Ingenious Legal

[Rescuemama]

Morning. Total newbie on here, so apologies if this is in the wrong place/repetition.
I'm after some advice regarding Ingenious Legal, who've slapped an invoice on me for a PPI claim 'theyve pursued' for me, even though my husband (at the time - we've separated since) had lodged a complaint directly with the lender. I remember clicking a link on FB in August 2019 for a "free PPI checkup" - but didn't complete it. I don't recall seeing the name of the company, but after being asked for lots of additional information, decided it was probably a scam, so didn't submit. I know this, as FB kept reminding me that I hadn't completed a form! However, IG claim that I completed everything, including signing papers electronically.

I received no notification from them until the invoice was sent to me in April of this year. They say that on signing up, I was expected to download all the documents pertaining to our agreement, including 14-day cancellation etc - but as I didn't complete, I don't have these. They have records saying they've sent emails to me (starting May I think 2020), but these appear to be website-generated newsletters rather than pertaining specifically to my account - I unsubscribed from the mailing list in December of last year (I purged a lot of these type of things at that time) They claim to have records of which of these emails I opened and to which I failed to respond. They are claiming a fee on my half of the payout, over a year after the payout was made.
I wrote a letter of complaint, and received a totally unsatisfactory 'final response' 3 weeks ago, in which they apologised for the delay in sending the invoice. Have now received further communication from them asking how I wish to proceed.

I think my next course of action is to contact the legal ombudsman, but would really appreciate some guidance on how to word this complaint, before I receive another unwarranted invoice for a further payout I have received.

Is there someone who could take a read through the communications thus far, and advise me on the best way to proceed please?

Thanks so much

[EXC]

You need to file your complaint with the Legal Ombudsman. In doing so, at this point all the LO will accept is your original complaint to IG and their final response. That's all you need for now so no need to draft anything for them . Only when the the LO actually starts investigating the complaint do you submit any evidential documents, communications and further arguments.

It's a long process as LO has a backlog of at least 6 months before they start looking at complaints but at least you can go to back to IG in the meantime and tell them that as you have submitted the complaint to the LO, until such time as they have adjudicated on it, it would not be appropriate for them to pursue you for payment.

Keep us posted.

[Rainbow123]

Hi - Im in the position; or my partner is but he is allowing me to act on his behalf because he is hopeless with this sort of stuff - in regards to getting Ingenious Legal to back off and get lost. He too viewed their profile on Facebook back in Aug 2019 - and we have gone through all of the rigmarole of telling them he hasnt signed for anything etc etc.... he too has got the same standard reply saying that he must have entered his signature using his finger, stylus or mouse (depending on the device they used to sign up etc). And go on to say that this is similar to signing for a parcel and may explain why [his] signature may not be a direct match....no shit sherlock - not only is it not his signature - its not even his initials. Its a completely illegible squiggle. Apparently this signature on said form was passed onto X,Y,Z as per his request and digitally impressioned onto all said forms. The first either of us had actually heard of Ingenious was about 4 months after receiving a telephone call from Halifax Bank in June 2020 stating that they were investigating our complaint. He initially took the call and thought it was a scam, so I took over the call and spoke with them instead. Halifax told me that they were investing our complaint into PPI on a mortgage. Yes used to have a Halifax mortgage for about 13 years but had changed provider some 5 or so years ago and as far as was aware never had any problems with the mortgage or had the faintest idea about PPI but went along with the call. I knew the PPI deadline had closed Aug 2019 so I even asked the Halifax if they were self auditing their old accounts and the chap on the phone didnt confirm or deny that question, but certainly never mentioned anything about anyone called Ingenious at that point. I asked that question because I knew neither of us had raised a complaint about PPI.... it appears that Ingenious had taken it upon themselves to do so stating on his behalf. Well lets put it this way - only as of yesterday have I received a final response to my complaint to Ingenious who started hassling my partner for money around last October and subsequently me contacting them in November 20 to raise a complaint and get an understanding of how they think my partner became a client of theirs in the first place. So its taken them from November 20 to June 21 for them to reach the conclusion within my complaint that he filled out a digital form in the above manner. I have never heard so much cobblers in all of my life. They clearly flooded social media with ads just before the PPI deadline in Aug 2019 in order to acquire additional business and have done so in a very underhand manner which is clearly illegal due to way in which it is construed. My advice to anyone is do not pay these people any money whatsoever. Each bank that they have forwarded your details to has to hold a copy of your signature on file. Whatever digital squiggles that are being received by such banks has to match what the bank actually holds; otherwise it could be the signature of anyone claiming to be you. The bank dealing with the claim needs to instruct you as to exactly what they are doing and also advise how the complaint was instigated in the first place. In our case I have raised a complaint with the Halifax who are also investigating Ingenious independently. Subsequently they did pay me only a PPI payment in July 2020; and I have also told Ingenious this. They then had the cheek to say that they were going to reduce their outstanding invoice by 50% because I hadnt given them authority to act on my behalf; i.e the 50% reduction is because they believe the payout was shared amongst myself and my partner. Hell no, I had the lot and spent the lot and very nice it was too! - so dont be scared with any communications from this cowboy company because technically they do not have a leg to stand on. We have checked my partners credit file and their is no agreement on his file in relation to this company so if it is the case it goes to court what actually are they going to try and do - say that an illegible squiggle which doesnt have any bearing whatsoever to his name is the reason why they are pursuing charges against him..? - Im going to start telling them soon I will be pursuing costs from them at the administrative rate of £50.00 per hour plus VAT. Lets see who backs off first!