Endowment Complaints Claims Companies

Supermum_4-2

Hi

Has anyone else had a problem getting out of their contracts with complaints handling companies? I signed up with one last year, couldn't believe how little they did and still took a huge chunk of my compensation. I have another endowment where the complaint wasn't upheld which I now want to follow up directly as I don't think they represented me correctly, they couldn't even get my name right on the letter they sent. But how do I get out of paying them anything I get, there doesn't appear to be anyway of stopping their service unless I'd cancelled within 14 days of signing up with them.

defender_of_the_weak

If your case has already been rejected then the question of going to fos is a separate issue. Just write and tell them you do not want them to act further.

We have an uphold rate with fos over 70%, but having to redo all the paperwork and writing explanations to adjudicators who are clearly not trained in financial services is a complete pain that we are quite happy to miss if a client requests

Supermum_4-2

Unfortunately, that's not what the company I signed up with told me. They've said even if I take it on myself now I still have to pay them their fees if I suceed with any claim. And the best bit is if I want to cancel they will charge £800 anyway. I can't win either way. Guess I'll just have to put this down to pure stupidity on my part for believing their rubbish marketing literature and not researching the market properly beforehand. Others beware.

defender_of_the_weak

This company should be regulated as of April and one of the new rules is that they can only charge 'what is reasonable' for the work undertaken. They should also permit the client to withdraw at any time subject to the possible charge of reasonable fees above.

£800 for a failed case is unreasonable and probably against the Unfair Terms in Consumer contracts legislation, 1995 if memory serves.

If you decide to go it alone then your case will not complete until well past the new legislation and regulation comes into force. If they try and enforce any payment let them try it in court.

Name and shame them on here

toonfish

defender_of_the_weak wrote:

This company should be regulated as of April and one of the new rules is that they can only charge 'what is reasonable' for the work undertaken. They should also permit the client to withdraw at any time subject to the possible charge of reasonable fees above.

£800 for a failed case is unreasonable and probably against the Unfair Terms in Consumer contracts legislation, 1995 if memory serves.

If you decide to go it alone then your case will not complete until well past the new legislation and regulation comes into force. If they try and enforce any payment let them try it in court.

Name and shame them on here

to be fair £800 may or may not be unreasonable, depending on how much work has already been undertaken.

dunstonh

Sounds a bit like the company that went after someone for nearly £900 when the redress payment was just 96p.

We were shown that file and the letter sent originally was just a standard template with every possible potential area that could be mis-sold on there whether it applied or not (including finishing after age 65, when the policy finished in their 40s). 2 minutes work on anyone's PC.

DOTW, its funny in a way that you must be getting rather irritated by these sorts of companies giving your industry a bad name in much the same way as the bad apples on our side of it.

defender_of_the_weak

Toonfish. I know where you are coming from but if you advertise as 'no win no fee' as undoubtedly this company has, then if you don't win you dont get paid. Its a commercial risk you take on accepting someones case. they cannot then say 'sorry we were rubbish but if you get lucky we would like to get paid anyway.

Dunston, some of the practices of other companies does indeed irritate, in exactly the same way as financial advisers were characterised as 'commission hungry salesmen'. I have trained hundreds of people in the industry and in the main most of them want to do a proper job and earn a decent wage. It was mentioned elsewhere in mayb's comments regarding fraud and is not the case in the majority of cases. The key reason is the ignorance of the salesforce and lack of funding for training that led to people selling things they did not truly understand.

Anyway, hopefully regulation will get rid of some of these companies in the very near future

Regards

DOTW A professional grumpy old man

defender_of_the_weak

Toonfish. I know where you are coming from but if you advertise as 'no win no fee' as undoubtedly this company has, then if you don't win you dont get paid. Its a commercial risk you take on accepting someones case. they cannot then say 'sorry we were rubbish but if you get lucky we would like to get paid anyway.

Dunston, some of the practices of other companies does indeed irritate, in exactly the same way as financial advisers were characterised as 'commission hungry salesmen'. I have trained hundreds of people in the industry and in the main most of them want to do a proper job and earn a decent wage. It was mentioned elsewhere in mayb's comments regarding fraud and is not the case in the majority of cases. The key reason is the ignorance of the salesforce and lack of funding for training that led to people selling things they did not truly understand.

Anyway, hopefully regulation will get rid of some of these companies in the very near future

Regards

DOTW A professional grumpy old man

Supermum_4-2

Thanks for all the comments left which I'm just picking up. I wasn't aware that these companies will have to be regulated in April which is great news for suckers like me.

Does anyone know if consumers can then claim back some of the exceptional fees these companies have taken for sending off standard letters? Would love to get some redress for being ripped off if at all possible.