help wanted - Portman and Financial Ombudsman

kismetkaz

Hi there. I would appreciate some advice on an issue I have with the Portman Building Society. In brief, I had a Portman account, the book showed £25.02 balance so I closed it and got back a cheque for £100.18. There had been a s/o for £75 gone in 2 years ago and the book had not been updated. In my letter to Portman I stated "please close this account as ithe balance does not qualify for the merger bonus" I rang Portman to complain that they should have notified me that the balance was £100 and did qualify. they escalated it to a complaint and Head Office did nothing and referred me to Financial Ombudsman.

I completed their form and asked that my Portman account be reinstated so that I qualified for £160 merger bonus and then a Nationwide accountn due course, failing that I asked for £160.

i have now had a letter from Portman, as they have been contacted by FO and Portman have now offered me a cheque for £160.

My thoughts are that I should accept this as this was all I wanted, by my mother thinks that the FO may award me more. i do not want to be greedy, I only wanted the bonus of £160.

What does anybody else think, or can you point me elsewhere for advice??

bristolleedsfan

kismetkaz wrote: »

Hi there. I would appreciate some advice on an issue I have with the Portman Building Society. In brief, I had a Portman account, the book showed £25.02 balance so I closed it and got back a cheque for £100.18. There had been a s/o for £75 gone in 2 years ago and the book had not been updated. In my letter to Portman I stated "please close this account as ithe balance does not qualify for the merger bonus" I rang Portman to complain that they should have notified me that the balance was £100 and did qualify. they escalated it to a complaint and Head Office did nothing and referred me to Financial Ombudsman.

I completed their form and asked that my Portman account be reinstated so that I qualified for £160 merger bonus and then a Nationwide accountn due course, failing that I asked for £160.

i have now had a letter from Portman, as they have been contacted by FO and Portman have now offered me a cheque for £160.

My thoughts are that I should accept this as this was all I wanted, by my mother thinks that the FO may award me more. i do not want to be greedy, I only wanted the bonus of £160.

What does anybody else think, or can you point me elsewhere for advice??

theve offered u what u asked for so i believe u should take it and count yourself lucky imo;)

tom188

be grateful.

baby_boomer

Yes. Well done. You got the right result and justice was done.

On what grounds could you justifiably claim more?

I suggest you count your blessings and ask what our poisonous compensation culture is doing to your soul .

Why should you involve the Financial Ombudsman - which would cost Portman (that's your fellow members BTW, not some anonymous shareholders) over £1,000 ?

In this case, fortunately for the rest of us, the Ombudsman would laugh in your face.

kismetkaz

""In this case, fortunately for the rest of us, the Ombudsman would laugh in your face""

Why do you have to reply in this manner?, I am not a greedy person, I just want Portman to be responsible for their actions. I accept part of the blame, but I felt that they should respond to the fact that I believed the account to be under £100 and their latest letter acknowledges that fact.

I wrote my original letter of complaint and got a standard response which did not even refer to my personal complaint and a leaflet for the Ombudsman. They told me that the only way they would look into it further was if the Ombudsman were involved. Portman could not have cared less about me, so that is why I went to the Ombudsman who have obviously contacted the Portman which has prompted their offer. They must feel that the Ombudsman would rule against them or they would not have offered it.

I was just looking for advice as to what other people would do in my situation before I accepted the offer. I asked for my merger bonus and got it, so I am quite happy and not interested in anything else, apart from the fact that I will not have an account with nationwide after the merger.

I don't come onto this website trying to screw companies out of money, I will leave that to the rest of you. The only thing I ever look up on here is Tesco vouchers and they screw the farmers so I am happy to screw them.

I wont bother coming here for advice again if all I get is insults from morons

bristolleedsfan

kismetkaz wrote: »

""In this case, fortunately for the rest of us, the Ombudsman would laugh in your face""

Why do you have to reply in this manner?, I am not a greedy person, I just want Portman to be responsible for their actions. I accept part of the blame, but I felt that they should respond to the fact that I believed the account to be under £100 and their latest letter acknowledges that fact.

I wrote my original letter of complaint and got a standard response which did not even refer to my personal complaint and a leaflet for the Ombudsman. They told me that the only way they would look into it further was if the Ombudsman were involved. Portman could not have cared less about me, so that is why I went to the Ombudsman who have obviously contacted the Portman which has prompted their offer. They must feel that the Ombudsman would rule against them or they would not have offered it.

I was just looking for advice as to what other people would do in my situation before I accepted the offer. I asked for my merger bonus and got it, so I am quite happy and not interested in anything else, apart from the fact that I will not have an account with nationwide after the merger.

