SCOTTISHPOWER has ranked last for customer care in an annual survey of Britain's biggest 100 brands.
Consumer watchdog Which? said its consumer satisfaction survey showed the market is still falling short of its customers' needs.
The annual report, which rates businesses based on its survey of over 3500 members of the public carried out in May has revealed that ScottishPower has replaced last year's customer service losers npower in scoring the worst for consumer satisfaction.
The Glasgow-based firm, a member of the so-called Big Six energy suppliers, was given a rating of two stars out of five for valuing customers, for knowledge of products and services and staff helpfulness. It was the only one of the 100 that received a one star for resolving complaints and problems.
Which? said people told them about their "useless" customer service and "unhelpful standardised replies".
One unhappy customer said: "They have been incredibly unhelpful, rude and blamed us for a fault they have admitted is their own."
In May, a Citizens Advice report said that ScottishPower received the highest number of complaints ever recorded for a UK energy provider in a three-month period. For every 100,000 Scottish Power customers, more than 1,100 made a complaint in the final quarter of 2014.
The best rating Scottish firm in the new Which? report was the Royal Bank of Scotland (75 percent) which ranked joint-42nd rising from joint-60th in 2014.
Dorset-based cosmetics retailer Lush came top of the table with a score of 89%. It achieved the full five stars for people feeling valued as a customer, staff helpfulness and knowledge of products and services.
Other champions of customer service included First Direct (86 percent), Lakeland (84 percent) and The Body Shop, John Lewis and Waitrose (all 83 percent).
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “Long suffering customers deserve better, as once again essential services that we all rely on have been caught falling down on how they treat people.
“Nearly nine in 10 told us poor service puts them off using a company again, so there is a clear incentive to offer service that makes customers smile. Companies at the bottom of our survey should take note: make your customers seethe and you will pay the price.”
In personal finance, Clydesdale Bank rated bottom with a 72 percent customer satisfaction rating, with First Direct top on 86 percent.
Energy was the worst performing sector with two of the Big Six propping the table, but it was Perth-based SSE that rated top with a 74% rating.
In the travel sector British Airways came top with 77 percent while Ryanair ranked bottom with 66 percent.
And amongst the retailers it was the budget brands that were judged worst for customer care, with Poundland, Matalan, Poundstretcher and Shoe Zone all clustered towards the end of the table.
DIY chain B&Q experienced the biggest slump in rating falling from 36th to joint-87th, while discount supermarket chain Aldi fell from 29th to joint-73rd.
The survey also found that 78% of us feel customer service is important when deciding which companies to use, and 88% of people said poor service puts them off using a brand again.
A Scottish Power spokesman said: "We would like to reassure customers that we are committed to restoring our service levels to the highest possible standards.
"Last year all our customer accounts were migrated on to a new IT system, which resulted in a very busy period as disappointingly we experienced more problems with the new system than we would have liked.
"The new system is very important as it ensures that Scottish Power customers will be able to take full advantage of all the benefits we anticipate from the roll-out of smart meters in the coming years, and it will allow us to continue adding innovative features to make it easier for customers to manage their accounts.
"To restore our service we have recruited 500 additional customer advisers to our UK call centres and, since the survey was conducted, our average speed of answer has improved by 72% from 193 seconds in 2014 to 54 seconds over the last three months and we have also seen a 50% reduction in our regulated complaints."
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