Consumer Power: Want to ask the Financial Ombudsman a question?

AdrianFitz

I raised a complaint with the FOS regarding the behaviour of Fortis Lease relating to the Lease on a car i purchased. The summary of the case is that FL stated in a telephone call that a cheque issued by the "buyer" of the car from me had been cleared. I released all keys, V5 etc of the car to the new "owner". FL informs 6-weeks after the inital confirmation that actually the cheque had "bounced" and that I owed them a lot of money. The new keeper of the car refused to pay, and also refused to return the car to me. I asked for FL to assist in recovering the car as they were actually the owner, as I could not get the police to do anything as it was a civil matter. FL wouldn't help recover the vehicle stating it was nothing to do with them. FL then sent balif letters to me ordering that I pay the debt. I used a solicitor to protect me against the increasing threats of FL and to try and obtain possesion of the car which failed as I was now neither registered keeper or owner. Eventually through various discussions with the balifs employed by FL, I found that they could uplift the vehicle on behalf of FL from the new keeper for a few hundred pounds. Car was collected, sold at auction. Loss to FL £ 800 Loss to me £ 4500. Initial FOS report stated "usual resolution would be to put Mr F into the position he would have been in if the correct information had been given during the initial communication". So how much did the FOS award to me - £ 0. I appealed - the new report (much, much shorter) issued 11-months later - we agree - award = £ 0. So now I'm £ 4500 out of pocket, and the FOS has said that is the end of their "investigation" - so where do I now complain about Fortis Lease's appalling behaviour and the poor service from FOS?

lorrars

why are so many lenders still charging high rates for mortgages when the BOE base rate is so low?

shortchanged_2

Is the FOS genuinely impartial?

klf268

I have recently noticed (due to moving house) on my Santander credit card going back commencing March 2010 that i have unidentified transactions debited from my card from different companies from the US, i have obviously spoken to Santander and cancelled my card and sent back the forms, however received a responce that they will not be refunding me as its over 3 months and told me to speak to the companies involved, i did this and looked them up on the Internet (they where pop up sites), the total amount of transactions adds up to £200+.....I am still awaiting to find out about June and July.....what can i do?

Look forward to receiving a responce.

Regards

bishbosher

i took out a endowment mortgage in 1991 which i still have. i applied to ombudsman for compensation in 2003 only to be told that because i no longer used the endowment as a mortgage vehicle i could not apply for compensation. i feel i am being punished for being sensible by making alternative arrangements to cover my mortgage shortfall at my expense.
i dont see what difference it makes if the endowment is used for a mortgage or any other reason i was still mis-sold and have made a substantial loss through no fault of my own.
my policy has 5 years to go but at the last statement was valued at less than half the original target.

Equaliser123

Errrr. This isn't a thread about individual issues! Read the first post.

psychobabble_2

Given that the FSA ordered automatic refunds of the extortionate increases in some MPPI policies last year, and that the deadline for such refunds was JUNE 2010, can I ask why British Insurance have yet to issue a refund:


"We acknowledge that a timeframe was set by the FSA in relation to the agreement, but as a broker we cannot enforce the actions of the insurers in relation to this timetable.
Nevertheless we have been proactive and have attempted to engage both the insurers and the FSA in dialogue to reach a resolution or to at least have some further information which we can provide to clients. Regrettably at this moment we are still awaiting information from the insurers and are therefore unable to provide you with anything new."

quoted from an e-mail response received from BI

This is a disgraceful situation borne out of disgraceful behaviour at the outset and needs rectifying ASAP.

Mrs Alex Holgate

Rhiananders

Is it right that a deceased person's cash card can be used to withdraw cash a week after the bank were given the death certificate?

Goni

Hi , i was wondering if you could suggest something for our financial situation. We bought our house nearly 3 years ago.The previous house we lived in was mortgaged by the same building society. It was on sale but not sold.as we had to pay for 2 houses we told the bank manager that we could not pay more than £2000 per month for both houses and we would only proceed with buying the new house if our total mortgage payments for the 2 houses did not exceed £2000. !The bank manager at the time assured us that our payments would not exceed this amount. He showed us rough paperwork in office and we bought the new house. At this time my terminally ill father in law was staying with us . Unfortunately he died a few weeks later and we were preoccupied. My husband had to fly back to india with the dead body. I was on maternity leave at the moment. I realized 5 months later that we were still being charged extra. On enquiring I was told that the manager had left and this was the deal we agreed to. It was our word against their's . The manager had left and was working for huddersfield branch. I rang there but he avoided me. I wrote to Ybs and in their letter they said there was nothing on paper and we had not understood them and we could complain to omdudsman. With no proof just the managers word we've had no choice but to just carry on. We feel betrayed and lied to and it has really affected our financial situation and our well being. We 've been under constant stress since.is this it? Can the managers lie and get away with it? Please advice. We had to put our 2nd house for rent until it would finally be sold. I wad told by ybs that if I did not go through a renting agency/broker I would be charged 2 percent extra interest . When I worked out this 2 percent it was approx same as what the agent would charge. So we 've been paying this since. As our financial situation has not improved I've asked them to send paperwork needed for letting agents. I was shocked to see that we could get a solicitor to arrange all this . It would have cost approx £100 as cf what they've charged over more than one and a half years. We're supposed to be on std variable rate and still paying 4.99 percent on one house and 6.99percent on the other. R we just supposed to say that it was our bad luck or is there someone who can shed some light on our situation as we feel we r hard done by.......S!

