Has anybody used the Energy Ombudsman?

[Sidebeforeself]

Interested to know what peoples experiences have been like. I have an ongoing dispute with my energy provider and the Ombudsman has agreed to investigate. Ive provided all my info and they have confirmed they dont need anything else but it’s been quiet for a while now. They just say it is ongoing.

I dont mind how long it takes if the issue gets sorted but I dont know what to expect.

If you’ve used them was this your experience? Did they sort it out to your satisfaction?

My husband swears by the energy ombudsman!

@bananashoes What sort of results has he got of you dont mind me asking?

Yes, for Octopus Energy, more than a year ago. I won and they still haven’t paid me. They owe me around £1k but think it’s absolutely fine to not pay it, but keep charging me for my electricity, of course.
The Ombudsman sounds good on paper but don’t actually seem to achieve anything.

Yes I did about 8 years ago - they were great.

I had swapped energy providers and in the in-between period, my meter fell off the wall (rotten wooden board in cellar) and needed to be replaced. Because the meter readings changed from the old meter, my new energy company couldn’t accept them, and instead of billing me kept taking £500 from my account every month to cover the inevitable bill (and then some!!) and refused to refund when I was thousands of pounds in credit. Was a complete computer-say-no situation.

I complained to the ombudsman and they agreed with me and it was all resolved.

Im encouraged by these responses - thanks. My problem has been going on since Jan so I hope theres a resolution soon!

Me! So slow but we got there in the end. I think they were even more sick of British Gas than l was

Yes he took octopus to the ombudsman for randomly adding £2500 to our energy bill. They refused to remove it- despite us proving it wasn’t ours. After months of working with the ombudsman they removed it and gave us a big credit

Oh good. Im pretty sure I have a solid case but it needs sorting as I know I owe money…just disputing how much..and I refuse to pay more until they can actually send me a bill…

Have used them for a dispute with Octopus. I found them really efficient, although I did have to submit a lot of evidence (bills, correspondence) but then the saga had a long history. It helped that I’d made a data subject access request to Octopus so had much of the evidence together from that. Ultimately was awarded the same amount of compensation Octopus had offered, despite the many wasted days having to be home for engineers; but I also finally got the problem sorted which was what I really wanted! Ombudsman staff were nice, helpful and efficient, I was pleasantly surprised.

There are set timelines for you to respond and for the energy company to respond and from memory they’re quite short, a couple of weeks at most, so if you aren’t getting a response get your DH to log into the Ombudsman’s system and chase them.

@BlueyDragon I’m getting responses but it’s just “we are investigating”. But they have accepted all my evidence so I think I just need to wait it out

Have you asked them to re-open your case? I did when BG didnt do what they said they would and they reopened it immediately

I used them several years ago. It took a while to complete the investigation but the end result was favourable to me