Energy Ombudsman
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The Energy Ombudsman didn't read the evidence
I have a dispute with Octopus since March 2024 which referred to issues from October 2023. This was referred to the Energy Ombudsman on 29th April 2024. First the good part! The website is ok to use but uploading the evidence is somewhat painful. Now the failures! A decision was issued in September that completely failed to understand the issue (which was overcharging because of a faulty manual meter) even though Octopus had acknowledged the meter was faulty. The Energy Ombudsman decision simply took the response from Octopus which had two key facts wrong. I have appealed this now because of the incorrect factual information. So from April to October nothing was done and I wasn't contacted for any clarification at any point. Leaving phone messages on the Energy Ombudsman number as provided was a waste of time and none resulted in a call back. In this case the Energy Ombudsman is toothless and very obviously didn't read the complaint properly. Clearly Octopus didn't read it either and the Energy Ombudsman simply took Octopus's view without any further investigation I thought that the Energy Ombudsman should weigh evidence on both sides, fully understand the complaint and make a decision based on that. Obviously not in this case. I'm anticipating a negative decision again on the appeal and I've started preparing a Small Claims Court case. Update 24th October The appeal I lodged proved to be successful as the reviewer actually read the complaint and understood the evidence and agreed that factual evidence was not taken into account and as a consequence now requires Octopus to provide a solution. I see the reply to this review from the Energy Ombudsman is a general answer that is irrelevant to the complaint I had. It was clear that no real investigation had taken place and the evidence wasn't properly taken into account. I'm really not sure what a "individual customer journey" is that the EO looks at but business speak is very good at being vague. Yes, I was given an explanation which didn't make sense with the evidence given. I spent 6 months and considerable effort to get this result and to be honest the Energy Ombudsman didn't make it any easier. Next time I'll go straight to court.