Communications Ombudsman Reviews 935

Very professional and easy communication. Understood my issue and got hold of the right person to cut through the bureaucracy and fix it. Very happy with their handling of the case

I was extremely happy with the way the Ombudsman responded in a timely manner to all messages, including the final one resolving the issue which was by phone rather than online. I do understand other reviewers upset at the lengthy wait before you can involve the Ombudsman, and further delays for the company to respond to the Ombudsman, but that's not the fault of the Ombudsman - it's just the way the process works. The person allocated to my case was always very responsive. I simply wanted the issue with a supplier (O2) to be resolved as O2 were being very unhelpful, and not only did the Ombudsman succeed in making them resolve it, but he also felt I should be compensated for the delay and inconvenience (which I hadn't asked O2 for myself), and to which they agreed. So a very successful outcome and a very professional service from the Ombudsman.

Disgusting service. File a complaint against my phone network carrier, which I have hardly had any service since they linked up with O2 back in July. Was told that because there are 2 contracts, one for the phone & one for the sim they can only protect me for the sim & I'll have to pay the almost £300 for early cancellation on the phone early. It's not rocket science but both contracts come as a package. Why should I pay for either if it's not working properly.
COWBOYS

I was offered BT Broadband fibre at no increase cost. A benifit of internet speed increase from 29Mbps to 100Mbps.
From early June to September, many delays,and no fibre. I approached Communications Ombudsman out of extreme frustration. I provided details. Phone calls, emails, and orders etc. And notes made in my diary to back up my evidence.
I did receive standard BT compensation for the delay and a good will payment due to involvement of Ombudsman staff.

Virgin Media messed up cancellation of my contract and owed me a refund of over £80 for more than 4 months. All effort dealing with some clueless agents at Virgin to resolve this proved futile. Input from the ombudsman service resulted in a resolution within 2 weeks. The ombudsman's agent was very attentive and helpful.

Had issue with Virgin Media getting nowhere fast so contacted the Ombudsman, one week later Virgin Media call me and hey presto matter resolved in my favour

Pity it took the Ombudsman getting involved for them to see my point of view.

My complaint was against UW who had coerced me into upgrading without explaining the extra hidden costs. This happened on 2 occasions with broadband and mobile data where, after their service cut out, they put me on a temp higher tariff but were unable to put me back on the lower tariff due to it being an old package.
The Ombudsman was pointless and time consuming. Even though UW admitted on all accounts they were at fault, The Ombudsman only managed to get me an apology and a measly £60 that didn't cover all the times I'd been overcharged, or help with the fact I was permanently stuck on a higher tariff.
Fraud at it's finest, Utility sharks enabled by The Ombudsman.

The service is simple to use. An advisor contacted me and fully explained the process.
Although the Ombudsman didn't actually have to do anything, having them be aware of my complaint resulted in a call from the provider in question, and a sensible resolution offer within a few days. I'd been going around in circles for 11 weeks prior to that.

Very good Personal telephone communications, friendly service. Gave me all the information I needed to make my complaint. Good outcome.

A mobile company TalkHome sent me SMS messages 1am-2am and 7am just to say contract rolled over/payment successful. I was woken up 4 months in a row.

The company kept lying saying it was disabled but nothing changed. The ombudsman was less than useless. Their final decision said 'unsure if it is actually possible', as TalkHome lied.

The agent 'Jacqueline' made zero attempt to verify independently, through other tech experts and clearly never attempted to ask AI.

I'm a software developer so of course I knew it was possible. Just search AI and it tells you instantly that Amazon SNS does not include this functionality 'natively' (in-built) but we can use a lamda function to program in time.

There should be a UK law to ban all Business Texts outside 8am-8pm.

No surprises I switched mobile provider the moment I heard their decision.

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Response to your reply: Your message is irrelevant and does not address the underlying complaint. The tech exists. Your team made no attempt to research what is/is not available. Instead you allow telecom firms to do as they please, rendering your services useless.

The website is difficult to negotiate. The communication was absolutely awful. No reply to my messages for months at a time. RWG failed to implement the remedies and it seems there was nothing that can be done to force them, as they have now closed my case without evidence of the remedies being completed.

