Energy Ombudsman Avaliações 

I approached the Energy Ombudsman because I was unable to resolve my complaint with EDF and genuinely expected an independent organisation to consider the situation fairly from the consumer’s perspective.

Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome.

EDF had failed to issue regular bills, which contributed to an outstanding balance accumulating. I accepted from the beginning that I was responsible for the energy I had used. My complaint was about how this situation was handled and, in particular, how an affordable repayment arrangement could be established given our circumstances.

We explained our financial situation in detail and provided evidence. We explained that £31.11 per month was not affordable for us and that £5 per month was what we could realistically sustain at that time.

However, rather than requiring EDF to work with the information already provided and find a practical solution, the outcome essentially accepted EDF’s position that we should go through a third-party organisation before a lower repayment arrangement could even be considered.

What I found particularly disappointing was that the fact EDF’s failure to issue regular bills contributed to the situation did not appear to result in EDF taking greater responsibility for finding a practical solution.

I understand that an Ombudsman cannot automatically agree with every consumer. However, I came to the Ombudsman because I needed an independent assessment of whether EDF’s approach was fair and reasonable. After the review and appeal, the original decision was maintained.

I am now going to settle the outstanding balance in full simply because I want to close this matter and move forward.

My experience has nevertheless left me feeling that, when a consumer is already under financial pressure, there is very little practical protection or support when the supplier’s own billing failure has contributed to the problem.

This has been an extremely stressful experience, and I am disappointed that I did not feel the independent resolution process provided the practical outcome I was hoping for.

The ombudsman has done a great job of looking after OVO energies interests. 13 months of stress, 13 months of being repeatedly ignored, 13 months of phone calls emails, 13 months of broken promises, 13 months to replace a faulty meter, yet OVO get off with paying £200 compensation. What a waste of time.

Find them to be biased towards my energy company even though they claim not to be. Now on my third case handler in a short time. Complained about a few things but even that was very difficult because when you phone it recognises your number and puts you through to your case handler. In my case mine had left the organisation so I wasn't getting through to anyone. I had to use my house phone then tell the person who answered that I wanted to complain. Don't assume these people will sort things out, it's not a well run organisation.

Extremely disappointed with my experience with the Energy Ombudsman.

As a small business, I approached the Ombudsman believing it would provide an independent and fair way to resolve a dispute with a much larger energy company.

I provided clear and independent evidence that my business had vacated the property, together with evidence that another company subsequently moved in and occupied the premises. Despite this, my complaint was not upheld.

The charges being disputed were based on estimated bills rather than actual meter readings, yet these charges were accepted despite the evidence regarding the change of occupancy.

I do not feel the evidence I provided was given the weight or scrutiny it deserved, and I do not believe the fundamental issue of who was actually responsible for the energy consumption during the disputed period was properly addressed.

As a result of this outcome, my small business is now left facing the prospect of having to defend potential court action brought by a much larger company. This is extremely concerning and creates a significant imbalance between a small business and a large organisation with substantially greater financial and legal resources.

I had hoped the Ombudsman process would provide a fair and accessible way of resolving this dispute without leaving a small business in this position. Unfortunately, my experience has left me with very little confidence in the process, and I would not recommend it to another small business facing a similar dispute.

Excellent service with communication throughout the process updating me at every step. Phoned me to explain the decision and what happens next before uploading it onto my account. Laura couldn't have helped more excellent service and communication throughout.

Who I spoke to Andrew was really helpful and made everything really clear

Don’t answer phone .dont return calls despite recorded messages saying they will respond in 2 days.Denied receiving 2 letters sent at different times.could give no explanation The decision reached was incomprehensible and I eventually gave up .they are a waste of public money.plus they do not have a complaints system ,you have to complain to the person you complain about! A joke organisation

The case handler and subsequent ombudsman coach did not review the facts of the case fully. I appealed and had the appeal upheld on 1 issue, however the decision contained many assumptions and factual errors and the remedies were unclear. When I challenged this I was told nothing I said would change any outcome and I had to accept or decline within the deadline. I was unable to make an informed decision due to the errors and vague remedies. I was not given any explanation as to why the factual errors could not be reviewed, or any explanation of the remedy proposed. I put in writing another challenge which was ignored until the deadline had passed. The EO gives no incentive for the so called energy companies to abide by any rules as the EO does not investigate fully or hold them to account. Some parts of my complaint were ignored entirely and not even addressed. This complaint was regarding an energy supplier falsely reporting on my credit file. I will now have to proceed to ICO and possibly to court. This is my only experience with the EO. They were unhelpful and the communication is very poor. Assumptions and errors were made by the coach in the decision and he subsequently refused to rectify or clarify these. I have made a formal complaint, not that it will achieve anything as the case has been closed. The whole experience has me feeling that the EO is there for the benefit of the energy companies rather than the consumers.

the honest straight forward language and approach
felt could trust this person to try
thank you

