While I was driving to a meeting recently, I had the rare “pleasure” to listen to a consumer rights show on daytime talk radio. The guest was an ombudsman. The impression given from listening to this guest was that from 1 October 2015, consumers have a right to complain to “the ombudsman” (referring to him in a manner as if he’s the only ombudsman) if they are not satisfied with the consumer goods or services they purchase. This is simply not correct.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, retailers can voluntarily join an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. From 1 October 2015 a retailer’s only legal obligation, where a dispute cannot be resolved, is to give the consumer details of an ADR scheme but the retailer does not have to agree to use that scheme. The ADR schemes themselves are run by independent companies and are approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Many of the approved ADR schemes use the word “ombudsman” in their name.

What was quite telling from the comments of "the ombudsman” on the radio show was that no larger retailers had joined his scheme but a number of smaller retailers had. It made me wonder how many smaller retailers were aware that the new law does not require them to join a scheme.

Let’s say you are a retailer of small household electrical goods. If the majority of your complaints involve electric irons costing around £15, think carefully about why would you want to join an ADR scheme, such as the one promoted by the radio “ombudsman”, where each time a consumer makes a complaint and requests an “ombudsman” resolution, you have to pay said “ombudsman” £45 for the benefit of resolving the dispute.

I am not, for one moment, advocating that consumer rights are a bad thing. Far from it. I am simply saying that smaller retailers need to carefully think through if they should join an ADR scheme and if so, which one is right for them.

Remember that many of the approved schemes are run by commercial ventures. Though to be fair, as was the case of the radio “ombudsman”, some are run by not-for-profit companies. In the meantime I’m considering seeking approval for my very own ADR scheme for complaints against ombudsmen called “The Ombudsman Ombudsman”.