Energy Ombudsman - Warrington

Roberta B. P.

Absolutely delighted with the outcome of my complaint. After months of stress, countless ignored emails, and an unexplained £2,000 spike in my bills, the Ombudsman concluded… that the balance is correct, even though nobody can explain why. Brilliant logic. I especially appreciate the generous £100 goodwill gesture, because who wouldn’t want to trade months of harassment and sleepless nights for the price of a grocery shop? Thank you for your ‘opinion’, it’s been life-changing.

Emma D.

Navigating the world of utility companies can be overwhelming, especially for those in vulnerable situations. It becomes even more distressing when someone is placed on a pre-payment plan without consent, particularly after providing clear evidence through a Subject Access Request (SAR). One might expect the Energy Ombudsman to recognise the energy company's wrongdoing in such blatant cases.

Unfortunately, my experience was far from that expectation. The Energy Ombudsman chose to side with British Gas, a company that has come under considerable fire for its practices, as highlighted by numerous complaints in the media.

To make matters worse, the Ombudsman failed to communicate effectively throughout my case. Without any prior notification, they reassigned my file to a different caseworker (Sally Williams). I discovered this change only when I reached out for an update, leaving my support worker and me with just three days to engage with the new caseworker before the case was set to close. This felt incredibly unfair and was certainly not due to any delay on our part.

The Energy Ombudsman claimed they sent a letter to my home address in July, but I never received it. Given that I have not faced issues with other mail in my area, I question their honesty. When I initially submitted my SAR via special delivery, which was guaranteed to arrive the next day by 1 PM, I received confirmation of its delivery. Yet, the Energy Ombudsman failed to forward it directly to the original caseworker, even though it was properly addressed and carried the correct reference number. It took the original caseworker (John Sutton) some time to locate my SAR.

I was taken aback by the decision in favour of British Gas, especially considering they had coerced a vulnerable individual into accepting a pre-payment meter, falsely stating there was a warrant to enter my home ( NO CCJ ON MY CREDIT FILE), all without any proof that I had ever signed up for their services. British Gas also breached the Data Protection Act by attaching another company's (Davies Homes) bill/letter to my SAR. How the Energy Ombudsman handled my case left me feeling unfairly treated and highlighted the flaws in an organisation that many rely on for unbiased assistance.

This entire experience has illuminated the corruption and inefficiencies within the system, driving me to voice my profound disappointment in the Energy Ombudsman.

Ben W. (.

The Ombudsman invited me to provide a review, so here it is.
The Ombudsman investigated my case with British Gas, but their decision referenced the wrong dates, making the resulting calculations demonstrably wrong. Despite providing evidence from British Gas' own readings, the Ombudsman refused to correct their decision. In the end, I had to take British Gas to court.
The Ombudsman also kept asking me, in several separate phonecalls, to "trust the expert" (British Gas), even though the maths was clearly incorrect. I feel that this demonstrates a bias toward the energy company, even in the face irrefutable evidence.
The Ombudsman in this case was worse than useless - wrong, unaccountable, and biased.

Catherine H.

The investigator listened, seemed to understand my distress then wrote an accurate report. The outcome did not meet my expectations though as the good report translated into an apology and a goodwill payment of a derisory £150 with no right of appeal without new information. £150 for an engineer lying and taking photos, unrelated to the purpose he was there for and without my permission, of my home and then OVO customer service not handling the issue well and eventually ignoring me. I am amazed that such a breach of trust is treated as so low level. The whole incident has had a lasting effect on me. It took weeks to get to this point, I would have been better off not complaining to the ombudsman as reliving it all made things worse and the outcome won't improve OVO's conduct. I haven't receieved the apology or money yet, it's early days though.....

Jamie L.

Unfortunately not the fresh or impartial review I expected.
Like the energy company itself, seemed to miss the logic that a supply with steady usage over 4 years is unlikely to have used the equivalent of 1.5 years in just 3 months, making the bills just over £10,000 above the actual. Also maintained the double standards of the energy company in the sense that customers must always provide evidence and photos of meter reads, but the energy company can say any figure is an actual reading without any evidence. Rather than requiring that evidence, they simply accepted that the energy company had replaced the meter without recording proof of the old readings, and definitely would not try to inflate their reads for any reason... No regard for the bills 3 months before the change which were very clearly £10,000 over estimated.

Justin S.

Nothing says sorry more than the same generic message for everyone. You put as much effort into your cases as the message. The big companies always win and we are told to seek legal advice to battle the multi-billion pound giants. Good plan!

Justin Skeens
6 reviews

6 days ago
NEW
Waste of time and effort. Fighting with British Gas for nearly 2 years and promised my situation would be resolved, to getting these involved, to a decision in favour of the corporation. A perfect credit score ruined over an account that we were told was closed, a refund was given, and a collection letter in the wrong name is sent out. Absolutely a joke just like British Gas. No help for the people.

Energy Ombudsman (owner)
14 minutes ago
Hello Justin, we're sorry to hear that you have not had a positive experience when using our services. Our team take great care in ensuring that consumers feel supported throughout their journey with us and we are saddened to hear that you feel this wasn't the case. We are continuously looking for ways to improve our services and the feedback we receive is vital in helping us do that, so we appreciate you taking the time to leave us your review. Thank you

Ben E.

Very poor service. I was put in contact Energy Ombudsman when I went through 6 months of massive inconvenience due to an internal error by Octopus Energy. Energy Ombudsman asked Octopus Energy to compensate me £175 a disgustingly low amount after not being able to live in my flat for months. They said I had a certain amount of time to accept and did not say how they calculated the number. In short I did not feeling Energy Ombudmans held Octopus Energy to account for their incompetence.

Kelly B.

The ombudsman is supposed to support the customer but 100% sides with the company, I have used them twice now, one for an Internet provider and one for an energy company. I felt extremely let down with the investigation into the Internet provided. But with the energy supplier I feel like both the ombudsman and the supplier have made a complete mockery of me. Taken the side of the supplier, not listened to calls, read my evidence or even thought about the time wasted and stress caused to me and my family. Overall, service from the ombudsman is shoddy at best! Almost 3 months to investigate and still sided with the company and admitted they hadn't listened to my calls. I feel they didn't even give my side the time of day. The remedies the ombudsman have put to the supplier 6/7 are all what they should have done in the first place and the 7th is an insulting amount which would equate to me being paid around 1p an hour for just the time spent on the phone. Absolutely waste of time and effort!