Financial Ombudsman Service - General info/advice required

[fargon]

Re: Financial Ombudsman Service - General info/advice required

No, I didn't take it to the company's CEO. However, in my dealings with lots of people/depts within the company, I'm not sure I would have got very far. From what I have read about this debt company the culture comes from the guys at the top to begin with!! I have eventually negotiated some form of agreement on one of my complaints - to be honest I think they are as fed up with me as I am of them :-) I am letting the other one go all the way though as I am getting nowhere with the adjudicator. May take some time for an Ombudsman to look at it though!

[fargon]

Re: Financial Ombudsman Service - General info/advice required

Originally posted by Captain Haddock:

'3) I have a fear that the Ombudsman will tend to side with his/her adjudicators and that I could actually end up being worse off by escalating (their decision is final etc) - is this an unrational fear??' - You are quite right to have this fear, for within my two experiences with the FO, the first one they sided with Halifax on a long-drawn-out PPI issue, stating that they were happy with Halifax internal handling of the dispute. I never got to see their communications so God knows what went on.

My second case, detail above, was dead-on my side; there was no way Halifax could not be held to be unnacountable for what they did. But I am of the opinion that there is a culture of trying to put off the complainant at the FO and also, as stated elsehwere in this thread, that the FO gets its head rattled by the banks, ad nauseam, whom they have to approach for info and that they can and do side with the defendant banks regularly. I would be loathe to go through the whole process again!


I know what you mean - this has opened my eyes to the role and effectiveness of the FOS. It feels even worse that all the hassle I have had for over 2 years now is on behalf of someone else, but that person doesn't have the same stubborn streak as me and would have just given up a long time ago :-(