In law, a referral is the fact of referring a disagreement to court or to a mediation entity with a view to having the matter investigated and resolved.
A referral is a voluntary written act.
Therefore, to appeal to a ombudsman, you just need to write to him, setting out the reasons for your dispute and your expectations with regard to the mediation process. The Ombudsman offers two ways to contact him, as you prefer:
After your referral, your eligibility will be studied: for consumption mediation, the eligibility has to be conform to the article L612-2 of the Consumer Code.