ombudsman

soicowboy22

Hi, has anyone has dealing with the ombudsman with a utility related issue? I was wrongly charged for cancellation with Scottish power and they were totally useless ,there was a reference to a questionnaire that never happened. Is this because I told them not to bother and save themselves any trouble? I don't know who pays their wages but someone needs a refund.

dogshome

The Ombusdman is nothing more than a company that has set itself as a tribunal for customer complaints - Utility Cos., and some other business groups, pay a fee to join it, and then a further fee when they adjudicate on a particular Customer Complaint - As the very term 'Ombudsman' has been plagerised from from Sweden where it is established in law as an office that is beholden to no one and makes judgements without fear or favour, the British version seems to be in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act - Yes, they will make a judgement, but all too often it's biased in favour of the Co.or they find reason to make no judgement at all - Where else would you a legal institution refusing to arbitrate because the complaint was more than 9 months old?

I presume that you Switched away from SP, and though your new supplier started suppling Gas/ Elec after the End Date of your contract with SP, thier Final Bill included Exit Fees

Scot Powers habit of wrongly chargeing Early Exit Fee's when a a customer switched supplier are well known - So much so that the Ombudsman recently took action:

Scot Power wrong attitude was that if they recieved notice that a Switch was in progress they would take this as the date of Switch, and because this date would before the End Date of their contract they charged Exit Fee's
It has been long established that the actual Switch date is the date on which the new supplier actually starts supplying, and chargeing for Elec & Gas

Ofgem have smacked Scot Power over the wrist , and not only must they not charge Exit Fee's on the notify date basis, but they must re-imburse those customers who they did wrongly charge

WRITE a letter to SP headed Complaint, and just to make sure they get the message copy it to Ofgem and mark your original to SP that you have done so