Complain about the Ombudsman?

woodlands_OWEN

Glad to hear that others are having problems with the ombudsman, and the 'decisions' and 'outcomes' they come to, they are supposed to be trained investigating officers, but I do not think they can possibly be trained, to any level. We too are having problems, with the way is which they have handled complaints we made against SSE. We are prepared to take legal action. It seems incredible, that the ombudsman can make decisions, that you disagree with, but there is no where you can go to complain about the findings which they come out with. Maybe one day, it will be proved that the ombudsman/woman, is actually totally useless, and there is little point in going to them for help. Good luck with your problem, hope all goes well with you.

naedanger

woodlands_OWEN wrote: »

Glad to hear that others are having problems with the ombudsman, and the 'decisions' and 'outcomes' they come to, they are supposed to be trained investigating officers, but I do not think they can possibly be trained, to any level. We too are having problems, with the way is which they have handled complaints we made against SSE. We are prepared to take legal action. It seems incredible, that the ombudsman can make decisions, that you disagree with, but there is no where you can go to complain about the findings which they come out with. Maybe one day, it will be proved that the ombudsman/woman, is actually totally useless, and there is little point in going to them for help. Good luck with your problem, hope all goes well with you.

The Ombudsman's process is basically a cheap (free to the customer) service and unfortunately the quality reflects that. However it is better than nothing as you can use their service for free and if you are unhappy with the outcome you still have all your normal legal rights.

scooo

Update:


I made my complaint and today got a reply that they admitted several failings (one quite serious) and "would like to apologise for the shortfall in service" and they said that they "cannot review the investigation officer’s findings or give a view on issues relating to the outcome".

So that's it: "we got it wrong but we won't look at how or why ... here's a sorry, does that help?"

Surprisingly it doesn't help at all.
I'd at least have though that they would look at what transpired to see if she has done her job properly/adequately but apparently not. She just gets away with it.

Also good to know that Scottish Power STILL haven't responded to them. No wonder when they're so toothless.

savemoney

I am fed up of Scottish Power and just about had enough of them now I have again asked them to close my account I now getting a !!!! and bull story "your Electricity account is still showing active due to dispute raised by your new supplier for final Electricity meter reading, there is dispute active on your account with final Electricity meter reading."

They just dont' want me to leave them as a customer. Despite leaving for coop energy in September and giving final readings as I regularly give readings monthly, get final bills for Gas/Electric and both accounts has credit which got refunded only because I have to keep asking them.

In December electric account remained open still, they said they cant close it due to a web site error.

Few months on its still open despite no energy being supplied by them. No debt. They now claim there is a dispute with final readings yet I gave my new supplier correct final reading which is correct as it tallies with readings I have on my excel spreadsheet.

The other day they claimed that my accounts are closed "I can see from our records that your account is already closed with us on 17 September 2014 for both Gas and Electricity.Please provide us the snap shot of the exact screen if it still shows as live."

naedanger

scooo wrote: »

Update:


I made my complaint and today got a reply that they admitted several failings (one quite serious) and "would like to apologise for the shortfall in service" and they said that they "cannot review the investigation officer’s findings or give a view on issues relating to the outcome".

So that's it: "we got it wrong but we won't look at how or why ... here's a sorry, does that help?"

Surprisingly it doesn't help at all.
I'd at least have though that they would look at what transpired to see if she has done her job properly/adequately but apparently not. She just gets away with it.

Also good to know that Scottish Power STILL haven't responded to them. No wonder when they're so toothless.

Did you not get any compensation as well as an apology? I got both, albeit the compensation from the Ombudsman service was fairly trivial (£75) and the apology was totally insincere.

However the more complaints that are upheld against them the more likely they are to come under pressure to improve. Also I would expect they would look for patterns in complaints so if your case was typical of your investigating officer's work then they might be held to account, although they won't tell you that. (That said I can understand your dissatisfaction.)

footyguy

woodlands_OWEN wrote: »

Glad to hear that others are having problems with the ombudsman, and the 'decisions' and 'outcomes' they come to, they are supposed to be trained investigating officers, but I do not think they can possibly be trained, to any level. We too are having problems, with the way is which they have handled complaints we made against SSE. We are prepared to take legal action. It seems incredible, that the ombudsman can make decisions, that you disagree with, but there is no where you can go to complain about the findings which they come out with. Maybe one day, it will be proved that the ombudsman/woman, is actually totally useless, and there is little point in going to them for help. Good luck with your problem, hope all goes well with you.

Presumably the inclusion of in your post title indicates you are having a laugh.

But for the avoidance of doubt:
The case handlers at the ombudsman service are not legal experts, and nor do they need to be.
The Ombudsman service is not intended to be a free alternative to independent legal advice; it is intended to be essentially an arbritation service that hopes to achieve a fair and reasonable resolution to a complaint (which may or may not be entirely in line with statutory requirements) in a hope of avoiding lots of unnecessary leagl action against the company being complained about.

