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Energy Ombudsman office has asked Energy4 to signpost who the Energy Ombudsman office is as Suppliers are not performing to their licence agreements and identifying to Consumers both Domestic and Commercial where they can go to if a Supplier fails them contractually, supply failures, or has engaged in inaccurate and/or misleading contractual practices.
Please note that many Commercial companies I have helped over the years have been failed by OfGem and the Energy Ombudsman office.
This has resulted in many court cases where suppliers have objected to show up to Court, or the judge has objected to evidence from commercial customers, siding automatically with the supplier.
If you have issues with a Supplier, please address to the Energy Ombudsman and OfGem, at the same time keeping your local MP and News agency updated. Make sure you identify to Energy Ombudsman and OfGem that you will escalate the matter to Parliament if it is not resolved.
Please see “signposting” advice below
Introduction
Energy suppliers often ask us to work with them to ensure they are signposting their customers to our service appropriately when a complaint cannot be resolved.
This guidance sets out what we consider to be best practice on signposting and aims to provide clarity for businesses on how best to record and evidence signposting information on a case.
What is signposting and why is it important?
If an energy supplier is unable to resolve a complaint, they must make the customer aware of their right to have their complaint considered by the Energy Ombudsman. We refer to this as signposting.
A customer should be signposted to our service when their complaint has either:
a) been ongoing for eight weeks; or
b) reached “deadlock” i.e. it has become clear that a resolution to the complaint cannot be reached.
Signposting to our service forms part of an energy supplier’s regulatory obligations. Effective signposting also demonstrates a commitment to complaint resolution.
When signposting to our service, participating companies must explain our role and provide our contact details.
- Read more about signposting on the Ofgem website
- Read our best practice guide to eight-week letters and deadlock letters for energy suppliers
What happens if as a provider I don’t signpost my customers to you?
As part of our role as an ADR provider, we share provider signposting performance data with Ofgem. Failure to follow industry rules on signposting can result in regulatory action.
In the energy sector, poor signposting can also have a negative impact on your company’s rating in the quarterly Citizens Advice star rating league table.
How should a business evidence signposting in our case management system (CMS)?
As a company user, evidence of signposting needs to be provided on all cases where the consumer has been signposted to our service.
You can do this by updating the Response Date, Response Type (deadlock letter, 8-week letter) and Referral Notification Date on all accepted cases. This should be included both for Facilitated Complaint Resolution (FCR) and Energy Ombudsman Decision (EOD) cases.
In CMS, when a case reaches the ‘Prepare case’ stage, the signposting information can be found within the ‘Details’ tab. You will need to scroll down within the tab to see and update this.
As a company user you need to update the ‘Response Type’, ‘Response Date’ and ‘Referral Notification Date’.
Response Type – Company Choose an option from the drop-down menu – either ‘Deadlock’ or ‘Eight Week Letter’.
Response Date – Company This is the date the response letter was issued.
Referral Notification Date This is the date you informed the consumer the dispute was deadlocked. For example, if you advised the consumer by telephone on 1 September their complaint was deadlocked, but did not issue the letter until 3 September, you should include 1 September in this section.
Use the edit tool on the right side of the page to add the relevant information. You will also be required to upload a copy of the signposting evidence within the ‘Evidence’ tab.
Is it the responsibility of the business to evidence signposting?
Yes. The onus is on you to show that you have signposted the consumer to our service. If no signposting evidence is added on CMS, we will record that the complaint was not signposted.
How do you check that what a provider has said about signposting is correct?
For any case where you have indicated that the complaint was signposted, we will check the information provided to ensure it is accurate. We will expect you to upload either a copy of the ADR letter, a screenshot of the ADR letter copied into the account records or an account note stamp showing that an ADR letter has been issued. If no evidence of signposting has been recorded, we will amend the data to record that no signposting has occurred.
How can a business find out if it is performing well on signposting?
Those providers that receive monthly data reports from us will be given signposting data for their business as part of this. More detailed reports are available upon request.
Why are you signposting data different to that circulated by Citizens Advice?
We report signposting data based on completed cases. This allows both parties in the dispute to upload evidence. In contrast, Citizens Advice reports signposting data based on cases that are accepted for investigation. This explains the discrepancy between what we report to Ofgem and what Citizens Advice reports.
Find out more
We hope you found this guidance note useful. For more information on signposting and evidencing signposting, get in touch with our Partner Support team:
Email: partners@trustalliancegroup.org
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