Communications Ombudsman Reviews 935

The staff is very professional. The whole process is clear, hassle-free and efficient.

A total useless service that is not 'impartial' it is not 'unbiased ' and it does not treat consumers fairly. It is a circus of clowns without a ring master. This service is funded by providers. The hands that feed them. They have no power to change anything.They are toothless. Effectively like a temp agency, a providers complaints team that replaces in house complaints teams because many providers appear to now use this service as the default go to place to sort out 'all'complaints. How can a service like this simply accept a provider telling them,without any date evidence , that a customer service ,when clearly cut off, was not disrupted when the service was down for over a week??? I have witnesses to testify to this? Because the service is either biased or grossly incompetent. And the ombudsmans decision is "final." It can only be appealed with "new evidence". Customers don't get to see such blatant lies during the investigation, not that any investigations appear to takes place as case workers cherry pick what they want to use and ignore, this only came about when I requested all paperwork under the DPA. I have sent a further request to ask how much do providers pay to have a complaint dealt with? As this information was already available to the service ,and not questioned by the case worker, then my concerns are not deemed to be deemed as new evidence and the case remains closed? So even when blatant lies are uncovered which can affect the outcome, the ombudsman doesn't care. Is not accountable to anyone. So they can donas they want, decide what they want and no accountability?
The only answer is to email the CEOs with all complaints no matter what they are, as these should be audited and those at the top can't deny not knowing of customer issues. Customer Service is a waste of time and the complaint will then find itself to the right department anyway but this gives the CEO some work to do for the hugh salary and bonuses. Avoid the ombudsman service at all costs, they are pointless and a waste of time. This will starve it of cash so that ultimately this useless service will hopefully cease and a new more robust, fair and totally impartial and unbiased system can be introduced to replace it. I now await the standard copy and paste response with contact details and email address blah blah blah which serves what point exactly ? The case is closed . The tick a box exercise. Puppets to their paymasters. You can see from all the negative reviews already my treatment is the norm by this service. As for ofcom lol. Another absolute joke that 3 encourages incompence. Fines on companies are pointless and are paid for by customers anyway when prices are hiked by providers above inflation to pay for this. All sanctioned by the regulator as we have seen with water companies. Until the wages and bonuses of the CEO is hit and hit hard then ofcom is just a waste of space as are all regulators. Governments allowing providers to do what they want ,when they want with no punishment. Consumers will always pay for the service providers crime aided by ombudsmen and regulators . UPDATE. In response to your copy and pasted reply. You didn't help before so why would you help now? This response is evidence that this service really doesn't care doesn't even read the post. They set a system to pick reviews up and standard copy and paste response. Contemept towards consumers.

The overall process was not explained clearly. I gave all the factual information required, and then Focus Group decided to raise that there were more than ten employees in the care company, the Ombudsman decided that they could not help and suggested I go through the small claims court. I was acting as an advocate for my brother, who has learning difficulties and lives in supported living with 24 hour carers. They had been without a working phoneline for approx eight weeks, with staff having to use their own mobiles when ringing GP's or 999, so that people could ring them back. People with LD thrive on communication and Focus Group were denying them this. Eventually I did get a formal written apology and the residents received a £200 refund. This all took three months.

Despite seeking guidance multiple times on how to use the online Ombudsman submission system I got nothing. I was given less than 10 working days to the deadline for submission of evidence as it all occurred over the Christmas period. The handler I was allocated was unresponsive and I was still getting his “on leave until 5th Jan” message in the middle of Feb. I finally accepted the ombudsman’s decision not because I thought it was right but to put an end to the process and draw a line under what turned out to be a totally pointless waste of time.

They ordered O2 to refund charges as they continued charging after cancellation. They also ordered £100 compensation to be paid. I never received the compensation and O2 continued damaging my credit file and never refunded the charges. Essentially O2 just ignored the communication ombudsman. The worst part is the ombudsman did nothing about it! It's a complete waste of time if companies can completely ignore them with ZERO consequences. The Communication Ombudsman is a toothless waste of taxpayer money. I wasted hours of time going through everything while receiving sloppy AI generated responses from O2. Businesses are laughing at this place. Shut it down and stop wasting public money on it.

I approached the Communications Ombudsman expecting an impartial and balanced review. Unfortunately, my experience felt heavily weighted in favour of the provider.
My complaint concerned a £499 out-of-plan international call charge with EE. I submitted detailed evidence, including abnormal usage flags noted on my account and the emergency circumstances surrounding the calls. Despite this, the final decision relied primarily on contract wording, with limited consideration of proportionality, context, or the absence of real-time safeguards as the charges escalated.
Throughout the process, I did not feel that my evidence was given equal weight. The tone of communication from the case handler felt lecturing and, at times, condescending, which made the experience feel one-sided rather than neutral.
Notably, EE had previously offered a 25% goodwill reduction during the complaints process. However, following the Ombudsman’s review, the final decision concluded that no reduction was warranted. As a result, pursuing independent review did not improve my position.
The process was lengthy and stressful, and in my case did not deliver what I would consider meaningful consumer protection beyond confirming the provider’s contractual stance.
Based on my experience, I would advise others to carefully consider expectations before escalating a case of this nature.

