Energy Ombudsman
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Expecations Dashed - They Don't Have Any Power Over The Energy Suppliers
(Will they copy and paste their standard message in reply underneath this review?) My expectations were dashed from the initial hope the ombudsman would see it the same way as I did. I went from a no goodwill offer to an immediate offer of £150 goodwill once it reached the Ombudsman. The ombudsman then agreed that there were also overcharges of £170. While they agreed and empathised with the poor service agreeing and pointing out examples of the ongoing saga, they then went on to agree with the offer of goodwill. Technically, they have discretion to suggest up to £10,000 in compensation for poor service. But check it out yourself - filter these reviews by clicking on 1 star - 42% of them are rated that way at the time of writing this. And then scroll down and see just how often the ombudsman agrees with the offer from the energy supplier. The energy suppliers aren't at all scared of the ombudsman. They are paid directly by the energy supplier for handing the case. Which appears to me to be the incentive they have for agreeing with the goodwill gesture - if the ombudsman did use their discretion and were truly impartial, I think they would value the time, and stress the energy suppliers cause their customers. But quite frankly, the ombudsman appears to me to be a facade, completely structured and weighted in favour of the energy supplier. Scroll down yourself and see how often they agree with the energy supplier? It's beyond suspicious wouldn't you agree? Almost as if there was a formula at play to ensure the energy suppliers stays enrolled in the scheme and paying them for each case they handle because it's worth it. Civil courts are much more impartial - so that is my next step - let's have a more independent judge assess the poor service. The only thanks I give the Omnbudsman is for their summary of the poor service I received this will be a huge part of the evidence I use in court. The sheer extent of that poor service, the harrassment, the hoops they made me jump through to evidence my various claims, and the stress and frustration this caused cannot, I believe, in any independent assessment be valued so low. If I copied and pasted the dozens of emails it would be the equivalent of a small book. When I tot up how much time I spent investigating and having to assemble my case, it exceeds the actual compensation I will seek. Besides that, there are the phone calls. And repeated phone calls being passed from person to person. The fact they repeatedly lost the evidence I sent them and I had to restart the complaint each time because they didn't have complete records of what had already transpired. The fact at the time of writing this, it is one full year since the issues were first noticed and raised. This has consumed lots of my life over the last year. And to be told all of this effort and harrassment is worth so little is beyond a joke. One example, because some of the problems related to a previous address. was my evidence of moving house being rejected. I supplied a copy of the tenancy agreement, my letter giving notice (as required under that agreement) and photographs of the final meter reading the day I handed back the keys. This was rejected because I needed to supply an "end of tenancy agreement" which they say is a legal requirement and issued as standard when you leave a rented property. This as far as I can tell is completion fiction. I googled the hell out of that one and asked a couple of letting agents, including the one who had handled that tenancy. They had never heard of any such document and I cannot find any evidence of a legal requirement or in fact that anyone I know has ever signed a separate agreement to end a tenancy. Things like this wasted so much of my time for what is clearly an untruth - they either have some preposterously wrong information about the real world outside, or forgive my cynicism, they threw that at me as a way of trying to worm out of responsibility for whatever bills were incurred after I left that property. Either way, that and a whole host of other issues in the previous property and the new property got me drawn into stressful and time sapping work to prove my innocence and my case against them. I share this not because it is the fault of the Energy Ombudsman, but rather that they knew all this and sided with the estimate of goodwill due that the energy supplier had already suggested. And that's why I believe more people should not accept the ombudsman's decision as it is unlikely to reflect the true compensation you are due for poor service. I am actually looking forward to facing the energy supplier in court and would recommend more people consider this to feel that sense of true justice the ombudsman appears unlikely to be able to supply.