Contact the consumer helpline

When to call the helpline: energy and postal issues

The Citizens Advice consumer helpline helps consumers in Scotland with energy or postal problems.

If you need help with another type of consumer issue, check the relevant consumer advice page for your options. 

Call the helpline

Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 03454 04 05 06
Textphone: 18001 03454 04 05 06
To contact a Welsh-speaking adviser: 03454 04 05 05
Textphone to contact a Welsh-speaking adviser: 18001 03454 04 05 05
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
Closed on bank holidays

An adviser will answer your call as soon as possible, usually within a few minutes. Once you're speaking to an adviser your call should take an average of 8 to 10 minutes.

Call charges

We don’t charge for calls to the consumer helpline. Your service provider could charge you for your call, but it should be free if either:

• your contract includes all calls to landlines
• you’re within your free minutes allowance for calls to landlines

You might be charged if your contract doesn’t include all calls to landlines or you’ve used all your free minutes. For example, a 10 minute call could cost:

• £1.73 from a BT landline - find out more about BT call charges
• £3.50 if you’re an EE pay as you go customer - find out more about EE call charges

Check your supplier’s website to find out what you’ll be charged.

Other ways to contact us - including online forms

There are different ways you can get in touch, including an online form. 

How the consumer helpline can help you

The helpline adviser can:

• give you practical and impartial advice on how to resolve your energy or post consumer problem
• tell you the law which applies to your situation
• pass information about complaints on to Trading Standards (you can’t do this yourself)

However, the adviser can’t:

• make a complaint for you
• take legal action on your behalf

Before you contact the helpline

Before you contact the helpline, you should have a pen and paper ready.

To help the adviser give you the most relevant advice, you should be ready to give them as much of the following information as you can:

• brief details of your problem, eg the type of meter you have, how you pay for your energy bills 
• the supplier's name if it's an energy problem 
• what you’ve done so far to try to solve the issue
• your reference number (if you’ve already contacted the helpline about the same problem)

What we do with your information

We’ll use the information you’ve given us to answer your query. We might contact you to get your feedback on our service.

We’ll also share your information with Trading Standards and other trusted organisations we work with to help their consumer protection work. They could contact you with more advice, or to ask for more information that will help them with their work.

Tell us when you contact the consumer service if you don’t want your information to be shared.

Find out more about how we use, store and share your information.

If you’re unhappy with the service you've received

You should follow our complaints procedure.