SSE and Scottish Gas has been judged amongst the worst offenders for "shocking" call waiting times, while Scottish Power was the fastest of the Big Six energy suppliers, according to a consumer watchdog.

British Gas, which trades as Scottish Gas in Scotland was the second slowest averaging a 9 minute and 33 second wait, Perth-based SSE had the third worst record with an average waiting time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds while their Glasgow-based rival ScottishPower managed to respond in two minutes, according to research by Which?

Researchers made 312 calls to 26 energy companies and were left waiting on hold for an average of between just 27 seconds by fastest responding company Bulb, up to 14 minutes and 18 seconds by E.ON before being put through to a human.

Bulb managed a swift 10 seconds, in stark contrast to the single longest wait time from Spark Energy who kept a researcher on hold for 30 minutes and 40 seconds on one occasion.

Languishing at the bottom of the table, were four of the Big Six with E.ON the worst offender taking an average of 14 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Herald:

Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home services said: “It’s unacceptable that the worst performing energy suppliers keep their customers waiting on the phone for so long.

“If you are unhappy with the service that you're getting from your current energy provider you should consider switching to another supplier.”

M&S Energy came in as the second fastest provider, taking just 41 seconds on average to speak to a human in customer services, followed by Ebico which took 45 seconds.

But the research found it was much quicker to get hold of providers through live chat.

While only eight of the companies the watchdog investigated provided this feature (British/Scottish Gas, Bulb, EDF Energy, Eon, First Utility, Npower, Spark Energy and Utilita) waiting times were much faster, ranging from four seconds with Utilita to two minutes and 32 with Bulb. EDF, First Utility and NPower all had average response times of less than 20 seconds on average.

Last month it emerged the Big Six energy companies suffered a record exodus of more than 160,000 customers to smaller rivals in September, as British increased electricity prices for millions of households.

A monthly all-time high of 163,000 people left the largest suppliers – British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Npower, SSE and ScottishPower – which have about 80 per cent of the market.

The Herald:

The surge in customers ditching the big six comes as Theresa May reiterated her claim the market was broken and ministers published draft legislation to cap bills for up to five years.

Claire Miles, managing director for customer operations at Scottish Gas said: “We’re continuously working to improve our level of customer service, which includes investing in technology to provide different choices for customers to reach us. More than 4.5 million customers have now chosen to use online account management.

“Across the year to date, our average call waiting time for energy customers is 81 seconds, which is significantly lower than the time featured in the report.”

“During September and October, we experienced higher than average call volumes. This was due to demand for the Warm Home Discount, which supports vulnerable customers with their bills, and provides an additional £76 which we credit to these customers’ accounts.

"We also experienced higher call volumes due to our popular Sainsbury’s Energy tariff. All of these factors led to a short-term impact on our ability to deliver the service levels we aspire to achieve.” 

A ScottishPower spokesman said: “We have are working hard on service improvements at ScottishPower and we welcome this study that demonstrates the results we are seeing in answering the phones, customer support and digital services.”

SSE were approached for comment.