Dreadful. The complaint handler made a mistake in their understanding of the situation. They have admitted this but have failed to correct it. So we are in limbo. A total waste of time.

Don't waste your time trying to solve the problem yourself. If you think you're right and have evidences to support your case let Communications Ombudsman take car of it for you. Charlotte took my case, and just in a couple of weeks it was solved. I'm so grateful for you help.🙏

I assume they are funded by the telecommunication companies hence the web sites make it hard to find who to complain to then hard to make a complaint then impossible to have a conversation. Eventually they simplicity the dispute leaving aside the difficult parts and propose a settlement that as you have dated so much time you are forced to accept.

I just had bad Expirence with communication ombudsman, please do not wasted your time as they are not experienced not have legal qualifications and make decisions in favour of multimillionaire companies they working for them not for customers, even the manager does not have legal qualification. They took 2 months for investigation which at end was not a proper investigation they do not have any evidence and facts regarding your problem. They not requesting information from EE they just took the fact suit to the ombudsman and EE they play together. Do not waste your time just go to the court as ombudsman damages your case by making wrong illegal decision. When I asked the facts and evidence they use they could not answer, just told me we get information from EE , I have problem with network provider over 22 months and ombudsman even not care about this. I believe ombudsman must be shut down as they work for big companies.

The Ombudsman was completely useless at addressing the complaint. Instead of requesting more evidence or undertaking a more thorough investigation, they just accepted everything that Virgin Media said as factual and ignored anything I said or evidenced. Very one-sided approach and definitely not impartial at all. May just be my particular experience but it seems pointless to raise anything with them.

Its bad enough that you have to wait 8 weeks to be able to contact them, but then wait weeks for a resolution agreed. However then even with a company making your credit score bad with a bad credit marker on it by mistake they still will not take any firmer action. The officers ignore emails, even when you ask for escalation they ignore. Basically you are FOBAR without any recourse at this stage, even if its effecting your life such as a Mortgage application, tough poop. ITS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. I have got my Local MP who also happens to be the Shadow Home Sec RH Chris Philp involved. Something desperately needs to change. AS FOR THEIR RESPONSE BELOW, NOTE I STILL HAVE NOT HEARD BACK FROM MY EMAILS TO THEM (OMBUDSMAN) LEFT ON THE CASE SINCE SEPT HOW THE HELL DO THEY THINK THAT IS ACCEPTABLE. NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.

Anonymous, difficult to understand the process and almost as bad as the company I complained about! I think they are a tick box AI driven enterprise , not fit for purpose. I had automated emails sent in the middle of the night about things I did not understand and my case had 'closed' on it at one point when it had not been dealt with at all, yet the automated emails kept coming. Just there to show compliance with some sort of legislation I presume but not really addressing issues.
Edit, after noticing that my review was labelled 'unprompted' I would like to say this is not true, I did a survey and was asked to give a review on Trustpilot at the end. With regard to the comments I got from the service....it took months to get any sort of resolution from you in the first place and that was totally unsatisfactory and you have not replied to my further queries , so why would I waste more time dealing with you when you have been so poor in handling things? Maybe all these bad reviews should tell you that you are not fit for purpose?

Clear bias for the company over the individual. I’d paid out £100s to Plusnet for internet that was not fit for service only to discover that a 448kb cap had been put on without any warning or notification. Had to spend extra money on data to attend online meetings / view television. No refund. Only explained copper wire as excuse & BT Open reach placing the cap . Ombudsman just parroted the company without any interrogation as to the fairness of hidden T &C. or lack of notification that this might be a possibility when I signed up. No goodwill, no sympathy. Abysmal, cynical - servants of capitalism - a charade of customer care without any true regard for justice.

I complained about the appalling service, treatment and lack of responses from EE
The ombudsmen looked at EE’s response and used this in their favour. I was not given a chance to respond to the final decision and they used a different number on my account as evidence. This number belongs to someone else who is abroad. The number the complaint was made about was not even mentioned in the response. I was not given the opportunity to correct this