Energy Ombudsman Reviews 

The Energy Ombudsman investigates with fairness, integrity and transparency, they made all stages of the process understandable and escalated in a timely manner. Staff is friendly and service is good, solution is fair and reasonable.

After a long and protracted case, the case manager allowed the energy supplier to file further evidence after the date for further submissions had passed. However you did not pass on the same curiosity to ourselves. The Energy supplier submitted evidence that contain unauthorised third party data and we recommended that this breach of the data protection act be reported to the relevant authorities, we were inform that this function was not the responsibility of the Energy Ombudsman Service. Their case managers are never wrong and cannot be appealed against. As a direct consequence they perform like little HITLERS and are untouchables. You cannot appeal to a higher authority than a case manager, which is a problem if your complaint is regarding said case manager. We have recommended to ALL our contacts not to waste their time in raising a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman Service. . Our conclusion is that we must agree with the majority of complainants that they are strongly bias toward your pay masters and there is little point in raising a complaint. We would respectfully suggest that complaints should be investigated by independent third parties

I was exremely lucky to have a Brilliant Energy Ombudsman and matters were dealt with in a professional way.

Easy to deal with and very clear (verbal) explanation of the process. If you have a genuine issue that you are getting nowhere with by engaging direct with the supplier, the Energy Ombudsman is amazing.

While I received initial positive and fair assistance at the beginning of my case, your team later didn’t do enough to protect against my energy supplier, EON who forced me into a inferior tariff with more peak charges by changing my electricity meter without notifying me of a tariff change (which is against Ofgem regulations) until 6 months after forcing me into deadlock when I questioned why I had less off peak hours.

After nearly a year chasing both British Gas and the EON to pay me the thousands of pounds they owed me for the solar energy I exported I finally resorted to the Ombudsman.
My experience is they were easy to contact and seemed sincere however as time went on I realised that they have no real power.
The greedy immoral utility companies know this and consequently ignore the final decision made by the Ombudsman. They know perfectly well that they will never ever get fined so carry on treating their customers with utter contempt.
My broker described the Energy Ombudsman as a Toothless Tiger which is a diplomatic way of saying they are simply not fit for purpose.
They are a completely useless organisation and basically not worth even bothering to get in touch with as they won’t dare fine the evil utility companies

Ombudsman did exactly what I was expected. Great response time and satisfied with the outcome.

Unfortunately, my experience with the Energy Ombudsman has also been extremely disappointing. I have contacted them by email regarding my case and have received no response to the emails I have sent. It is incredibly frustrating to reach the point where the supplier has admitted making a mistake, only to then struggle to get a response from the organisation that is supposed to independently review the dispute.

I am simply trying to get my complaint properly heard and independently assessed.

At this stage, I am extremely disappointed with the entire process — from being given incorrect information by British Gas, to having the resulting complaint handled in a way that I do not consider satisfactory, and then experiencing difficulties getting a response from the Energy Ombudsman.

I hope this review prompts both organisations to take the situation seriously and, most importantly, actually address the concerns I have raised.

A very frustrating experience from start to finish.

Absolutely useless they don't listen. I am sure they did NOT understand my case, they gave me no option but to close my case (NO OPTION) Disgusting close them down and save the tax payers some money!!!

Clear communication and process managed by one Case Manager (Ross Pell) who could not have been more attentive, clear and organised. The process is very fair, well-documented and efficient.

I have had to deal with the Energy Ombudsman on two separate occasions, involving different matters, and unfortunately my experience was essentially the same both times.

I found the process one-sided and lacking the level of independent scrutiny I would expect from an organisation whose role is to resolve disputes fairly. Evidence and arguments I raised did not appear to receive proper consideration, while the energy company’s position seemed to be given considerably more weight.

Having now experienced the process twice and reached the same conclusion on both occasions, I have very little confidence in the service.

Consumers usually approach an ombudsman because they have already exhausted the normal complaints process. They should be able to expect genuine independence, careful examination of the evidence and a fair opportunity to have their concerns properly considered.

Based on my experience, I would not recommend relying on the Energy Ombudsman for meaningful redress. Think carefully before investing significant time and effort in the process.
‐‐----------------------------------Update following the Energy Ombudsman’s response:
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The response below is exactly the kind of generic reassurance that caused me to lose confidence in the process in the first place. It does not address what actually happened in my case.

The Energy Ombudsman states that it considers the evidence presented by both parties impartially. However, in my case, its own correspondence later confirmed two serious problems with the investigation.

First, the Ombudsman acknowledged that some of the evidence I submitted could not be opened and that I had not been given an opportunity to resubmit it before the decision was made.

Second, and even more concerning, the Ombudsman expressly acknowledged that Scottish Power had submitted a response which “was not relevant to your case.”

Those are not minor administrative issues.

On one side, material submitted by the consumer could not be accessed before the decision. On the other, the supplier submitted material which the Ombudsman itself later accepted was not relevant to the case.

Yet a decision was still reached, and I was subsequently told that everything had been taken into consideration.

