Have your say on the Financial Ombudsman Service

Former_MSE_Wendy

[title=http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/dp/wtd_underline.gif] What this is all about[/title]
The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free and independent official body for settling disputes between UK based financial companies and their customers.

See the full MSE Your Financial Rights Guide to how it works and what complaints it can help with.

We're meeting it this week, and would love your feedback on what issues it should address.

It doesn't just help with Bank Charges and PPI Reclaiming, although it works a lot on these cases, so try not to focus on these types of complaint.

Have you heard of it? Have you used it? What financial problems are you having you'd like it to help with?

Please report you comments and experiences below.

PNPSUKNET

think the process takes far too long

Mediawoman

They cancelled at least 40 appointments with us at the last moment and it took months to reach a conclusion by which time we had to bring in the Attorney General's office to help reach a settlement.
The organisation needs serious changes to make it work in a professional manner. To be frank we were disgusted.

crush

clydesdale bank morgage mess up, 18000 people effected can they make a ruling to stop everyone having to negotiate seperatly with the bank. I received statements for many years informing I only had a few years left and now out of the blue due to a bank error have to pay £530 a month more because of an old bank error or add 3 years to the term, can FOS be proactive for once?

thecornflake

The fact someone drove into my car while it was parked, my insurance company took 2 years to agree a 50/50 liability and then removed 5 years off my no claims. Apparently they have no jurisdiction over no claims or liability dceisions, but noone else does either so my only choice is private court action :mad:

crazyhaggid

Where do I begin, how about getting some teeth to help the consumer. Being sick of banks thinking they can act how they wish regardless of laws I've used the omd service quite a few times. It always takes far far too long. When they do find in your favour they don't seem to ever award you compensation. So the bank gets to illegally hold onto your money and earn interest on it whilst the mistake's being investigated. Eventually if the omb rule in your favour, all you get is your money back, nothing to help with the inconvenience of having to write letters and make phone calls, or being without the money the bank mistakenly removed from your account.

This means that there is no incentive for the bank to sort problems with their system out. Thanks to the omb the worse they can expect is the few people who do complain just get they money back if the bank makes an error. Its like me robbing peoples homes and only a small amount of house owners reporting it. When the police bang at my door all I do is give them the good back and everything's ok.

Also how about some common sense, my OH reveived letters from the BOS about having to pay £0.00 or she'll get a default, obvioulsy a computer error, despite our best efforts BOS went ahead and registered a default for failure to pay £0.00! This happened over a year ago, initally despite me writting to the omb quoting parts of CCA with regards to correctly serving defaults, they intially ruled in BOS's favour! We'll appealling it and are STILL waiting a reply. Meanwhile my OH can't even change bank accounts, take out a mobile phone contract thanks to the default. Its nothing short of ridiculous.

liverpoollad75

I do not understand why the FSO is actually around. It is a biased organisation that always rules in favour of the financial industry. To be honest I am not suprised. How can you have a independent person to view the complaint when the ombudsman is actually a member of a finanical institution. Ie if the complaint is about insurance the FSO is a member of the insurance industry, if the complaints about a financial institution then a banker etc etc will take the case up.

its the same with the press complaints commission, all about jobs for the boys

maybe one day we can actually have an independent FSO, until then we will all be well and truly shafted

scouselad1974

Hi

I to currently have no faith in The FOS. I have had the misfortune of having to use this service a couple of times in the past two years.

Yes it does take far to long and TBH I feel that the service is a complete waste of time. On the first occasion that I used the service, the adjudicator went in my favour, but the company in question didn't like that decision, so the Ombudsman overturned the decision in their favour going against their own guidlines, guidlines taken from their own fact sheets :mad:

My second complaint is still ongoing but currently The Adjudicator I have been landed with is taking the side of The Bank rather than a National Debt Charity who have all of the required evidence that he needs, to see that The Bank are lying. This adjudicator doesn't seem to know the OFT guidlines on debt, even though I have pointed them out to him on numerous occasions.

So at the moment I'm sorry to say that I have no faith in the service at all and TBH with the result I ended up with, I may as well of gone it alone.

Friday_Girl

Hi Martin,

I actually have proof in writing, that the adjudicator dealing with my case against the Nationwide was working with them, and lying to me.

I took the Nationwide to court myself last year, and won, they were disgraceful. It was only when I requested All correspondence between the FSO and Nationwide, that I found out the truth of what had been taking place.
I had complained about both the adjudicator and the Ombudsman's behaviour at the time, but ranks were closed, so there was no point in saying anything to them afterwards, despite having proof.

Who does one take it to - other than the FSO themselves, what other choice is there?

How many people have been robbed, not once by whatever financial institution they are complaining about, but again by this particular adjudicator, and he won't be the only one doing it, that's for sure!

You're more than welcome to the evidence if you want to persue it on behalf of others.

Bigal_2

They need to speed up their responses drastically and they should be much more tough with the industry. Very often they cave in' such as with bank charges. In particular, look at CRAs. They act as though independent and yet are in the pockets of the banks. Try and get info changed and it is nigh on impossible if an awkward creditor decided that they are going to record adverse information. For example, I had two credit card balances written off by DCAs due to enforceability and yet the "defaults" still appear on the CRA files.

fthl

I think it is possible that some adjudicators are not quite up to scratch. Possibly due to the salary offered. Might be worth looking at.