MSE News: Retail ombudsman service launches today

ConsumerGuy0016

hollydays wrote: »

Mse paloma has worked for david rice media and mirror trinity group

No surprise then that the Owner, founder and chief profiteer of The Retail Ombudsman also works there:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/dean-dunham-lawyer-stars-joins-4295499

"Visit Dean’s website at consumeruk.co.uk or email your legal problems to askdean@trinitymirror.com"

frugal_mike

Given that the Sale of Goods rights and Consumer Contracts Regulations rights can't be contracted out I would be very disappointed if they could be suppressed by a private business acting without legislation backing it up.

I wonder whether retailers will start insisting that all claims go through this ombudsman or they won't pay out, forcing people to go straight to court if they don't want to go through the ombudsman. The prospect of court may make some people give up and go through the ombudsman.

Hopefully these are all just conspiracy theories, but this does look more than a little dodgy.

gik

ML has sold this site and moved on long ago despite still paying lipservice to this site. We now have a ragbag of MSE staff who wander through the forum and steal peoples posts/ideas/finds and stick it in a weekly newsletter.


MSE has gone downhill. When questioned on such a simple thing about a missing St Andrews day banner there's no reply from MSE towers. Why not hold your hands up?

keyser666

gik wrote: »

ML has sold this site and moved on long ago despite still paying lipservice to this site. We now have a ragbag of MSE staff who wander through the forum and steal peoples posts/ideas/finds and stick it in a weekly newsletter.


MSE has gone downhill. When questioned on such a simple thing about a missing St Andrews day banner there's no reply from MSE towers. Why not hold your hands up?

Exactly this

keyser666

Seems MSE must have a connection to this considering when these companies and websites were setup and they are so quick to promote it.

Also I feel it is a conflict of interest that companies pay to be a member.

ConsumerGuy0016

Ooh seems the initial MSE posts on this thread have resulted in an update on the TRO website:

UPDATE – 2 JANUARY 2015
Following a query on the question of the consumer taking their case to court if they fail to win the backing of The Retail Ombudsman, we have provided an answer which we hope leaves no ambiguity.

If the consumer doesn’t win can they go to court afterwards?

If the consumer agrees to be bound by the decision of the caseworker or ombudsman, they cannot then go to court at a later date.

However, if they disagree with the decision of the caseworker or ombudsman, they can either appeal it and then take it to court if the appeal fails. Or by-pass the appeal process and go straight to court."

The press release in general (link above) reads poorly, is written in childish fonts/colours and is riddled with spelling mistakes.

It's safe to say, in any case, that an organisation that appoints a convicted phone hacker Neville Thurlbeck as their Director of Communications probably hasn't done their due diligence; be that proof-reading press releases, or hiring executive staff.

visidigi

ConsumerGuy0016 wrote: »

" TRO expects to investigate more than 100,000 customer complaints in its first year."

"companies will have to pay a £45 complaint handling fee per complaint processed"

= £4.5 million pound earned by TRO in fees from retailers

In addition:

"member retailers.. pay between £100 and £2,600 annually" and "it already has 3,000 retailers signed up as members." Best estimate, say an average of £750-800

= £2.35 million pound earned by TRO in retailer membership

According to Dean Dunham's Twitter, TRO employs 40 staff.

Based on my experience of dealing with the case handlers at the Telecoms Ombudsman and subsequently looking up their credentials, or lack of, on LinkedIn I noticed a majority of them did not have university degrees, I can't foresee the case handlers being paid anything above £30,000 a year. Rough guess:

= £1.2 - 1.5 million in non-executive wages then add some more for rent, overheads and other costs and you're still looking at...

= a Fat profit for Dean Dunham and the rest of the executives who have set up this brilliant profit-making venture, asked MSE to advertise it, and will no doubt convince unwitting consumers to follow its shoddy ADR whilst it rakes in the monies.

What is it about university degrees with you?

Why does someone need a piece of paper and 3-5 years of debt to be able to earn good money? Why does a lack of degree drive their wages? That's such an archaic way of thinking.

The problem with people with degrees in today's market is that they feel they are entitled to a job because they have a piece of paper and set themselves up for 3-5 years of debt.

The idea that people with degrees are better than others is just stupid, there is nothing worse that someone who goes round saying ' I have a degree from XX and that makes me better than you' - they are the candidates that get binned straight away and their cards are marked for any future applications.

hollydays

" Many people turn to the Internet in times of dispute to find out what their rights are. This poses a significant problem for the retail sector as a large proportion of these consumers find the wrong answer online. Armed with this information, they pursue their complaint via your customer services team and refuse to accept that they are wrong."


As regards this quote , provided by consumer guy, it seems that the company retail ombudsman are using the said same Internet to correct their errors , rather than their 40 staff (!)
I notice the " mamma and papas" howler has been corrected this morning.
However , some of their of their other misspellings have not been corrected .

So are they doing this site on the cheap...isn't their address a rent an office by the hour/ day company?

What I find strange is despite them saying there is a code of conduct their retail members need to adhere to , the code of conduct isn't shown?

Former_MSE_Paloma

Hi there,

Thank you for your comments regarding the story on The Retail Ombudsman (TRO).

MSE specifically asked TRO whether it's decision is final or whether complainants would be able to take further legal action (as is the case with other Ombudsman schemes). It initially told us that its decision is binding on the parties and it is final, so if either party was not happy with the outcome, they could not take the complaint to court.

However, once the story was published, TRO got in touch to say it had given us incorrect information and that once a decision had been made, if it's not accepted, it could be pursued though the courts. As a result the story was changed after ConsumerGuy0016 posted a reply to the article.

I'm going to get in touch with TRO on Monday morning to triple check this point.

Many thanks, MSE Paloma.

Update 12.36pm 5 January: Interestingly, the questions MSE sent to TRO on 17 Dec formed the basis of their press release which was updated on 2 Jan...

I've been in touch with TRO this morning raising some of the points posted in the forum. Once I hear back, I'll let you know.

unholyangel

Being honest I think MSE have more than likely made the mistake of poor journalism rather than actually promoting. But then I've noticed quite a few errors over the years in their reporting.

Whats likely happened is this company have sent their press release out and MSE havent done enough/any digging to find out everything behind it - after all their press release (from what I remember any way) carefully points out there are several ways a ombudsman can be founded under the heading "how has tro been formed?" but doesnt actually go on to say how tro was formed!

Call me sceptical, but I don't trust any company that words things in such a way - just makes it look like they're trying to deceive. Of course I've been thinking they're not trustworthy since the whole binding the consumer to their decision thing.

Apparently dunham has experience of (as a solicitor) criminal fraud, defamation, commercial litigation, media entertainment and sport and banking. I wonder if thats any indication on how he became acquainted with neville