Home
 » ISP News » 
Sponsored Links

Ex-BT Man Becomes Regulatory Director for Ombudsman Services

Friday, Dec 6th, 2019 (11:36 am) - Score 1,251
complaint UK consumer broadband isp and phone gripes

The Ofcom approved consumer complaints handler firm Ombudsman Services, which is an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider for broadband ISPs and mobile operators, has hired a former head of commercial and regulatory strategy at BT’s consumer business – Ed Dodman – to be their Director of Regulatory Affairs.

At present the regulator requires all ISPs to become members of an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme – CISAS or Ombudsman Services. The schemes are free for consumers to access and designed to supplement (not replace) an ISPs own internal complaints procedure(s), although providers often have to pay sizeable costs regardless of whether they win or lose a case.

The ADR process is often seen as a last line of defence for consumers – before taking court action – and such schemes are generally only used after a dispute has gone unresolved for 8 weeks (i.e. the “Deadlock Letter” stage). Please see our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information.

Ombudsman Services hasn’t actually had a Director of Regulatory Affairs before (it’s a new position) and thus the decision to hire somebody with industry experience to fill the role is a wise one. Prior to this, Ed also held operational and regulatory roles at the UK’s largest water supplier, Thames Water.

NOTE: OS also acts as the complaints handler for the energy sector and administers the Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) service for the British Parking Association.

Matthew Vickers, CEO of Ombudsman Services, said:

“Ed brings with him a wealth of experience from two of the largest regulated companies in the essential services space.

His appointment forms part of the wider transformation of our business and strengthening of our senior leadership team.

We are delighted to welcome Ed to Ombudsman Services, where he will play a defining role in shaping and leading our regulatory strategy.”

Meanwhile Ed said that his job “will be to continue to strengthen our voice in conversations around regulation and to ensure that our internal operations inform and adapt to the changing regulatory landscape.” Ombudsman Services itself was founded in 2002 and currently employs more than 400 people at its offices in Cheshire.

Share with Twitter
Share with Linkedin
Share with Facebook
Share with Reddit
Share with Pinterest
Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews
Comments
24 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Mike says:

    Almost like it’s a revolving door…

  2. Avatar photo Brian says:

    Difficult to have any confidence in Ofcom, when they have an advertising campaign with misleading adverts.

  3. Avatar photo beany says:

    So short story is both the Ombudsman Services and Ofcom will be doing less (if that is even possible) with complaints about BT than they do already.

    1. Avatar photo dave says:

      It’s absolutely shocking that I agree with you for once.

    2. Avatar photo The Facts says:

      Why should that be? You don’t understand that people change jobs and it makes no difference to how they work regarding previous employers.

    3. Avatar photo beany says:

      Yes i do and as i said “will be doing less (if that is even possible)”.

      So i take it that you believe he will be doing more about complaints regarding BT than what is currently done. Did he hate working for them that much?

    4. Avatar photo The Facts says:

      Why should previous employment matter?

    5. Avatar photo GNewton says:

      “Why should previous employment matter?”

      Your question shows that you just genuinely don’t understand the issue or concerns others have expressed here on this forum.

    6. Avatar photo The Facts says:

      Because they can’t explain exactly what the problem might be. People move around industries.

    7. Avatar photo GNewton says:

      The Facts, you are either very naive, or you genuinely don’t understand other poster’s concerns here.

    8. Avatar photo beany says:

      “Why should previous employment matter?”

      Please have the respect to answer my queries as i answered yours rather than deflect with another question.

      Did he enjoy working for BT or not? Will he be doing more or less about about complaints than currently gets done?

      2 simple questions.

  4. Avatar photo S White says:

    Conflict of Interest!

    1. Avatar photo dave says:

      I agree. Since BT uses the Ombudsman Services ADR scheme, this is potentially a conflict of interest.

    2. Avatar photo TheFacts says:

      Why?

    3. Avatar photo dave says:

      Gee, I wonder why that could be?

    4. Avatar photo GNewton says:

      Indeed. Something the BT advocates won’t admit.

    5. Avatar photo The Facts says:

      Please explain the issue.

    6. Avatar photo GN says:

      The issue is highlighted in headline:

      “Ex-BT Man Becomes Regulatory Director for Ombudsman Services”

      This is something a hardcore BT-fan might not worry about.

    7. Avatar photo The Facts says:

      Indeed, BT might worry he knows how they work. Or are you implying that BT have set him up to get the job?

    8. Avatar photo beany says:

      If he does know how BT works he must also know thousands complaain about them to the ombudsman he is joining and Ofcom on a monthly basis.

      I wonder what with his insight from previously working at BT he will do to ensure complaint levels about the organisation are reduced?

      I suspect with your internal BT foresight you can shed light on the issues within it and the steps he will now take in his new roll to prevent them, can you?

  5. Avatar photo chris conder says:

    You couldn’t make all this stuff up. What a superfarce.

  6. Avatar photo FibreBubble says:

    Ombudsman Services are an approved ADR. One that much hyped B4RN belong to.

    Incidently, I noticed reseller UNO are also a member of Ombudsman Services and curiously a negative review of UNO was swiftly removed from ISPReview recently.

    Sometimes people have to go to ADR.

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      A review was moderated, not yet removed, because the person who made the review was not in fact a customer of the provider (i.e. they never got a connection from them – as clear from the review content itself).

      The same person has posted before and we did remind them that, as a basic rule of the site, you have to of been an active paying customer at some point in order to justifiably review and rate the intended ISP. Clearly they didn’t listen and we don’t tolerate abuse of the system.

    2. Avatar photo beany says:

      Oh i wonder what ISP they did belong to.

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Sky Broadband UK ISP Logo
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5444)
  2. BT (3497)
  3. Politics (2513)
  4. Openreach (2285)
  5. Business (2242)
  6. Building Digital UK (2227)
  7. FTTC (2040)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1955)
  9. Statistics (1770)
  10. 4G (1649)
  11. Virgin Media (1603)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1446)
  13. Wireless Internet (1384)
  14. Fibre Optic (1384)
  15. FTTH (1380)
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon