Heard from TSB Andover hardship case

Widelats · 24 April 2009 at 11:57AM

Basically the first page was a load of standard waffle, the next page goes:

"you say in your letter you believeyou fit the hardship criteria as set out by the FSA's waiver rules (Yes, rules state you must give me my freakin' charges back!) Please be advised that we recognised this when we recieved your first letter of complaint and responded accordingley in our letter dated 18th August 2008. we have referred your details to our customer support unit who are the best people to help you.

We appreciate you may have wanted to have your complaint dealt with more quickly (Er, yes, thats the general idea, rules say i am entitled to that?) but we assure you we are taking steps to ensure that your complaint will not be disadvantaged whilst the test case continues. (Huh? What has your assurances of being assured of anything got to do with getting my charges back? I think he is talking a load of codswallop here in this statement - do you?)

We will also keep you updated about any important developmentsin the test case, you can also check the latest position on our website. If you have any queries or concerns regarding any of the above please give us a call on 0845 300 0000 (expensive number to keep you on hold on) we'll be glad to help.

Nathan Ardolino.

Would someone please confirm, honestly, what they are saying here? Coz i am a bit confused it made no sense, and for another thing i don't have over draught facilities on my account and never have i have had charges for direct debit only, yet they keep saying 'our over draught charges are fair'

Is it ombudsman time?

natweststaffmember · 24 April 2009 at 11:59AM

Widelats wrote: »

Basically the first page was a load of standard waffle, the next page goes:

"you say in your letter you believeyou fit the hardship criteria as set out by the FSA's waiver rules (Yes, rules state you must give me my freakin' charges back!) Please be advised that we recognised this when we recieved your first letter of complaint and responded accordingley in our letter dated 18th August 2008. we have referred your details to our customer support unit who are the best people to help you.

We appreciate you may have wanted to have your complaint dealt with more quickly (Er, yes, thats the general idea, rules say i am entitled to that?) but we assure you we are taking steps to ensure that your complaint will not be disadvantaged whilst the test case continues. (Huh? What has your assurances of being assured of anything got to do with getting my charges back? I think he is talking a load of codswallop here in this statement - do you?)

We will also keep you updated about any important developmentsin the test case, you can also check the latest position on our website. If you have any queries or concerns regarding any of the above please give us a call on 0845 300 0000 (expensive number to keep you on hold on) we'll be glad to help.

Nathan Ardolino.

Would someone please confirm, honestly, what they are saying here? Coz i am a bit confused it made no sense, and for another thing i don't have over draught facilities on my account and never have i have had charges for direct debit only, yet they keep saying 'our over draught charges are fair'

Is it ombudsman time?

Is that it?? How long has it been since you sent in a letter for consideration of Financial Hardship?

Widelats · 24 April 2009 at 12:59PM

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Is that it?? How long has it been since you sent in a letter for consideration of Financial Hardship?

This one took 4 weeks to get to me, this is my second letter to Lloyds trying to get my charges back.

Yep, thats all i got - is it worth me going to the ombudsman??

Widelats · 24 April 2009 at 1:42PM

Just downloaded the form i am going to put my case forward

Widelats · 27 April 2009 at 9:44AM

Not even the ombudsman is calling me back - what the hell is going on.

natweststaffmember · 27 April 2009 at 12:43PM

Widelats wrote: »

Not even the ombudsman is calling me back - what the hell is going on.

Give em a call

xxisabellexx · 27 April 2009 at 4:38PM

I'm also trying to claim back charges from Lloyds under the hardship waiver for my parents. Sent the first letter a couple of months back and received the same confusing reply that although they recognised we are in hardship, the test case was going on so they couldnt refund... Erm...!

I know I should have sent a second letter but frankly, I knew we'd get a similar response to yours above, having read how difficult Lloyds are being to everyone else on here. So off to the Ombudsman, sent form with all our letters on friday (24th April) so will let you know how it goes! From previous experience, I won't be expecting a reply from the Ombudsman for a couple of weeks at least, they're so busy - no thanks to these companies who are all dragging their heals on legitimate claims. :mad:

Good Luck with your claim, keep us posted
xx

natweststaffmember · 27 April 2009 at 4:50PM

xxisabellexx wrote: »

I'm also trying to claim back charges from Lloyds under the hardship waiver for my parents. Sent the first letter a couple of months back and received the same confusing reply that although they recognised we are in hardship, the test case was going on so they couldnt refund... Erm...!

I know I should have sent a second letter but frankly, I knew we'd get a similar response to yours above, having read how difficult Lloyds are being to everyone else on here. So off to the Ombudsman, sent form with all our letters on friday (24th April) so will let you know how it goes! From previous experience, I won't be expecting a reply from the Ombudsman for a couple of weeks at least, they're so busy - no thanks to these companies who are all dragging their heals on legitimate claims. :mad:

Good Luck with your claim, keep us posted
xx

Not entirely sure I understood the "companies who are all dragging their heals on legitimate claims" argument. The bank have 8 weeks to deal with a complaint on hardship. Financial Hardship in reality, is priority debt arrears, ie rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities etc,etc,. The bank does not have an obligation to payout even 1p of a claim since the OFT test case is still ongoing however, they can suspend charges or make an interim payout of any claim.

xxisabellexx · 27 April 2009 at 9:17PM

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Not entirely sure I understood the "companies who are all dragging their heals on legitimate claims" argument. The bank have 8 weeks to deal with a complaint on hardship. Financial Hardship in reality, is priority debt arrears, ie rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities etc,etc,. The bank does not have an obligation to payout even 1p of a claim since the OFT test case is still ongoing however, they can suspend charges or make an interim payout of any claim.

Thanks for the clarification on the FSA hardship waiver, well made point. For the record, I am aware of the criteria for hardship, my family has been struggling for a long time now and have had council tax, income tax and gas and electricity arrears in the past 3 months. They owe money to both myself and my younger brother who is also at university to avoid being evicted after rent arrears. Any interim payment out of the £5000+ that Lloyds have charged them over the past six years would help them out greatly I'm sure.

My point is that Lloyds haven't even bothered to find out any additional information from my parents or the OP about the individual circumstances of our hardship. Obviously if they had conducted any sort of investigation into our circumstances and decided that we were not in hardship then fair enough.

With regard to my comment about companies dragging their heels, I was simply referring to the anecdotal evidence on MSE and here that some companies are deliberately rejecting claims in the hope of putting people off going to the Ombudsman. Obviously that article relates to mis-selling of PPI, but my comment was simply suggesting that the OP might be experiencing a delay with the Ombudsman because of this. It was just a thought, sorry if I am mistaken, just offering the OP my opinion and support.

natweststaffmember · 28 April 2009 at 8:04AM

xxisabellexx wrote: »

Thanks for the clarification on the FSA hardship waiver, well made point. For the record, I am aware of the criteria for hardship, my family has been struggling for a long time now and have had council tax, income tax and gas and electricity arrears in the past 3 months. They owe money to both myself and my younger brother who is also at university to avoid being evicted after rent arrears. Any interim payment out of the £5000+ that Lloyds have charged them over the past six years would help them out greatly I'm sure.

My point is that Lloyds haven't even bothered to find out any additional information from my parents or the OP about the individual circumstances of our hardship. Obviously if they had conducted any sort of investigation into our circumstances and decided that we were not in hardship then fair enough.

With regard to my comment about companies dragging their heels, I was simply referring to the anecdotal evidence on MSE and here that some companies are deliberately rejecting claims in the hope of putting people off going to the Ombudsman. Obviously that article relates to mis-selling of PPI, but my comment was simply suggesting that the OP might be experiencing a delay with the Ombudsman because of this. It was just a thought, sorry if I am mistaken, just offering the OP my opinion and support.

PPI and bank charges claims are completely different yet the same rules apply, ie if the bank fail to address the customer then the FOS can get involved. However, LloydsTSB are pretty poor on hardship especially as they haven't sent an income and expenditure form out to assess hardship. The Ombudsman issue has been caused becuase of the lack of trust in the banks', delays by banks(as you have stated) and the fact that there are so many people claiming.

Widelats · 28 April 2009 at 11:00AM

xxisabellexx wrote: »

I'm also trying to claim back charges from Lloyds under the hardship waiver for my parents. Sent the first letter a couple of months back and received the same confusing reply that although they recognised we are in hardship, the test case was going on so they couldnt refund... Erm...!

I know I should have sent a second letter but frankly, I knew we'd get a similar response to yours above, having read how difficult Lloyds are being to everyone else on here. So off to the Ombudsman, sent form with all our letters on friday (24th April) so will let you know how it goes! From previous experience, I won't be expecting a reply from the Ombudsman for a couple of weeks at least, they're so busy - no thanks to these companies who are all dragging their heals on legitimate claims. :mad:

Good Luck with your claim, keep us posted
xx

Yes i have got my letters sorted out ready to be posted, they are going recorded delivery to make sure they get there.

I hear Lloyds TSB are axeing 1,000 or so jobs, i hope Nathan Ardolino is one of them and tries to get his charges back

Good luck with your case i will be updating when i hear from the ombudsman.

Heard from TSB Andover hardship case

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