Any complaint you make of the ombudsman service will not affect the final resolution they have proposed.
You are not obligated to accept any proposed resolution of the ombudsman, but if you do accept it, then the supplier is obligated to conform.

I have no idea on what possible basis youare seeking to take legal action over the ombudsman, and I hope I am mistaken and that you mean such action is actually being taken againt the supplier.

Note that court action against anyone whould be considered a matter of last resort. If you take action against an energy supplier without taking all reasonable steps to avoid such action, your claim will not be dealt with sympathetically by any court
(You claim itself will be judged entirely as per the law, but note other things such as expenses are entirely discretionary)

Reasonable action to resolve a complaint against a supplier would involve following the suppliers complaint procedure, the final step of which would be to ask the independent ombudsman to review.

What that means in reality is that if neither the supplier agrees with your complaint, nor the independent ombudsman, then I fear your chances of pursuading a court judge otherwise is probably slim.

scooo

naedanger wrote: »

Did you not get any compensation as well as an apology? I got both, albeit the compensation from the Ombudsman service was fairly trivial (£75) and the apology was totally insincere.

However the more complaints that are upheld against them the more likely they are to come under pressure to improve. Also I would expect they would look for patterns in complaints so if your case was typical of your investigating officer's work then they might be held to account, although they won't tell you that. (That said I can understand your dissatisfaction.)

Do you mean compensation from the Ombudsman Service?
Yes, they offered me £35 for the "obvious failings and frustration caused" but I don't intend to accept it.
I have written back saying as much and asking the complaints officer to reconsider and look at the items.


The problem is that apparently the complaints officer is not allowed to look at how the original officer arrived at her decision or any other relating issues, however that's exactly where the problem lies - she made substantial errors and refuses to look at the facts again.
So how can the complaints officer decide if she's been incompetent, lazy etc? It's a joke.


One example is that the original officer was told by SP that they reimbursed my account for the time it was on the wrong tariff however they didn't, they simply reimbursed for 2 out of 9 months and since I'm a large user that's a considerable sum, far in excess of the £100 they offered.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

scooo wrote: »

Do you mean compensation from the Ombudsman Service?
Yes, they offered me £35 for the "obvious failings and frustration caused" but I don't intend to accept it.
I have written back saying as much and asking the complaints officer to reconsider and look at the items.


The problem is that apparently the complaints officer is not allowed to look at how the original officer arrived at her decision or any other relating issues, however that's exactly where the problem lies - she made substantial errors and refuses to look at the facts again.
So how can the complaints officer decide if she's been incompetent, lazy etc? It's a joke.


One example is that the original officer was told by SP that they reimbursed my account for the time it was on the wrong tariff however they didn't, they simply reimbursed for 2 out of 9 months and since I'm a large user that's a considerable sum, far in excess of the £100 they offered.

What is it you're trying to achieve? A full rebate for the 7 out of 9 months you were on an incorrect tariff?

How much, after the £100 has been taken into account are you short?

naedanger

scooo wrote: »

Do you mean compensation from the Ombudsman Service?
Yes, they offered me £35 for the "obvious failings and frustration caused" but I don't intend to accept it.
I have written back saying as much and asking the complaints officer to reconsider and look at the items.


The problem is that apparently the complaints officer is not allowed to look at how the original officer arrived at her decision or any other relating issues, however that's exactly where the problem lies - she made substantial errors and refuses to look at the facts again.
So how can the complaints officer decide if she's been incompetent, lazy etc? It's a joke.


One example is that the original officer was told by SP that they reimbursed my account for the time it was on the wrong tariff however they didn't, they simply reimbursed for 2 out of 9 months and since I'm a large user that's a considerable sum, far in excess of the £100 they offered.

Unfortunately I think you are best just accepting the Ombudsman service has not helped you.

However if you have been financially disadvantaged by your supplier's failures then I suggest you take legal action against them following the link I gave in an earlier post. You can do all the work yourself, you do not need to take legal advice. (Indeed most people don't for small claims as far as I am aware.) There are court fees to pay but they are not huge and if you win they should be recoverable.

Should I ever have another clear complaint against an energy company I intend to make a court claim rather than follow their internal complaint process or Ombudsman service. Instead it will be written complaint, followed by letter before action, followed by legal action.

scooo

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

What is it you're trying to achieve? A full rebate for the 7 out of 9 months you were on an incorrect tariff?

How much, after the £100 has been taken into account are you short?

I have thought about this several times now and TBH I'm not really sure anymore, it's all got lost in the frustration of inept people and repetitive emails!


I would like them to calculate my usage correctly over the period in question and refund me the overcharges.
That was my initial objective. I do not expect any more than that, I am not greedy nor am I after more than that which is due and fair.


I would expect the amount to be a few hundred pounds. In fact, when I go to their own price comparison they tell me I could save over £300PA by using another of their tariffs so the evidence is already there.
With different suppliers the amount is/was even more.