Refund of British Gas homecare agreement - which ombudsman?

helenwes

Hi, I am owed a refund from British Gas for a duplicate HomeCare Agreement. The refund was agreed in 2016 (yes, 2016), and I have never received it. I have a refund ID from them, and it has apparently been issued once, but they admittedly sent it to my old address, so back into the system. Each time I call, after going round the houses to speak to somebody who can help, they eventually see it is owed, confirm the amount, confirm the refund ID, and put a note on my account for it to be released. It never happens. On February 4th this year an agent raised a complaint on my behalf, to see if that would prompt a release of the refund, and of course I am still waiting for it. I chased them a couple of times, but since it was now a complaint, that essentially gave them 8 weeks' grace to sort it.

I decided to log a complaint with the energy ombudsman, which seemed to be going ok, but then British Gas rejected the complaint on the grounds that the energy ombudsman only deal with energy supply, and not homecare agreements, which I didn't know, but it is correct.

The ombudsman did refer me to the 'Consumer Dispute Resolution Limited' (CDRL), and I logged my complaint with them, however, they have so far been unhelpful, mixing up their dates resulting in no further action / intervention until the end of April. Their online portal is crap, no means to update or contact anyone, and it isn't possible to speak to anyone over the phone. The only way to make contact is to either log a new complaint or 'raise a ticket', the latter does not allow me to send a message. It is incredibly frustrating.

The 8 weeks / deadlock since my complaint with British Gas is on Friday 1st April. Does anyone know if there is an official dispute resolution organisation who would handle this? I can't begin to describe the frustration over this and I really feel as if I ought to be compensated for at least being £168 out of pocket for the last 8 years, never mind just being refunded what they agreed they owe me.

[Deleted User]

Have a look at page 32 (Complaints) in the attached link:

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/aem6/content/dam/britishgas/downloads/home-care/HomeCare-Range-Terms-and-Conditions.pdf

It would seem that as the product is insurance-based, it should be escalated to The Financial Ombudsman Service.

helenwes

Thank you! I will give that a try now. Appreciate the response