Any point in complaining to ombudsman?

frisbee

I am currently in a dispute with axa sun life, i deceided to cash in my 15 years with profit policy last year, they advised me it would be in my interest to keep the policy running but to take out a loan from them against the surrender value. In april this year i paid them back £500 of the loan, only to find out a month later that they had no record of me paying this money back. I had to send copies of my bank statement twice ( they said they never received first time) to prove i had paid them and made numerous phone calls to the company to try and sort it out. After all this i lost faith in the company and decided they werent getting another penny of my money. So again i arranged to cancel again, the dispute comes from the settlement figure they offered me second time around. I thought because I have since payed in £240 and received a bonus of £60 that my settlement figure would reflect this but in my opinion there is a short fall of at least £120. So my complaint is that i was misadvised when they told me it would be better to take the loan rather than cash in the policy.

Any opinions will be appreciated.

dunstonh

So my complaint is that i was misadvised when they told me it would be better to take the loan rather than cash in the policy.

Did they advise you to do it or did they present it as an option?

AXA dont normally provide advice from their call centre but they do have tied reps around the country. If a visit from a rep took place and gave advice on it then you could possibly complain but I very much doubt you would get anywhere. If it was the call centre you spoke with then again you are unlikely to get anywhere as they are not advisers, dont give advice and therefore you cannot complain about advice you didnt get.

frisbee

They wrote to me and told me i can complain to ombusman if im not happy with the decision,

dunstonh

That is a standard response. However, my point is whether you actually got advice or information.

caveat_emptor

Write to Axa setting out your complaint, if you haven't already, as the Ombudsman will insist that you do this before they take on your case. If Axa reject your complaint and you still think you have grounds, refer your complaint to the Ombudsman sending them all the correspondence.

Dustykitten

I have been in dispute recently with AXA about my late father's pension. I was sick of them not responding to requests made by phone so wrote to the chairman - I got the details off the web and complained. They soon started responding, have given mum £100 for their 'admin error'. I am still like you wanting to get the rest of the money out but it is a start. Hope that helps

twinkle75

Don't mean to sound rude, but it would be nice if people asctually answered the original question wouldn't it!!

I too would like to know if the ombudsman gives good results and was just about to post my own thread.

I sent my details to them about 6 weeks ago and last that I heard Halifax had defaulted on their response deadline!

So I shall ask the question again........ Has anyone had any joy,or grief, with the ombudsmans response????

dunstonh

Don't mean to sound rude, but it would be nice if people asctually answered the original question wouldn't it!!

We cant answer it as there is insufficient information. AXAs serviceline presents options available but does not provide advice. A complaint against advice given on their serviceline would almost certainly result in the ombudsman not upholding the complaint. The insurance company telephone centre staff are almost paranoid at times at not crossing the advice/information line.

So I shall ask the question again........ Has anyone had any joy,or grief, with the ombudsmans response????

Dont mean to sound rude, but that isnt the question that was asked. I also fail to see what your response from Halifax has to do with AXA.

In response to your question, statistically, the ombudsman reject more complaints than they overrule. However, its not as simple as that as some companies have far higher overrule rates than others. Something like 12 companies account for 80% of the complaints to the ombudsman. So, in reality you cannot look at statistics to measure likelihood of the success. You have to look at each case on its merits.

Milarky

Just to point out that the 'Ombudsman' here refers to the Financial Services Ombudsman and is just an industry funded scheme (possibly regulated by an enabling Act of Parliament) to adujicate on the narrow basis of a complaint against a member 'firm'. It is one of many such schemes. In theory these schemes reduce ligitation by providing an additional layer between the bureaucracy of the firm and that of a court. The Ombudsman is actually a service rather than a person and case manages work rather than deals with the complaint 'face-to-face'.

Moreover, not everyone gets an 'adujication' (decision) based on the facts of their case. The Ombudsman actually looks to throw out 'frivilous or vexatious' complaints about service as well as using the 'no prospect of success' excuse (eh! rule) without considering facts fully. That is how 'justice' operates in practice. A complaint will only to looked at in full - let alone upheld - if the Ombudsman's assistant looking at it for 5 minutes thinks it is 'probably' worth passing up to the 'great man' himself. Such 'great men' always work with assistants and their letters (etc) are draft by them. They just sign the paperwork.

[Of course if you complain when they use the 'no reasonable prospect of success' excuse they then feel duty bound to have another look at it. But at the end of the day I can't see that the Ombudsman is anything more than a clearing house.]

dunstonh

Stats just released show that the FOS are now only overturning 32% of cases compared to the previous 38%. The FSA observed that it would have been far lower had it not been for a small number of worst performers.

The FSA is reported to be pleased with the trend but is focusing on those companies whose verdicts were consistently not being backed by the ombudsman.