P-G_2

1. Why are Adjudicators and Ombudsmen not required to have financial services qualifications ? (latest FOS advert)

2. What qualifications and experience are actually required to be an Adjudicator ? Is it true that FOS declined to give this information to 'Money Marketing' even though the FSA did provide such information ?

3. 1000+ Adjudicators and Ombudsmen reached 163,000 decisions last year. There MUST have been SOME mistakes. Why is there no appeals process at FOS ? ( Referring a case from Adjudicator to Ombudsman is not an independent appeal, especially if the reference was made because the Adjudicator was incompetent, in which case only one competent person will have judged the case)

4. Why does FOS not publish its guidelines so that consumers can be aware of what they are ? Lord Hunt suggested this be done with the 'FOSBOOK' in his Independent Review of the FOS, suggesting such a document would help FOS staff as well as the public. What progress has been made with this ?

5. Why does FOS not check a firm's compensation calculations, (generally speaking these are not specifically checked) ordinary consumers have no way to check them ? Getting calculations confirmed as reasonable by an independent expert is why some people go to the FOS

6. Why does " The FOS take the view that there is a fundamental distinction between a situation where the firm has made a settlement offer, and one where no offer has been made and the FOS award compensation". (quotation from a letter from the Independent Assessor dated 21/11/2007). This means a firm which makes an offer can sneak though paying less compensation than FOS guidelines would require if imposed.

7. If an Ombudsman accepts a firm's compensation without checking the calculations, how can he be sure the offer is fair and reasonable ?

8. Why is the FOS allowed to simply ignore the Independent Assessor when she is concerned about an issue and asks for an explanation ?

9. Why is the Independent Assessor's address, phone, fax and email kept secret ? She has to be contacted by a PO BOX number. The recent job advert tells us she is based at FOS HQ and uses FOS staff.

10. All Banks and firms use highly qualified and experienced professionals to handle their side of customer disputes. Probably more knowledgeable than many FOS staff. Why does the FOS expect a ordinary consumers without extensive financial knowledge to put their case "in their own words". FOS discourages consumers from using a professional adviser, even in a complex financial dispute ? Is this not bias in favour of the firms ?

11. The FOS Annual Review tells us that 5 out of 6 potential disputes (760,000 last year) never reach an Adjudicator or Ombudsman because they are handled by FOS Customer Service staff using call centre technology. What qualifications do these junior staff have to decide if a complaint warrants proper investigation or not ? What audit is made of these 760,000 cases to ensure no mistakes have been made, so that these can be corrected ?

12. IFA's have professional qualifications which take years of training and examinations to achieve. These must be kept up to date to maintain the qualification. How can FOS staff make decisions about these professionals unless they have the same knowledge ?

13. Why is the burden of proof different for the consumer and the firm ? To win the argument the consumer must show that he is more likely to be correct, not just as likely. So if the arguments are equally balanced FOS finds for the firm.

14. Is it true that Adjudicators are only paid their bonus if they resolve a certain number of cases every week or month ? Surely this must pressurise them to rush their work ?

15. If a consumer accepts an Ombudsman's decision, then finds that the Ombudsman withheld information which would have caused the consumer to REJECT the Ombudsman's decision, why can the case not be reviewed, especially when the Independent Assessor agrees that there is an issue and has also asked FOS to review how the decision was reached ?

16. Why has the Service Review Team been discontinued ?

17. Lord Hunt suggested that some cases could be re-opened if new evidence is forthcoming, what is the procedure to have a case re-opened ?

18. Why does the FOS not advise consumers that they may ask for a Judicial Review of the Ombudsman's Decision if they do not like the way the decision was reached ? Many ordinary people will not know of this (admittedy hugely expensive) option.

19. Now that the Service Review Team has gone, are there plans to give the Independent Assessor more authority and credibility ? The IA is appointed by, and paid by the FOS, the very people she is regulating, so it's difficult to see her as truly independent. She has no real authority as FOS can simply ignore her requests and refuse to accept her 'recommendations'.

20. The FOS apparently publishes guidance to help firms and consumers to settle cases between themselves without needing to come to the ombudsman service. Where is this guidance published please ? and are Adjudicators required to check that settlement has at least been been attempted, using the published FOS guidance material ?