Accept Offer or Go to Ombudsman

Piewalker

Hi All.

In my previous thread (hopefully linked below) I outlined the details of my gas meter story.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6382615/estimated-readings-gas-meter-blank/p1

The upshot of everything was I got a new meter installed... after 9 months. After an appropriate amount of rigmarole including Bulb being sold to Octopus I eventually got an offer of a £250 'goodwill' payment (account credit).

Apparently they can't reestimate with the data collected since the new meter was installed in March.

So I'm trying to figure out if I should accept the £250 and move on, or go to the Ombudsman.

Does anyone have any experience of Ombudsman outcomes?

MultiFuelBurner

Given the usage figures they estimated and the compensation looks like your usage and any changes to oven etc have been accounted for.

What is your feeling. I doubt the ombudsman service will offer more and if you are up you are up.

Piewalker

There's a part of me that wants to be done with it. There's another part of me that remembers going through the winter with absolutely no knowledge or control over my gas usage, and a jolly surprise when the next bill came in.

There's another part of me that remembers the woeful customer service which seemed to be a sea of standard template emails and people not actually listening to what I was saying.

Highlights were the time I got the 'we have determined that your gas meter is reading correctly, if you want us to come and test it it will cost £xxx, this will be refunded if the meter turns out to be reading incorrectly', 'we'll revise those estimated bills within 48hrs', and the woman who insisted that when the new meter was installed the installer would have retrieved the reading from the old meter and written it on the yellow label. So I sent them the photo of where he wrote 'Blank' in big letters...

EssexHebridean

I'd be fairly astonished if the Ombudsman suggested a higher amount, to be honest. 

I've re-read the other thread now. I guess ultimately it comes down to how much you ended up being charged for those estimated bills, combined with the fact that I presume you also now have "actual" figures to compare with which might add a degree of proof to your evidence. 

Piewalker

Yeah, I think it's time to call it done and never speak of it again...

Piewalker

Thanks for all the thoughts, I think I just needed to have one last vent...