FAQs

Raising your dispute online is the fastest way to get your information to us, however you can also do this by telephone, email and post. Searching our website is the easiest way to find out if an energy company is a member of our scheme: click here.

We're impartial, so we don't help either side to build their case. However, we can support you through the process if you’re unable or unconfident that you can complete the necessary forms. Contact us and one of our team will be on hand to support you. We encourage consumers to provide as much information (or evidence) as soon as possible, as this will help us to reach a fair decision as quickly as possible.

Visit the How we can help page to read about the types of disputes we can consider, review and potentially resolve.

We are funded by the suppliers signed up to our scheme. They pay us a fee for each case we review regardless of the outcome or decision we make. This means that the more disputes suppliers resolve in-house, the less they have to pay to us, which is an incentive to improve their service.

We can process disputes for both domestic and small business consumers in the energy sector.

• A domestic, residential consumer is a person who has energy provided to their home.

• A non-domestic, small business consumer meeting the below criteria;
  
  'A company which has an annual consumption of electricity of not more than 100,000 kWh, or gas consumption of not more than 293,000 kWh; or fewer than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent), and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2 million.’

Please be aware the usage thresholds are specific to the fuel being complained about.

If your supplier can’t do anything else to resolve with your dispute, you may receive a letter or email from them stating this. This is called a ‘deadlock letter’. The letter will tell you that you can now contact the Energy Ombudsman and will include our contact details. You must escalate your dispute within 12 months of receiving the letter.

If we decide the supplier has made a mistake, or treated you unfairly, we’ll recommend which action they should take to put things right. This could include:

• A practical action (for example: apply a credit, cancel an account, apply a specified tariff)
• An apology
• A financial award to acknowledge the difficulties encountered (Time & Trouble Award)
• Recommendations for the company to prevent the issue happening again
• Or, a combination of these.

For more information visit out What to expect page.

No. If you don’t receive the outcome you are looking for you can reject our decision and pursue your dispute through other methods, such as through the courts. In a limited number of circumstances you may be able to appeal our decision, if new evidence has come to light since you submitted your dispute or if a material error has been made.

When you accept the resolution we have decided, your supplier is obliged to implement it within 28 days. Within that time your Dispute Resolution Executive (DRE) will track progress on the resolution. If it remains outstanding after 28 days, we will contact the supplier to understand why and will keep you informed until it has been completed.

We have a step-by-step guide to the complaints process on Our Process page.

• We look at the dispute raised and the evidence submitted by both parties.
• We consider your consumer rights.
• We review the evidence against relevant legislation and expected industry practice.
• We make our decision.
• We recommend what can be done to put things right and issue a decision.

For more information please visit Our Process page.

The final decision is based on the information provided by you and the supplier and includes the remedies that we feel are a fair resolution to the dispute.

When you accept a resolution we have decided, your supplier is obliged to implement it within 28 days. Within that time your Dispute Resolution Executive (DRE) will track progress on the resolution. If it remains outstanding after 28 days, we will contact the supplier to understand why and will keep you informed until it has been completed.

You can communicate with your Dispute Resolution Executive directly via our Online Portal using the 'Messages' tab. Sign in

Our service offers a free alternative to going to court and you do not need to involve a lawyer or legal advisor when bringing your case to us. You are, however, entitled to seek independent advice or be represented or helped by a third party at any stage of the process.

Yes. As someone who has decided to use our service you are free to stop the process and withdraw your dispute at any point.

We only handle disputes involving suppliers trading in Britain. You’ll need to ask your supplier directly who you can take your complaint to if it's based overseas.

We can only deal with disputes about suppliers that are signed up to our scheme. Search for your supplier here

Let your supplier know of any problems as soon as possible. The sooner you tell them, the sooner they have the opportunity to put things right. It may also help any further issues from escalating. If after 8 weeks your issue is still unresolved, we can then investigate.

Your supplier has 8 weeks to resolve your dispute, unless you receive a deadlock letter enabling you to come to us sooner. This is to give them enough time to assess the situation and the evidence to find an appropriate resolution.

After 8 weeks you can choose to wait and see if your supplier resolves your issues with more time, but your supplier can't prevent you from raising your dispute to us after this period.

Yes. If the provider has not resolved the dispute to your satisfaction, if the issue re-occurs, or if new issues arise, we can still look into your dispute.

Do:

• Be aware of any deadline for logging your dispute.
• If you don’t hear from your supplier, contact them again to check they're dealing with your dispute.
• Keep a note of each contact you make and what is said.
• Provide evidence about any issue.
• Be clear about how you would like them to fix the problem.

Don’t:

• Be scared of complaining. Complaining can resolve issues and stop problems happening again.
• Get flustered. Keep calm and be clear.
• Put it off. Tell your supplier as soon as you notice a problem to stop it from getting worse.

We would not recommend cancelling any direct debits or refusing to pay bills whilst the dispute is under investigation. This is to avoid any further issues developing.

If you provide enough information and evidence for us to fully accept your case, your permission is needed for us to look into the dispute and contact your supplier directly. At this point your supplier will know you have raised a dispute with us.