That is precisely why I consider the process to have been one-sided and to have created a clear appearance of evidential imbalance. A process cannot simply be described as impartial; its handling of the evidence must demonstrate impartiality in practice.

I formally complained about evidence handling and procedural fairness and specifically questioned how the Ombudsman could maintain that all relevant evidence had been properly considered in those circumstances.

Their public response still does not answer that question.

My criticism is therefore not simply that I disliked the outcome. It concerns the integrity of the investigation process itself: inaccessible consumer evidence, irrelevant supplier material, and a final position that nevertheless maintained that the case had been properly and impartially assessed.

Having experienced serious concerns with the Energy Ombudsman on two separate occasions, I remain of the view that consumers should approach the service with caution and should retain complete records of everything they submit.

I stand by my review.

It's really clear who funds the energy ombudsman when you deal with them. They are totally bias towards the energy company. It is not worth contacting them

energy ombuds man, refused to take the photos of the readings on my smart meter display into account, despite it clearly showed Utility warehouse were over charging me, and utility warehouse had wrote to me on 3 occasions that the smart meter was displaying the correct information, that showed they were overcharging me during the off peak night time rates

Raised a complaint with them as Northern Powergrid said something usually takes 6 weeks and it instead took 10 months, with terrible communication throughout to the point where I was spending hours getting in touch with them in my personal time, seeming to manage all of the works myself. They even admitted later when I kept pushing that they don't have the access to the data to be able to estimate 6 weeks.

Energy ombudsman looked over everything and decided they should give a £100 goodwill gesture. This wouldn't even cover my time at minimum wage, and I expect will do nothing to have Northern Powergrid change their ways, so I'm not really sure what it's doing.

I tried to appeal it or have it reviewed but there is no process for that. I asked how it is calculated but it seems to be just whatever the investigator decides. They listed a number of things included but said time soent dealing with sorting out Northern Powergrid wasn't one of them. I even found I have a disability which means the treatment Northern Powergrid showed affects me far worse than others, but even this was apparenlty not enough to have any impact on the "calculation". It seems extremely arbitrary which is the exact kind of thing which needs a peer review and appeals process.

So it seems I effectively have the choice of accept the £100 decision (which Northern Powergrid don't have to agree to), or nothing.

For 10 months I've been fighting Northern Powergrid to get green technology installed and do my part to save the planet. They've been a pain at almost every step.

There is no way we're hitting any green targets if this is the competance of the power distributors, and energy ombudsman can't do anything to discourage this behaviour.

If your house is attached, built any time before the 90s, and in the coverage area of Northern Powergrid, don't bother looking at green tech. It's not worth the hassle, and Energy Ombudsman can't seem to help with that. Or if you are, be sure to allow for at least a year for supply issues to be sorted.

Edit: Adding to this that the EV charger has gone up in price while all of this has been going on, so it's now looking like the goodwill payment which was already small IMO compared to the time I have had to spend managing Northern Powergrid will be used for that, effectively reducing it further or using it entirely.

So in addition to the stress and inconvenice of it all, they have now potentially impacted me financially.

The whole process was easy to follow, the case handler was very professional and helpful. They were a great help in a very stressful situation.

I have been extremely disappointed with the way my complaint against British Gas has been handled.
Having gone through the process expecting an independent body to properly investigate the dispute, I have been left feeling that the Ombudsman is far more interested in accepting the utility company's position than genuinely challenging it.
In my case, the central issue is a substantial backdated bill and whether British Gas has correctly applied the rules around backdating charges. Despite raising clear concerns and providing information to support my position, I feel the investigation has focused on the utility company's explanation rather than properly addressing the points I have raised.
At times, the process has left me wondering whether there is any real independence between the Ombudsman and the companies it is supposed to hold accountable. It can genuinely feel as though they may as well be on the utility companies' payroll.
Unless you have a lot of time on your hands and are willing to waste it, I would question whether going through this process is worthwhile. In my experience, it has felt like a pointless exercise with little genuine consideration given to the issues being raised.
I appreciate that the Ombudsman may not always agree with the customer, but independence should mean properly examining both sides of a dispute, challenging the evidence where necessary and providing a clear explanation for the decision.
Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.
Very disappointing and, in my experience, far from what an independent complaints service should be.

Great resolution and very thorough, worked very hard to get a great result on my half and would recommend.very happy with this service

My complaint was handled by the ombudsman representative Reluca. She explained the process concisely and clearly, making the experience much smoother than I had anticipated.

I sought their help with my energy company. I followed the case handlers advice. They agreed, without informing, or discussing with me, that the situation had been resolved. It had not. I escalated the complaint with one of their "coaches". Again I responded to her as she asked. No response whatsoever. I continued to send emails, and left phone messages. Still no response. I further asked to speak with her manager, three times. There has been no resolution since March.

Opened a case with them after being totally blanked by British Gas. Steve, my case handler, was brilliant. Listened to me and talked me through the whole process. Kept in touch and final outcome was in my favour. Just waiting to see if BG uphold the decision.
Would definitely recommend anybody contacting the Ombudsman if they're heading down a dead end.