Energy Ombudsman
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Here's how to game the system
If your complaint revolves around customer service or unclear billing, then it's a waste of time completing a formal complaint stage with the ombudsman. They have a pretty blase view of shocking customer service and do not regard it as anything the energy co should be especially penalised for. But if you pursue to to the point when an investigation is about to start, your energy co will likely write to you with a final compensation offer. Take it and abandon the complaint at that point. The Ombudsman, even if finding in your favour, will offer a fraction what what the energy company will, half or less. This is because it is the energy company that pays for your complaint, around £100-200, so will give you a good part of that to incentivise you to settle and avoid the fee and associated costs. Once the investigation is under way, and the fee incurred, they will not be settling and the ombudsman will award a trivial amount. My service from the ombudsman itself was also shocking. First they sent my findings to the wrong address and despite me telling them it had not been received by me, allowed the 28 day deadline to expire. Then when I was told any settlement was off by my energy co, I contacted them again but got no reply in the next 14 days from two seperate people. Eventually I filed a complaint about the ombudsman itself, I got a manager call next day who apologised for the service but wanted to close the investigation. OK but what about compensation for your own (admitted) lousy service. 'No, we don't do that'. The ombudsman service is run by a private company, Trust Alliance Group. Nice cosy gig. The energy co's pay their fees and if they do a bad job, no accountability. It's a shocking system and no wonder bad service is prolific. NB With regard to your boilerplate reply, it is not a case of what I 'feel', it is a fact that I was not 'supported through my journey' or in plain English, no-one at any point responded to my numerous attempts to discuss the findings. Just a manager, 6 weeks later, to tell me he was closing the case. I have more chance of landing on the moon that you have of using this episode to improve your service.