They don't think that octopus energy making a demand for money (£100) and threatening with a debt collection agency when sufficient funds are avalible (£300) in the account is in any way wrong.
Additionally they have completely confused the ombudsman by including a seperate account that has nothing to do with this case and is illegal under GDRP Regulations by divulging information completly unnecessary.
They never check or question the validity of the evidence provided so any nonsense can be submitted by the defendant.
They failed to read or understand my email trail of the whole episode when the defendant had broken the email trail multiple times
They swallowed octopus lies about specific requests for information.
In all a total waste of everyone's time.
Don't bother contacting the ombudsman because they dont reply to the answer phone message, they don't ring back even when they say they have, I've had no missed calls.
Even if they had contacted me when they say they had it was out of time for their decision cut off time because they're so late.
What's more the accept or reject button at the end of there process has no different effect what so ever. Case closed

Post note.
So you accept you made a mistake but won't do anything about it.
I will take this up separately.
Shame you could nt review the information presented.
Your review indicates they did nothing wrong, then you had a second chance and still didn't see it, im going to contact my MP to see if they can raise questions on the suitability of having an ombudsman at all.
You just need to review the evidence and question it's relevance if you are not sure.
Match the address to which the complaint relates to. Make note of the law and use common sense as to if it is relevant to the case.
Nor can we rely on you to make phone contact after leaving messages and before the ultimate deadline.

Thanks for the reply it appears to be a standard template used in many other replyies to keep your browie points up.
It means nothing if you can't do the right thing in the first place.

Difficult to navigate the website to start a complaint for a business.
Difficult to navigate their app.

Very good customer liaison once you get assigned a customer services person.

8 weeks is a long time to wait to make a complaint on top of the months you have been trying to sort the problem out yourself.

No company is worried about the Ombubsman, probably because it is so hard to make a complaint, they think you will give up

This stage as I call and talk with a person. She heard my all the complaint and all my points which I wanted to explain. I m fully satisfied and got a motivation and hope my case will resolve satisfactory.

It was very difficult to put together more than a year of emails and phone calls and errors in meter changes etc. The representative was very helpful throughout, and no complaints at all. But Scottish Power can't fix the problem, and kept adding extensions where nothing happened, only to finally admit they couldn't solve the problem. So, I think the ombudsman needs to review the problems with Smart metering in Scotland following the ending of the RTS system, as there is not much point going through the process if there is no fix. Scottish Power don't even accept that I have a 3 read meter, and that wasn't part of the resolution as impossible to see how they couldn't know. My system always had 3 readings.

I thought British Gas was bad, These People are worce.
Tried to contact them on 03304401624 5 times, the Automated service cut me off every time when asked for further help. they direct you to web site, give this number and then you get "Cur Off". It appears they are just as "Untrustworthy" and "Unhelpful"

The process was not as daunting as I imagined, from filling in the online form to the initial phone call informing me of what would happen with my complaint to British Gas. As it was, all it took was a phone call from the Ombudsman to British Gas, which led to BG admitting they were wrong and refunding my money, along with a compensation payment.

If i knew that you're corporate lackey dogs, i wouldn't bother with you to begin with. Garbage service, your website doesn't even work, i tried to appeal, the button vanished and you pretended nothing happened.
Because I'm a Christian I'll say this, i hope you never have to deal with evil corporations who spits you in your face, before, during and after, and have a service like this "protecting" you.

I moved houses and British Gas had a pile of bills to the previous owner who had moved out months earlier. I contacted BG to say I had just moved in and was not a customer of theirs. They promised to stop but didn't and set a debt collection company to work. Ths went on for over two months. I contacted the Ombudsman and within days BG caved in and even sent me £100 complensation. Without the Ombudsman I would still be receiving bills to "The Occupier"

The Ombusman upheld my complaint and made a decision that EDF needed to implement some procedures on my account and pay a goodwill gesture. The ombudsman has not explained how this will work or any time scales. They also didn’t understand the nature of my complaint so the main part of it hasn’t even been dealt with. There is no way to “disagree” with the decision unless it’s on a legal point so quite a waste of several months. Would not recommend

Ive beeb struggling to solve a lot of overcharges from EDF just because the change of tenancy was late for 3 years. The energy supplier tried to overcharge those 3 years again because paying by cash those bills was unknown who really paid. After too many emails they still rebilling and charging the same amount like twice and overcharging until they got the bill for over 15K, every week was always a new bill to pay, but always over £9,000 knowing that those bills were paid in full by cash and always on time.
Too many different agents replying by email had always new stories to help, but none of them had any clue what was happening and always says is the accountant that handle the bill system. Had enough trying to fix all the bills properly, after some reviews about Ombudsman that can help, I decided to ask for help from them and Im very satisfied with their service, Im very happy for all the help from handler Mrs. LEIGH JOHNSON! The best customer service from her, very helpful, took too many months and worthy. She made justice for us investigating the case with patience and skills as a professional handler.
Thanks again Mrs. LEIGH JOHNSON! You are the best helping make justice against those suppliers overcharges for nothing.

Excellent support to resolve the issue with my energy company.