The Engergy Ombudsman

angelin77

Hi
Under the ADR for Consumer disputes Regulations 2015 section 7 b) the body (in this case the energy ombudsman) provide a party to a dispute within a reasonable period of time, upon request, with the arguments, evidence, documents and facts put forward by the other party to the dispute, including a statement made, or opinion given by an expert.
I can find no mention of this on the energy ombudsman's website, nor was I informed of this when I received their Final Decision proposals.
Only when I searched the small print on the trading standards website that concerned ADR that I found reference to this.
I then requested the all this case evidence from the energy ombudsman including ( as described by the OS; energy investigator) the energy supplier's summary of the complaint, copies of bills, correspondence and its system notes.
They send me one bill and some system notes. When I asked them to confirm this was the complete evidence the supplier had provided, the ombudsman responded by telling me to send a SAR to the energy supplier and would not confirm or deny I had received the complete evidence.
I discovered this important entitlement too late in my case. If I had been made aware of this after the evidence had been submitted to the ombudsman, I could have made a more comprehensive challenge to the misinformation the energy supplier had provided.
As ADR is championed as an alternative to court proceedings I think it should be clearly stated by the ombudsman that, as in normal court cases, you can see the other parties evidence.
I have searched the energy ombudsman's website but still can not see any mention of this entitlement. .

Cardew

The Energy Ombudsman is simply a waste of time if you are expecting any serious investigation into a complaint.

angelin77

Absolutely agree Cardew. When I obtain the energy supplier's 'evidence' from the ombudsman it stated they had been sending my personal data to my ex tenant (without my permission) They corrupted the facts, for example, said the final reads on the two final bills I received were supplied by me so therefore there were accurate, in fact both final bills clearly stated they were 'Our estimates' . They( the supplier) did name my ex tenant as the person who supplied the false information to create a false energy account. The ombudsman then corrupted this and stated it was me who supplied the info.
and so it goes on.
Ofgem commissioned a report into the energy ombudsman in 2015. It implies that this ombudsman considers a complaint resolved if it offers a remedy and an award, hence it has a very high resolution percentage and probably why its usual award is £100 or less when it could award upto £10,000. In my case the investigator took at face value all the info he received from the supplier and based his final decision on that misleading info. The written evidence from both parties state the exact opposite. This 2015 report also shows that two of the big six accounted for tens of thousands of the complaints the ombudsman receives (way,way above all the other suppliers). I find it impossible to believe that when the ombudsman has to contact the same small number of people employed by the supplier especially to deal with the ombudsman cases many hundreds of times per week in week out, that they do not form some relationship with those people yet still remain impartial and fair. Trouble is, we as energy consumers pay towards the hundreds of pounds each complaint is reckoned to cost in fees.

Cardew

Having said above that the Energy Ombudsman is useless, there is another side of the story!

A combination of the 'compensation culture' and the low regard most have for all energy companies, means that trivial misunderstandings are often put to the ombudsman in the knowledge that £50 or £100 is there for the taking.

cing0

Its only the FOS, as far as I know who say your entitled to case file evidence used in producing an outcome (ie not everything they have).
With the energy (ombudsman services), I was under the impression you could only have your personal info via SAR and that wouldn't necessarily include the energy companies case file.
angelin7, you need to direct this issue to your MP and say they need to provide case file FOC as per section 7b of ADR 2015 and ombudsman services need to be subject to the freedom of information act 2000 as well.

angelin77

Hi cing0
I requested the suppliers case evidence from the energy ombudsman and they provided it ( or at least what I believe to be only part of it) but they did not query my request or tell me to request a SAR.(but I have done this now for other information) Unfortunately I only discovered that they should provide this evidence too late in my case. The ombudsman did provide a copy of the suppliers written notes and they did contain misleading and false statements such as saying I provided the final reads so therefore they are true and accurate when in fact the two final bills I received clearly state they are estimates. They ombudsman simply repeated this in his final decision conveniently not taking any notice of the written grossly estimated bills. The ombudsman's final decision was mainly based on inaccurate statements such as that, he just accepted whatever the supplier told him over the phone and ignored all the written evidence.I did ask the ombudsman to get the supplier to provide an accurate bill as part of his final decision but again this was ignored.
I have involved my MP (from the outset) and I am awaiting an assessment from the ICO regarding the way both the supplier and the ombudsman have used my personal data.
I have asked Ofgem about the provision of the ADR provider supplying the other sides case evidence and they have responded by saying they cannot interfere with the day to day running of the ombudsman. I cannot see how the energy ombudsman can be exempt from the 2015 regulations but I will keep pursuing this..

cing0

angelin77 wrote: »

I have asked Ofgem about the provision of the ADR provider supplying the other sides case evidence and they have responded by saying they cannot interfere with the day to day running of the ombudsman.

That's what Ofcom and Ofgem have been saying for years and so is the reason why ADR in these fields are rubbish (apart from CISAS)

System

Participation in the arbitration process by suppliers is a supply Licence requirement. I have an ongoing case where the supplier failed to engage in the investigation and The EO made a Decision based on the evidence that I provided. The Decision involved a small payment of compensation. This generated an immediate response from the supplier contesting the payment. To The EO’s credit it took him less than 24 hours to rule that his Decision stood. The supplier has now adopted the submarine service’s mantra of ‘silent and deep’. I am not making a fuss, as yet, as come Tuesday the supplier will face another £100 charge from The EO and a referral to Ofgem.

All that said, the whole arbitration process takes far too long and I agree that there is a need for greater transparency and fairness. For example, it is impossible to provide additional information if the supplier’s defence to the complaint is not disclosed. Moreover, 6 months on from making my initial complaint I can honestly say that I am no closer to getting a satisfactory resolution over what was a very simple billing error that would have taken about 5 minutes of someone’s time to put right.

Mistermeaner

Not impressed with the energy ombudsman so far

My issue is in thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5639083

a few weeks after submitting my case and all info to the ombudsman they sent me an email over the weekend essentially asking me to resubmit it all again via a portal I cannot figure out how to use

And also to sign a letter that repeats word for word everything I have already told them

Will do as asked but not confident this will get me anywhere

youravinalarrrf

@Mistmeaner See my post on the Refusing switch thread.