I don't come onto this website trying to screw companies out of money, I will leave that to the rest of you. The only thing I ever look up on here is Tesco vouchers and they screw the farmers so I am happy to screw them.

I wont bother coming here for advice again if all I get is insults from morons

while risking your apparent wrath, re your point that u wont have a nationwide account, u may not be aware that for several years u could have opened a nationwide account with 1.00+ investment, furthermore you could open a nationwide account today with 1.00+ investment

whats interesting is u initiated your own complaint re portman without asking peoples advice on here, u went to the ombudsman without asking anyone on here, after being offered what u asked for u decided to ask peoples opinions on here, uve declared yourself not to be a greedy person, in your own mind when u was thinking about whether u should receive xtra compensation only u would know if the issue has caused yourself pathological stress/ depression/ sleepless nights / unpaid time off work etc etc

baby_boomer

kismetkaz wrote:

i do not want to be greedy, I only wanted the bonus of £160

Which you'd already got before posting here.

You can open a Nationwide account tomorrow & gain membership tomorrow, if you want one badly enough.

The Financial Ombudsman will not deal with "membership issues" and won't want to want to rule on any alleged "benefit" of non-signway Nationwide membership versus signaway Nationwide membership.

kismetkaz

I am not an idiot, I am well aware of how to open a Nationwide account. What you do not appear to be aware of is that whilst Nationwide accounts can be opened, in more recent years you have been forced to sign away your rights to any money or shares should the Nationwide ever convert or be taken over. I know this as I had my mortgage with them a couple of years ago. However, Portman accounts will be taken on as if they were longstanding Nationwide accounts and will therefore qualify for any future bonus'.

Just thought I would add this information in case anybody does not realise this, as you two obviously don't.

I just felt that Portman's actions in closing my account in error meant that they had also deprived me of any future Nationwide bonus. That was my only concern. However I have more important things to worry about.

I wish that I had never asked for any advice on here. I previously used another forum and the people on there were much friendlier than on here and I was not subjected to abuse for asking a simple question. I thought I would try this website as it was recommended on Jeremy Vine's show on radio 2, but I wish I hadn't come on here now.

Don't bother replying to this as I won't be looking at the thread again.

bristolleedsfan

kismetkaz wrote: »

I am not an idiot, I am well aware of how to open a Nationwide account. What you do not appear to be aware of is that whilst Nationwide accounts can be opened, in more recent years you have been forced to sign away your rights to any money or shares should the Nationwide ever convert or be taken over. I know this as I had my mortgage with them a couple of years ago. However, Portman accounts will be taken on as if they were longstanding Nationwide accounts and will therefore qualify for any future bonus'.

Just thought I would add this information in case anybody does not realise this, as you two obviously don't.

I just felt that Portman's actions in closing my account in error meant that they had also deprived me of any future Nationwide bonus. That was my only concern. However I have more important things to worry about.

I wish that I had never asked for any advice on here. I previously used another forum and the people on there were much friendlier than on here and I was not subjected to abuse for asking a simple question. I thought I would try this website as it was recommended on Jeremy Vine's show on radio 2, but I wish I hadn't come on here now.

Don't bother replying to this as I won't be looking at the thread again.

we did know that nationwide have continually stated that they will be staying as a building society, so the bonus issue is a non issue

EdInvestor

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

we did know that nationwide have continually stated that they will be staying as a building society, so the bonus issue is a non issue

What nonsense. All the mutuals say that, right up to the day they decide to convert or merge.

kismetkaz has acted quite properly - it was the Portman that escalated the matter to a complaint at the FOS, not him.

I completed their form and asked that my Portman account be reinstated so that I qualified for £160 merger bonus and then a Nationwide accountn due course, failing that I asked for £160.i have now had a letter from Portman, as they have been contacted by FO and Portman have now offered me a cheque for £160.

Surely the correct position is the first one: KK's account is reinstated with the 100 quid in it and converted to a non signaway Nationwide account, plus he receives the 160 quid merger bonus, ie 260 quid in all.

Can't see how that would be described as greedy.It was Portman that made the mistake.

thumshie

The OP made the initial mistake is not getting his book updated to check if he was eligible. Just because he says in his letter he is in-eligible the bonus, I don’t see that Portman should check this. After all if he wrote that he wants to close the account because he’s opened a new account with Icesave, should the Portman check he’s got an account with them?? They’ve read the first bit ‘please close my account’ and processed that request, checking that the OP is correct in any assumption they have made is – in my opinion – not down to the Portman.

The OP must have contacted the FO, they would not get involved randomly.

kismetkaz wrote:

that is why I went to the Ombudsman who

kismetkaz wrote:

failing that I asked for £160

So you gave them two options, they have chosen one of them, and now you want to say 'Sorry, you must choose door number 1???'