What you need to know about the new consumer ombudsman service

The launch of the consumer ombudsman service gives customers a new forum to resolve a wide range of retail complaints. We look at what you need to know about it.

What exactly does it do?

The new ombudsman is for resolving all consumer retail complaints. It's expected it will deal largely with home maintenance-related issues, second hand car sales and car repairs, but it boasts of "no problem being too small".

Didn't we already have an ombudsman service?

Correct. The new service is run by Ombudsman Services, which already handles complaints against mobile phone companies, energy firms, as well as property or copyright licensing issues.

This just widens the range of problems you can seek resolution on.

There are also separate ombudsman services for financial and legal services.

Okay. So how do I get started?

You can submit a complaint online via the ombudsman's website, but before you take things up with them they expect you to give the company a "reasonable amount of time" to resolve the issue.

How long is-

It's considered to be about eight weeks.

Fine. What will the ombudsman actually do?

The ombudsman service will negotiate with companies on your behalf and adjudicate on the matter.

If it finds in your favour then it can demand an apology from the company and an explanation as to what went wrong. It can also grant you a financial award.

Companies are expected to carry out the ombudsman's decision within 28 days, but its decisions are only legally binding on companies that are signed up to it.

And what happens if I don't like its decision?

At the end of the day you can still reject the ombudsman's decision.

That would free the company from having to abide by the proposed resolution, but you can still take your complaint elsewhere.

Right... Take it where exactly?

That's partly why the service was set up. Your options are usually approaching the company directly or taking it to the small claims court, for which there is a fee.