Ombudsman Services

The Brew House

Wilderspool Park
Greenalls Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL
enquiries@ombudsmanservices.org www.ombudsmanservices.org

Mr Kahn
TariqKahn229

Our reference: 1220093

.com

Date 19 June 2015

Dear Mr Kahn
Thank you for your emails received in response to Alison Fearns letter dated 19 May 2015.
In order for me to respond to your complaint I have completed a full review of our system records and
the contacts that you have made to our company.
You initially contacted us by email on 30 March 2015 to request general information about goodwill
payments awarded to complainants following an Ombudsman Services investigation. You asked
within your email when the supplier repays some of the money, what is the order of precedence
regarding payments/refunds?
We responded on the same day explaining that Ombudsman Services does not issue goodwill
payments. Therefore, we cannot become involved in queries surrounding the logistics of a payment
process.
You contacted us again on 7 April 2015 to explain that your query did not relate to goodwill payments
paid by Ombudsman Services. You said my question is when it comes to enforcing a final decision
where the remedy is a goodwill payment. When the supplier has refunded some money, in what order
is the payment considered to be made when the ombudsman is ensuring compliance?
At this point we invited you to contact our office by telephone. The reason for this is that the enquiry
officer was uncertain of the nature of your contact. I have to say that I understand why we had asked
you to contact our office by telephone. If an enquiry officer is unsure as to what information a
complainant is requesting I would expect them to invite a complainant to contact our office by
telephone, if possible. This would help the enquiry officer gain a better understanding of a specific
question and ensure that accurate information is provided to a complainant.
I should also add that after reading the first two emails that you had sent into our office it was unclear
to me what information you had requested. Therefore, I am satisfied that the enquiry officers had
followed the correct process at this point.

Ombudsman Services
The Brew House
Wilderspool Park
Greenalls Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL
enquiries@ombudsmanservices.org www.ombudsmanservices.org

You contacted our office again on 20 April 2015 to inform us that you were out of the country so it was
not possible to contact us by telephone. You requested that we send the information that you required
by email.
It is at this point that I would have expected the enquiry officer to request more information from you
surrounding your query. However, this did not happen as the letter we issued to you on the same day
reiterating that we do not issue goodwill gestures. I am disappointed with the content of this letter
especially as you previously confirmed that your contact was not in relation to goodwill payments paid
by Ombudsman Service. I consider that this represents a shortfall in customer services, for which I
sincerely apologise.
You contacted us again by email on 29 April 2015 and said I've asked this straight forward question
in the month of March. When someone has the Ombudsmans final ruling saying a supplier must
make is a goodwill payment, what is the order of payments when a credit balance is due to be
refunded as well?
Whilst I acknowledge that you consider that you asked this question in March 2015, I have to
disagree with this statement. The reason being is that I do not consider that you worded the question
as clearly as you did in your email dated 29 April 2015. That being said, I am satisfied that your
question was clear at this point and warranted a direct response such as the following:
It is a commercial decision for the supplier how it issues a credit to a complainant. However, if an
Ombudsman Services decision requires a supplier to make a goodwill payment then this will usually
be added to a complainants supplier account. If the goodwill payment results in a credit balance on a
complainants supplier account then the complainant can request for the credit balance to be
refunded. If a complainant is no longer with the supplier in question then the supplier may issue a
refund directly to a complainant. This refund may include any credit balance that was on the closed
account.
It is clear that you did not receive a response to your question but instead you received a further letter
dated 29 April 2015 reiterating that Ombudsman Services does not issue goodwill payments. Again,
this is a further shortfall on our part.
You provide a further response on 5 May 2015 stating the following:
This is a straight forward question about energy final ruling enforcement you have failed to explain
properly. I'll put it differently.
An energy customer complained to the ombudsman and is upheld with a 50 a good will offer
recommended to be paid by the supplier written in the ruling. By this time, the customer is no longer

Ombudsman Services
The Brew House
Wilderspool Park
Greenalls Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL
enquiries@ombudsmanservices.org www.ombudsmanservices.org
with the supplier and there is a 100 in credit balance. The supplier pays 75. What has actually been
paid the 75 of the 100 in credit balance or the 50 goodwill and 25 of the 100 in credit balance?
I can see that following your contact Steven Ross, Senior Enquiry Officer responded to you on 5 May
2015. Steven explained that it would be at a suppliers discretion what order a goodwill payment or a
credit would be refunded to a complainant, which is accurate information. However, it is clear that you
do not consider that this has answered your question. It should be noted that without knowing the
specific details of the case you are referring to it is not possible to provide a specific answer to the
question that you have asked.
Therefore, in an attempt to provide you with a response I will provide you with a number of
possibilities to explain why the supplier issued a 75 payment.
1) The complainants supplier account was in credit for 100. The supplier added the goodwill
payment of 50 awarded by Ombudsman Services to the supplier account, which resulted in
the credit balance of 150. The supplier then issued a final bill to close the account and billed
the supplier account up to date, which left a 75 credit on the account. It was this 75 that was
refunded to the complainant.
2) The complainants supplier account was in credit for 100. The supplier issued a final bill to
close the account and billed the supplier account up to date, which left a 75 credit on the
account. It was this 75 that was refunded to the complainant. The supplier will then send an
additional payment of 50 in line with Ombudsman Services final decision.
There is no reason why the supplier would send a part payment on a closed account. For example it
would have no reason to send 75 of the 100 credit and leave the remaining 25 on the account as
you suggest. I would recommend in all of the instances above contacting the supplier to gain some
clarification into the credit received.
Alternatively, if you are referring to a specific case dealt with by Ombudsman Services, I recommend
that the account holder contacts us if they have a query regarding the implementation of the remedy. I
trust that the above answers your question.
Moving on, I can see that you are dissatisfied with the response from Alison Fearn dated 19 May
2015. I have reviewed Alisons letter and I agree that her response did not provide you with an
answer to the question that you had raised. Although I note that Alison did apologise, I would have
expected her to have contacted the enquiries team to request a response to your question. For this, I
sincerely apologise and consider it to be a further shortfall in our service.
With regards to your comments about our webpage, I acknowledge these points and I will ensure that
our website contains accurate information with regards to our complaints process.
In view of the information contained within my letter I do consider that you have experienced
customer service shortfalls whilst contacting our office. Therefore, I would like to offer you a payment

Ombudsman Services
The Brew House
Wilderspool Park
Greenalls Avenue
Warrington
WA4 6HL
enquiries@ombudsmanservices.org www.ombudsmanservices.org
of 50 in recognition of this. If this is acceptable to you, please let me know and I will arrange a
payment to you by cheque. Alternatively, if you can provide your bank details I will be able to arrange
a BACS transfer directly to your bank account.
My letter is the final response from the service and I trust that I have addressed your complaint. If you
are unhappy with my response, you may refer your complaint to the independent assessor now that
you have exhausted our complaints procedure.
I should perhaps explain that the role of the independent assessor is to review the service we have
provided to you. If they consider we have failed to follow our processes or provide you with an
acceptable level of service, they can recommend remedial action or a goodwill payment.
You may write to the independent assessor at the following address:
The Independent Assessor
Ombudsman Services
PO Box 1024
The Brew House
Warrington
WA4 9FG
Email: IA@ombudsman-services.org
In closing, I am sorry that your experience of using our service has not been a positive one and I
thank you once again for taking the time to write to me.
Yours sincerely,

Simon Morris
Deputy Chief Executive