Totally Exasperated !!!

razin

Scottish Equitable/Cavendish Online.
In January this year (2006) I applied for lump sum stakeholder pensions for my wife and myself.
I completed the applications and submitted them with all necessary details and payments to Cavendish Online. I received their confirmation in a letter dated 17th.January.
I then received another letter dated 27th. January from Cavendish, enclosed were letters from SE requesting evidence of earnings which Cavendish confirmed had already been submitted, also receipts for our payments.
On 1st. February I replied by e-mail asking for confirmation that SE had indeed received the appropriate details.
I heard nothing, so on 19th. April, I e-mailed Cavendish asking for a situation update. Again on 2nd May I e-mailed asking for a response. Cavendish replied saying "we have chased SE on 26th. April and are waiting for a call back from them".
On 6th.June I e-mailed again pointing out that I had received no pension policies or any details whatsoever, other than a receipt, and said "The delay in receiving our policies has left us without the ability to manage our investment and if, as a result of this, our investment value has dropped we reserve the right to claim compensation".
I received an immediate apology from Cavendish, bust still no concrete information. I then asked them to consider my complaint official, which they confirmed. Almost five months had now passed.
On the 8th.June Cavendish received a response from SE which included the following "I am currently arranging to cancel the refund cheques to enable us to apply the SPs to both policies".
On the 13th.June Cavendish advised me that the pensions had been approved and the premiums would be applied on the date of original receipt. (When the fund values were at their highest) Not as would have been appropriate, on the date of acceptance.
I imagine that as a result of this incompetence, my contributions had actually been placed on deposit in January (earning interest) and then invested in June, (when fund values had dropped) but were theoretically applied in January, no doubt providing SE with a useful windfall profit. Throughout this time I had no details, I had been unable to register the pensions online as they didn't exist until acceptance, and as a result feel we had no control over our investments.
On 21st June, through Cavendish, I received SE's official response to my complaint. It acknowledged the appalling service, pointing out that as far as they were concerned no "evidence of earnings" had been received and they had not been able to proceed. After 12 weeks funds were automatically refunded.
The letter did not accept full responsibility and I still do not know who was responsible.
SORRY, but this saga continues!!!!!!!
On the 29th. June I returned home to find three SE envelopes - perhaps it would be the pension policies - but no. All three contained "Your right to Change your mind" statements. two for my wife, one for myself BUT NO POLICIES. Difficult to make that kind of decision without them!!! I emailed Cavendish expressing my concerns. They replied on 7th. July failing to answer all the points in my previous email but making it clear that there was nothing I could do.
STILL NO POLICIES!!!!!!!
I sent my last email on 18th.September, to which I have received no response at all.
STILL NO POLICIES!!!!!!!
I then attempted to register online again and was successful, two days later I received logon details and decided to view the online details to find that my wife's pension showed the correct GROSS contribution, but, alas, mine showed only my NETT contribution.
I am really appalled to think that I have entrusted my savings to such an incompetent organisation. If they are incapable of running their administration efficiently how can they be entrusted to invest money on behalf of my wife, myself, and their numerous investors.
Any advice would be welcome as I am now completely exasperated after more than eight months - AND STILL NO POLICIES!!!!

EdInvestor

I expcet Dunstonh will have something to say about this: IIRC he has blacklisted Scot Eq for terrible service and refuses to do any business with them at all.

duckhunter

Have you tried ringing the person at SE who sent you the apology letter?

dunstonh

Yep, I have black listed Scot Eq. For many reasons but one was a pension transfer that went inforce with them 9th Jan 06 and I only got the policy documents last week. Actually, its the forth lot of documents with the first three had incorrect amounts.

They are such an incompetent bunch. You contact them and you get names of the person and they say they will do whatever and ring you back. They never ring back. You email them and they respond saying they will look into it and let you know... no response.

It got to the point where nothing they did was going through smoothly or accurately so I blacklisted them.

whiteflag_3

dunstonh wrote:

Yep, I have black listed Scot Eq. For many reasons but one was a pension transfer that went inforce with them 9th Jan 06 and I only got the policy documents last week. Actually, its the forth lot of documents with the first three had incorrect amounts.

They are such an incompetent bunch. You contact them and you get names of the person and they say they will do whatever and ring you back. They never ring back. You email them and they respond saying they will look into it and let you know... no response.

It got to the point where nothing they did was going through smoothly or accurately so I blacklisted them.

In the interest of fair play

As you know Dh my experience of Scot Eq is the complete opposite of yours.
I/my company wouldnt touch Norwich Union with a barge pole. It looks like where you operate from may effect the level of service you get from life companies.

Disappointed you dont think Cavendish are not partly responsible for the mess , you konwn low cost operation, lots of business , small fish in a big pond etc etc etc......................................................................................!


TRUE STORY - my fellow director called Scot Eq to get an amended pension quote at 4.55pm on tuesday, they said sorry a bit late to get it done today will email first thing . was in his in box @ 8.25 am this morning! :j

dunstonh

As you know Dh my experience of Scot Eq is the complete opposite of yours.

Totally. Most of my problems are down to two awful individuals who are allocated to look after accounts in this area.

I/my company wouldnt touch Norwich Union with a barge pole. It looks like where you operate from may effect the level of service you get from life companies.

Yet, as has been said before, I get a great service out of them and even have two named individuals to handle all my work.

Disappointed you dont think Cavendish are not partly responsible for the mess , you konwn low cost operation, lots of business , small fish in a big pond etc etc etc............................................... .......................................!

Its a valid point. The agent is there to handle the transaction whether advice is given or not. They can cop out on the advice side but they should still ensure that they are doing their best to get it through and under TCF should be documenting that.

L&G are also on my "pain in the !!!!" list at the moment although they havent quite made the ban list. AXA get on my nerves too but thats because I dislike the rep. Its a good job their onshore investment products are nothing special so I dont have to put anything with them on that front.

razin

Thank you for your comments confirming that I have probably made a poor decision!!!!
I could telephone but feel it best to keep everything in writing.
The question is - What can I do?

dunstonh

Ask Cavendish. After all, its what you are paying them for. Although, if you pay cheap, you get cheap.

Oh, for reference, Scot Eq send their pension policy documents to the adviser/broker. So Cavendish will have those. If they havent sent them to you, its not Scot Eqs fault.

It is the job of the adviser/broker to ensure a transaction goes smoothly. If it doesnt then the adviser/broker has to be seen to be doing as much as is reasonably possible to ensure that problems are resolved and you are kept informed. This would come under the FSA's TCF rules. At a recent compliance meeting we were informed that a complaint was upheld against an adviser recently because the mortgage company had made a load of errors. Whilst the adviser wasnt at fault at any of problems, the adviser didnt have enough documentary proof that they had tried to sort it out and keep the client informed of the situation. The ruling was made under the TCF rules and discount brokers still have to deal with TCF whether there is advice or not.