Tweet
Re: Ombudsman criticises 'dismal' complaints handling
All of the spurious complaints came through the bank's complaint process and were rejected as spurious after thorough investigation and escalation to (among others) the Head of Investments, the Head of Compliance, and the Chief Executive!
All for 19p and some imaginary lost interest.
I don't entirely agree that people should have the right to use the FOS to recover 19p. But my point here isn't really the amount - it's the fact that any loss was the complainant's own fault.
Regarding the R85, it is not the bank's responsibility to make the customer complete an R85. Children's accounts are NOT automatically tax-exempt. Some children - although obviously a very small minority - are wadded and pay tax.
Regarding the ISA transfer, the customer was told from the start how long the transfer took and that the lost interest during the process is a fact of life, not something which he is owed. He won't listen.
FOS are requiring complainants to exhaust the bank's complaints process. In this case, the complainant had received a final response letter regarding the original complaints (the ISA interest one and the 19p one). He had not had a final response letter about the complaint handling one and you are right that the FOS should not have pursued that as the bank was not given an opportunity to reject that one formally; it is fairly academic though because I strongly believe that you should not be able to complain about the handling of a complaint - the underlying complaint is the key issue, not the process.
All of the spurious complaints came through the bank's complaint process and were rejected as spurious after thorough investigation and escalation to (among others) the Head of Investments, the Head of Compliance, and the Chief Executive!
All for 19p and some imaginary lost interest.
I don't entirely agree that people should have the right to use the FOS to recover 19p. But my point here isn't really the amount - it's the fact that any loss was the complainant's own fault.
Regarding the R85, it is not the bank's responsibility to make the customer complete an R85. Children's accounts are NOT automatically tax-exempt. Some children - although obviously a very small minority - are wadded and pay tax.
Regarding the ISA transfer, the customer was told from the start how long the transfer took and that the lost interest during the process is a fact of life, not something which he is owed. He won't listen.
FOS are requiring complainants to exhaust the bank's complaints process. In this case, the complainant had received a final response letter regarding the original complaints (the ISA interest one and the 19p one). He had not had a final response letter about the complaint handling one and you are right that the FOS should not have pursued that as the bank was not given an opportunity to reject that one formally; it is fairly academic though because I strongly believe that you should not be able to complain about the handling of a complaint - the underlying complaint is the key issue, not the process.
Comment