We’re the Energy Ombudsman.

Common complaints in the energy sector.

We know how inconvenient it is when issues occur with a service that you rely on. Our experience dealing with complaints means we understand the most common types of problems and how to go about resolving them as quickly as possible.

The most common types of energy complaints are about:

1. Gas and electricity bills.
2. Problems that arise as a result of switching energy supplier.
3. The way an energy product or service has been sold, including door step sales.
4. The supply of energy to a home.
5. Micro generation and Feed-in-Tariffs.
6. Problems relating to the provision of services under the Green Deal.
7. Loss of electricity supply due to severe weather.

We’ve helped over 90,000 people like you.

If you are a domestic or micro business consumer of an energy company, you have the right to use our service. We’ve resolved over 90,000 of complaints about providers in the energy sector.

We learn from all the complaints we handle and use that insight to work with providers to help them improve their service, by making recommendations, such as:

Using insight and experience to support the supplier of last resort process, ensuring affected customers receive a fair deal. Identifying annual statement inaccuracies, which resulted in corrections to a wide-ranging billing system error. Correcting incorrect calorific values to ensure accurate billing.

Who we work with.

We have more than 450 energy providers signed up to our scheme.

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Want to escalate a complaint to us?

If your provider is signed up to our scheme and you’ve tried to resolve your problem with them already, then we may be able to help.

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Common questions about complaining to your energy supplier.

What’s the difference between a domestic and micro business consumer?

A domestic customer is a person who has energy provided to their home. Whereas a micro business customer will meet the below criteria:

1. 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
2. Fewer than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent); and
3. An annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2 million.
4. Please be aware the usage thresholds are specific to the fuel being complained about.

Which Feed-in-Tariff (FITs) complaints can you review?

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Ofgem set the rules for FIT applications. If energy suppliers don’t follow these rules, we can consider complaints about FITs.

It’s the FIT applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application:

1. is fully completed and contains the correct information.
2. the energy supplier receives it before the deadline.

It’s not the energy supplier’s responsibility to check the application. Therefore, they can’t be held responsible and we can’t recommend that an energy supplier applies a higher FIT if it didn’t receive a correct and completed application before the deadline.

Loss of electricity supply due to severe weather

We can consider complaints about network providers. You can find out who your network provider is via the Energy Networks Association website.

We would expect the energy network to do the following during a loss of electical supply:

• keep its customers updated during the loss of supply.
• follow its own processes for dealing with customers who have registered as vulnerable.
• make clear its process for claiming for loss of supply and the circumstances in which customers might be eligible for compensation payments.
• measure individual circumstances against relevant legislation and industry standards providing the compensation prescribed by those standards where applicable.
• provide a clear explanation of the outcome of a compensation claim.
• deal with any challenges to its decision about compensation promptly.

What we consider when making our decision

• Did the energy network keep its customers updated throughout the loss of supply?
• Where applicable, did the energy network follow its own processes for dealing with customers who have registered as vulnerable?
• Did the energy network correctly measure the complainant’s circumstances against the Electricity (Standards of performance) regulations 2015 and electricity guaranteed standard 11 (severe weather)?
• Has the energy network provided the compensation prescribed by electricity guaranteed standard 11? This may be no compensation if the energy network restored supply within set timescales.
• Did the energy network provide a clear explanation of the outcome of any compensation claim?
• Did the energy network deal with challenges its decision about compensation promptly?
• Could the energy network access the substation(s) before it can restore supply. In severe weather, access to a substation may not be possible, particularly if the substation is flooded.

How to make a complaint about loss of electricity supply due to severe weather

Contact us for more help and advice on: 0330 440 1624

What is the Green Deal?

The Green Deal helps you make energy-saving improvements to your home and find the best way to pay for them. The improvements that could save you the most energy depend on your home, but typical examples include:

1. insulation, such as solid wall, cavity wall or loft insulation
2. heating
3. draught-proofing
4. double glazing
5. renewable energy generation, such as solar panels or heat pumps

You can find out more about the Green Deal at gov.uk.

Do you handle complaints about the Green Deal?

We’ve been approved to help resolve complaints about Green Deal providers if they are unable or unwilling to help if something goes wrong with a Green Deal plan.

You can find out more about complaining about the green deal with our handy Energy and Green Deal factsheet and the codes of practice.