Star Rating is published quarterly and measures the hard facts that review sites cannot track. Instead of asking customers how they feel, Citizens Advice collects operational data directly from the suppliers and official ombudsman bodies.

This rating looks at four key areas: complaints, contact waiting time, billing and metering, and customer commitments. This strips away the bias of the honeymoon phase and gives you a clear, factual picture of their customer service.

The data often tells a very different story to Trustpilot. According to the most recent Citizens Advice figures from the first quarter of 2026, the median customer service score across the industry is just 3.26 out of 5. 100Green currently holds the top spot with a score of 4.33, closely followed by Outfox Energy at 4.25 and E.ON Next at 3.71.

At the other end of the scale, TruEnergy sits at the bottom with a score of 1.38. British Gas is currently the lowest-performing of the UK's largest suppliers, scoring 2.61. A company might have a respectable score on a review site due to a high volume of positive onboarding reviews, while simultaneously ranking poorly with Citizens Advice for failing to resolve long-term complaints.

Guaranteed Standards and automatic compensation

Review sites are also poor at telling you about your legal rights. You might read a scathing review from a customer who waited weeks for a switch to complete or had a smart meter appointment cancelled, but the review will rarely mention that the supplier is legally required to pay compensation for these failures.

Under Ofgem's Guaranteed Standards of Performance (GSOP), suppliers are bound by strict rules across Great Britain. If a supplier fails to complete your switch within five working days, fails to issue your final bill within six weeks of you leaving, or fails to refund a credit balance within 10 working days of that final bill, they must automatically pay you £40 for each failure.^[1]

As of February 2026, new standards also apply to smart meters. If a supplier fails to offer an installation appointment within six weeks of you asking for one, if an installation fails because of a fault on their end, or if they fail to provide a resolution plan within five working days after you report a smart-meter problem, they must pay you £40. Knowing these rules is far more useful than reading a review about a delayed appointment, as it ensures you get the money you are owed.

Does the number of reviews matter?

When comparing two energy companies on a review site, it is easy to assume that the one with more reviews is the better choice. If one supplier has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 from 10,000 reviews, and another has the same rating from just 1,000 reviews, many people naturally gravitate towards the larger number.

In reality, the total number of reviews is not a reliable indicator of quality. A higher volume simply means the company has more customers, has been trading for longer, or has a more aggressive automated email strategy pushing people to leave feedback. A smaller, newer supplier might offer far better customer service but have a fraction of the reviews simply because they have a smaller customer base.

Instead of looking at the total number, focus on the content of the recent reviews and the overall star rating. Trustpilot uses a 5-star system, and any supplier maintaining a score above 4.0 is generally doing a good job of keeping their base happy. However, as always, this score must be checked against objective industry data.

How to properly vet your next energy supplier

To make a smart choice when switching, you need to combine the real-world experiences found on review sites with the hard facts provided by industry regulators. Reviews tell you how a company makes people feel, while objective data tells you how they actually operate.

By using reviews as just one part of your research, rather than the final word, you can find a supplier that offers both a competitive price and reliable customer service.