If we consider a financial offer should apply to resolve your dispute, the amount will depend entirely on the complexity of the issues and the information we receive from you and the company. The most common financial award is around £50, this is sometimes referred to as a Time & Trouble Award. Find out more on our What to expect page.

Any evidence of the contact you’ve had with the company, such as copies of emails or letters, details of phone calls you’ve had with dates, times and names of people you’ve spoken to.

You also need to provide any evidence you may have that shows the issues you've been experiencing. This may include documentation such as bills, bank statements, etc.

When an energy supplier ceases trading, to prevent a drop in service to customers Ofgem will appoint another supplier to provide their energy supply. This is called a Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR). Once a company ceases trading we can't open any new cases for dispute with the closed company - however prior dispute are sometimes upheld by the new nominated supplier. More information on our SoLR process.

Energy suppliers need to liaise with the Data Communications Company (DCC) to resolve some communications issues. Energy suppliers have experienced long delays waiting for the DCC to resolve queries and this can impact on the time taken to resolve consumer disputes.

Ordinarily, when we uphold a dispute we ask the energy supplier to put things right for the customer within 28 days. Where an energy supplier is waiting for action from the DCC this may not be possible, but we would expect the energy supplier to keep you updated.

All you need to do is wait for the new appointed Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) to contact you and take a meter reading for their records. You should have the opportunity to change supplier once the process has been complete. If you need any information you should visit Ofgem or our News section for the latest guidance. The process is in place so that your energy supply will not be interrupted during a company closure.

Browse our list of other organisations or this page of other Ombudsman schemes that may be able to offer help and support.

If you disagree with our decision you may be able to appeal it. However if you are still unhappy with the outcome of your case, you can continue to pursue the matter in court outside of our service. To complain about the service we provided, you can let us know how we can improve via the Complain about our service form.

You can communicate with your Dispute Resolution Executive via our Online Portal regarding any remedy that has not been implemented. Sign in.

After 28 days since we issued our legally binding decision, you are free to pursue it's implementation in court, outside of our service.

We're sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your experience of our service. To let us know how we could improve, complete and submit our contact form and select "Complain about your service".

Yes, please visit our page dedicated to Smart meters.

Yes, please visit our page dedicated to Feed-In Tariffs and solar panels.

03 numbers, introduced by Ofcom, are an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers such as 0845. Calls to 03 numbers cost the same as, or less than, calls to 01 and 02 prefixed numbers and are included as part of any inclusive minutes or discount package. These rules apply to calls from any type of line including mobile, fixed line or payphone.

Log in to your online account here.

When your case was created during the call to our dispute support team, you were provided with a passcode to access your account. As an example, it should look like the following: EG123456-22

Passcodes are typically only required for cases when our dispute support team created the account for you. If you created the account yourself through the website, you shouldn’t require a passcode. Passcodes needed for account verification are not provided by email.

We are committed to making our services accessible to everyone. We have a variety of options available, including documents in alternative formats such as large print, coloured paper, audio and Braille. We also facilitate sign language interpretation. Read more about Accessibility

If you’d like to complain on behalf of someone else, this option is available by continuing through our online dispute process.

We can accept the following file types:

pdf, csv, txt, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, png, gif, jpg, bmp, mov, mp4, mp3, m4a, tif, tiff, msg

You can call our team to help you access your online account. For energy complaints, call 0330 440 1624.

You can call our team to help you access your online account on 0330 440 1624.

Let us know about any system issues by logging into your online account and sending us a message via our online form. Alternatively, please call us on 0330 440 1624.

Your username should be your email address, and you can reset your password here.

You have up to 14 days to upload evidence to support your case. Log in to your online account to add more evidence here and visit the Evidence tab.

If you're not able to access certain areas of your online account or are unable to complete required actions, such as uploading evidence, please contact us by phone, or you can send any copies of evidence by post. You can find our contact details and report a System Issue here.

You can call our team to help you access your online account on 0330 440 1624.

Ombudsman Services was a not-for-profit organisation established in 2002. It provided independent dispute resolution across the communications, energy and private parking sectors in the UK. In 2022 it changed the structure of its business and created the Trust Alliance Group. The Energy Ombudsman is a part of the Trust Alliance Group.

We are funded by the suppliers signed up to our scheme. They pay us a fee for each case we review regardless of the outcome or decision we make. This means that the more disputes suppliers resolve in-house, the less they have to pay to us, which is an incentive to improve their service.

We're approved by Ofgem (the UK energy regulator) to handle service disputes in the energy sector. We are governed by a number of bodies who oversee our work to ensure we remain impartial and everything we do complies with the latest standards. Click here for more information.

We’re not here to punish either side of the dispute. We do not issue fines or dictate how companies operate, this is the responsibility of the companies' trade body or regulator.

We resolve disputes between consumers or small businesses and Energy suppliers that are signed up to our scheme. We are here to give free, independent and impartial decisions and resolutions on disputes based on the information provided.