MSE News: MSE tells MPs of need for urgent reform to ombudsman ‘farce’

holdon

I have read with much interest what the 'consumers' have said regarding the legislation which was passed in order to protect them, the term 'protect' is only available when evidence suggests that the 'consumer' in question should be protected against a 'product or service' that has so far been found to be lacking in one aspect or another.


I have produced evidence of many sorts over some 40 years, I have also acted as voluntary Advocate for 20 years, following my acquired disability. In consequence I have seen the 'maladministration' and malpractice of Ombudsmen and 'regulators' in many forms and have either addressed issues or at least attempted to address these issues before.


My complaint was/is against BT who acted in a manner that put them in breach of contract and evidence to support this allegation was placed before the Ombudsman Service Communications(OSC), the evidence included details of my contract with BT. Following substantial conversations with the OSC the OSC dishonoured agreements made during the conversations and it became very clear that I was going to have problems with the OSC and their refusal to honour their own Terms of Reference(TOR) and simply comply with what they say they will comply with. At this stage I applied to Ofcom, as Competent Authority(CA) to intervene and 'regulate' what was becoming clear maladministration by the OSC, the best that Ofcom could offer was "we don't get involved with individual complaints", this statement has since come back to Ofcom as 'inadequate'. It is important here to mention that the ADR Legislation, in my opinion, places a duty on the CA to regulate at the earliest opportunity so that breaches in the regulations do not occur, this Ofcom have failed to do.


My complaint with the OSC was reviewed, I am told, many times by an Ombudsman yet each and every Ombudsman continued to breach the terms laid out in their own TOR as published on the OSC website, my case was then referred to the Independent Assessor who found in my favour on a number of issues and the case was later again returned to an OSC ombudsman, 3 months later I received the review only to find that the ombudsman had ignored the Independent Assessors report and merely supported the maladministration and decisions made prior to the Independent Assessors report, this is in itself questionable practice and is currently being reviewed.


During all of this my case was referred to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman(PHSO) who were trying to deal with my complaint under the Communications Act when in reality it was the ADR Legislation that should have applied and can be viewed in the following link http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/542/pdfs/uksi_20150542_en.pdf, unfortunately I found the PHSO less than helpful and in fact only served to waste valuable time


I know that there are many complainants who have similar experiences when trying to deal with the OSC and who have followed the same route as myself, only by joining together can changes be made. I have the strongest possible complaint registered with Ofcom in that the OSC are 'passing off' a service that is simply not available simply because those employed by the OSC either not 'suitably qualified or experience' or are too apathetic to deal with the more complicated complaints, this must be put right now not later, in fact it should have been in place when Ofcom approved the OSC.


This will be far from the end of my complaint and I will publish updates as and when they are available but it is clear Ofcom's enquiries will have to be far reaching and comprehensive to address matters complained of.

codger

holdon wrote: »

This will be far from the end of my complaint and I will publish updates as and when they are available but it is clear Ofcom's enquiries will have to be far reaching and comprehensive to address matters complained of.

It'll be interesting to hear of the outcome, as and when. A further hilarious verdict on your partiality by the schoolboy judge on this thread will no doubt be handed down, but take no notice: your position is anything but, er, floored.

olip74

Very interested to read about this, having been previously unaware of these developments. I used the Ombudsman Services: Property in 2014 and was very unhappy with the entire process. I ended up taking my surveyor to court, and winning, the boring details can be found here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5041604

Since that time I've petitioned my previous MP, my MSP and my latest MP to raise the matter in parliament. It is only the most recent of communications that have engendered any kind of response however, to his credit, Iain Gray recently raised the matter with Kevin Stewart MSP, Minister for Local Government and Housing. I have had a response from Annabelle Ewing, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, who has inquired of RICS "what approach they plan to take to consumer dispute resolution now that Ombudsman Services are withdrawing from offering alternative dispute resolution services in relation to complaints handling in the property sector."

On the one hand I'm pleased that OS:P will withdraw as it was not fit for purpose, it's good that they have recognised this. However I fear that RICS will simply advise that its members should join one of the alternative dispute resolution services. I also feel I've been banging my head on a wall for years only to be overtaken by events, though it's perhaps because of enough people like me that a groundswell for action has begun.

What more can I do at this point? Any suggestions welcome. For one, I'll write back to Iain Gray and highlight the MSE articles and forum.