Outstanding complaint with EE resolved within a short period of time following referral to the Communications Ombudsman. 100% satisfied.

On receiving the Response to my Review of the 18th / 02 / 2026 from the Communisation Ombudsman's Case handler , I found that Stupidity continued from this Ombudsman's Office when a Poor review is recorded you would expect a Much higher
( Managerial Response ) APPEAL (?) Showing their Intelligence is Inadequate to Represent the General Public concerns when the Other Party told the Ombudsman that I was Threating Court Action (?) NO ACTION LODGED: My Bulling worked .The Ombudsman office Enacted their Rules if you are TAKING COURT ACTION they cant Investigate your Complaint , The Investigator Believe BT / EE Internet Suppliers Stating to Ombudsman that Court action was Pending ? . PROOF OF Ombudsman SIDING WITH COMMERSIAL PROFIT SEEKING BUSINESSES , FACT NO COURT WAS APROCHED AS YET (?) Resulting in a POOR INVESTAGTION BY THE OMBUDSMAN IN FAVOUR of BT / EE their rule is Discrimination and Abusive as to Human Rights OMBUDSMAN BE AWERE : Do your Job Correctly in the Publics Interest :

I was offered £300 by BT due to months of poor service, rude customer service handlers, missed appointments and overcharged.

I asked the Ombudsman to help, stating I'd be happy to look at £250-£300 but I want to see whether the treatment would warrant leaving the contract and if they cohld assist in mediation.

The Ombudsman decided I only deserved £100 and an apology. I feel stupid thinking they'd help me.

Update : I have reviewed the Ombudsman reply and find it amazing how the Communications Ombudsman can use such awful grammar. Ironic really.

I provided a copy of the telephone conversation with EE. I ask outright what do I need to do with Sky. The sales rep answered "NOTHING" but apparently this isn't enough proof. Wow could not have been clearer. Don't waste your time and effort to straight to the small claims court

Pointless exercise as they are financed by phone companies. They refuse to accept that UK laws are superior to phone company policies. Imagine turning up for a football match only to find out that the referee is paid by the other team ! No wonder they always side with the phone companies. Ignore these imposters and go to Money Claim On Line. The law projects you these fakes will not.

Whilst they helped resolve, the time it took Virgin to rectify meant i continued to be overcharged even though obudsman found in my favour and ombudsman would not address this - very frustrating and just hope communication firms are heavily regulated going forward as Virgin continue to disadvantage customers time and time again

Totally dishonest game players.
Not to be trusted - they work for BT and employ people who play games, communicate badly and work to cause harm to consumers. I have call recordings that demonstrate how bad they are. Very dishonest from the CEO down.

Reading the response below indicates just how bad this organisation is from their CEO and through certain others who work together on dishonest ways. Do not trust these people. They are not who they say that they are.

Was very pleased with this service. Would recommend stephen brown. Very friendly and informative. I now have recieved an apology letter from virgin and £75 compensation. Well worth a try.

Apart from a very nice member of the ombudsman team, the whole process was a complete waste of time.

It would appear that none of our concerns were taken on board. Nothing has been solved. We are still experiencing the problems which BT seem unable to solve (problems which have been happening for at least 18 months) and yet the Ombudsman found in their favour, and, moreover, believed the untruths in the report from BT. No faith in this process at all.

Edit:
I see there is a reply asking me to contact the service. I had already done so in response to the decision and was told that the decision is final and the case handler will not communicate further. (Incidentally, the "detailed explanation" was lacking clarity - very "waffling" - and it was hard to grasp precisely what was being said.)
And we remain without a reliable service from BT.

Very much the same experience as many others who reviewed here. A waste of time and effort trying to deal with the communication ombudsman.
Raised a complaint about a telecommunications company (SPUSU) which took months of back and forth. The ombudsman agreed with the complaint and requested a written apology and gesture of goodwill payment from the company which never came despite setting an official deadline. However they now say the case is closed and state the company has implemented everything. The case handler ignores the messages and the company ignore the emails. Don't waste your time they are absolutely useless!

Found it very difficult to resolve my complaint initially with Three telecoms when they cancelled my ‘pay as you go’ account and then refused to discuss it with me. The Ombudsman representative very quickly and efficiently resolved my complaint, even chasing up Three when the financial settlement didn’t arrive.

The investigation into my appalling treatment by Virgin Media was thorough and fair, resulting in a finding completely in my favour. But the the ballpark level of compensation was beyond the control of the investigator and the £100 I was awarded was totally inadequate as far as I am concerned. It is also not even a drop in the ocean for Virgin Media.

It’s so sad but the Ombudsman is not really on the side of the us the poor people who are so unfairly treated by big companies