Energy Ombudsman
View company profile →
Problem resolution
Two things: 1) having acknowledged that I had been badly treated the ombudsman proceeded to make matters worse by removing an important element of the supplier's 'offer' unnecessarily. Before deciding to reject the supplier's offer (mainly to ensure there was a commitment to maintain the resolution) I did communicate with the ombudsman both by phone and online but at no time did she enable me to understand that as soon as I rejected the supplier's offer and asked for confirmation that the supplier would avoid repeating its behaviour she would then remove the need for the supplier to explain how the situation could come about (which it had already undertaken to do). 2) The ombudsman asked me to provide feedback on its performance which I did in detail and asked for comment from a senior official. In his response he simply repeats inappropriately the mantra 'it's not our role to be punitive' -even though I had already said no one is asking the ombudsman to be punitive. I questioned whether the ombudsman has a role to protect the public interest and he simply ignores the question. I made the point that - the Consumer's Association estimate (October 2024) that 1.2 million energy customers were worse off due to abandoned problems last year. That I cannot see why asking a huge organisation to take responsibility and explain its behaviour should be regarded as punitive - again ignored. This leaves me feeling the ombudsman fails to accept any responsibility to protect the public interest and believing the supplier's behaviour was intentional.