Ombudsman failure

rp1974

Neither you or they should have let the situation escalate as it did,this should have been in a matter of months,not years.Was the meter tested for accuracy?.The ombudsman have deemed the usage as being accurate wether it was or not.Debt has nothing to do with the ombudsman.Providing monthly meter readings and following complaint processes could have went a long way to stopping this in its tracks.Dont know if you can appeal an ombudsman decision or not but think that their ruling is final.

matelodave

None of us really know what went on so there's really not a lot of point having a rant on this forum although I am sure we can sympathise with your frustration. However it's not easy to trawl back over nine years to establish when or if anything went wrong - that's why it's important to keep your own records and check your account regularly.

I assume that you had loads of bills, documents and written evidence to give to the ombudsman who has come to a judgement based on the facts as he's been given them by both you and the energy company.

If you don't agree then I guess you can appeal or even go and see a solicitor but I guess that if you've not been able to provide a convincing case to the ombudsman then you wont get very far.

Unfortunately most of the  problems on this forum stem from the fact that people don't read their meters, don't check their bills, don't get them corrected and don't make sure that their DD's are covering their consumption. They usually discover the fact when they try to change suppliers or move house and get saddled with a ginormous bill. Those who don't change supplier or move can find out that these problems can go on for a very long time and are extremely difficult if not impossible to sort out.

[Deleted User]

Arbed31 said:

What can you do if the ombudsman does not support your complaint even with clear evidence of supplier errors. I basically have over £9000 debt accrued over 9 Yrs since having an air source heating system installed by my housing association. I've shown the ombudsman that my supplier did not raise any alarms at my usage jumping from 12 units a day to 45 for the first year or continuing to sit at an avg of 38 for all years after, did not even raise my monthly payment for 4 years or take seriously my complaints or queries fibbing me off as a high user yet they refused my complaint of faulty billing because never did my payments cover my now apparent ridiculously high usage. It also took 6 years to get them to replace the old economy 7 meter with a correct tariff for my new system meter at which point I now know my usage dropped dramatically from 38 a day avg to 20 a day consistently for the next 3 years but the ombudsman will not consider my complaint of this being evidence of a faulty meter either. I had my landlord replace the air source system with a smaller unit in March last year as we believed the unit was too big for the property & the cause of the issue but my avg daily usage is now 17 units a day so it clearly looks like a meter issue rather than a heating system one. I'm at my wits end with how to deal with this now. I thought the ombudsman was meant to be impartial & fair 

To answer your specific question. You agreed to third-party arbitration by taking your Complaint to The EO. This act can have consequences. You now have three options: one, you can accept The EO’s Decision. If you do this, then the supplier is required to accept the Decision in full. Two, if you have additional factual evidence to support your complaint, then you can submit this to The EO for further review. Three, you can decide to reject The EO’s Decision. At this point, the arbitration process stops. You can then take the supplier to Court if you believe that you have a case. That said, any Court will take into account The EO’s Decision.

You may have to put this one down to experience: an expensive lesson - sorry.

Arbed31

What is your point there. That's two separate issues. I had a blank meter years before any of this that had to be replaced & was billed by estimate for a whole year's usage. I also had storage heaters in those days so when they tried to overcharge me by estimation we monitored my actual usage for 3 mths to see I was using 12 units a day & show I had overpaid not underpaid. All this does is prove even more how incompetent they are & how often meters go wrong. Why is your concern more to prove me at fault than to accept that I was  clearly billed incorrectly & my meter could be faulty to based on facts I only now know due to their evasion

MWT

The problem is that we know that an incorrectly used ASHP is very capable of using large amounts of electricity, and while electricity meters do fail, they do not typically fail in a way that gives wildly inaccurate readings. So it is not axiomatic that your much higher usage was the result of a faulty meter.

Your actual metered usage was always available to you at any time just by reading your meter, you should have been fully aware of your own usage regardless of the frequency of bills, and you should have been aware of what your energy was costing, regardless of the level of your DD.

Whatever you provided to the Ombudsman was clearly not persuasive enough to get past those points, so if you are going to continue to dispute this, you are going to have to add more supporting facts, but frankly I doubt you have anything much to add at this point so not sure what you can do to avoid paying ...

matelodave

Arbed31 said:

What is your point there. That's two separate issues. I had a blank meter years before any of this that had to be replaced & was billed by estimate for a whole year's usage. I also had storage heaters in those days so when they tried to overcharge me by estimation we monitored my actual usage for 3 mths to see I was using 12 units a day & show I had overpaid not underpaid. All this does is prove even more how incompetent they are & how often meters go wrong. Why is your concern more to prove me at fault than to accept that I was  clearly billed incorrectly & my meter could be faulty to based on facts I only now know due to their evasion

This is information that you did not divulge in your first rant - unless we know all the facts then it's really not everso easy to come to a conclusion. However if as you say you got a new meter but only bothered reading it for three months and then used those readings as estimates for the next undetermined period including getting a heat pump then it's still unclear about the situation - a whole year of estimates doesn't equate to £9k of arrears built up over nine years.

What else are you not telling us (or didn't you tell the ombudsman)

rp1974

As per Dolor has posted you'll likely need to draw a line under this and move on from it.Theres just too many uncertainties to do much else.Only other option would involve court action,that I can't see going in your favour and possibly landing you with costs to fork out as well.Might be worthwhile checking with Citizens Advice,can only think they'll say the same.Good luck,whatever you decide to do.

Arbed31

Matelodave get off my case, all your responses are abusive & unhelpful. Obviously the blank meter comment was taken from another thread where I was trying to give helpful advice to someone else with a blank meter. You should try it sometime instead of narcissistic rants. To everyone else thankyou for taking the time over what is a very complicated longstanding issue. All I can say is you don't know until you know & it was 4 years before my dd was raised therefore rang any alarms. The system was installed by my housing association, I was told as a more economical option. I asked for a non econ 7 meter, they didn't turn up or respond to emails for new dates. I thought that might be why my dd was raised. They never agreed when asked my usage was exceptionally high. They did set all of my dd wrong as they should all have been £250 not 80,100 or lowered to 60 from 120. The ombudsman complaint form has to be specific so I stated incorrect billing. They upheld dropping from 120 to 60 as consistent with the reduced usage when new meter was fitted. Regardless of the fact my usage was 120 after so deliberately undercharged me. So arbitration is biased. I think we pay our electricity suppliers to do a job, they did it incorrectly for 9 years & some of you are saying it's my fault because I should have done it for them. Fair point but I nor anyone would surely expect a supplier to be so catastrophically inept at simply setting payment related to usage. I would love to get a solicitor on it but obviously can't afford that. My other course is compensation from the landlord for fitting an incorrectly large unit. I appreciate (now) they can be problematic but nonetheless its decidedly odd that my usage halved on fitting of a new meter. This fact hinders my case for compensation considerably. I think EDF should take some responsibility for confusing the issue by undercharging me that's all

Arbed31

I might also add that before my meter was replace it was checked by a meter reader who said the serial no on the meter did not match the one on the paperwork. I raised this issue with EDF & was told it was nothing to worry about so for all I know I could have been charged for someone else's usage. I have no faith in my supplier to handle my account honestly or competently 

tim_p

YOU should be handling YOUR account properly not trying to blame someone else who has no idea what you might or might not be running on the electrical supply.  Take ownership and control.