MSE News: Retail ombudsman service launches today

ConsumerGuy0016

http://www.theretailombudsman.org.uk/page/initial-complaints-first-page.html

The link above lists out some of the companies that the Retail Ombudsman covers.

What is confusing is that Vodafone, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc are covered by other Ombudsman - what stops Vodafone for example, referring customers to the Retail Ombudsman instead of the Telecoms Ombudsman, if they are aware that the Retail Ombudsman charges less per complaint and has more retailer-friendly complaint handlers?

George_Michael

wealdroam wrote: »

What basic mistakes they are making

Another basic mistake is that they expect people to submit information via an insecure webpage. (http, not https).

All in all, it appears to be a micky mouse outfit attempting to make consumers think it is a professional setup.

hollydays

ConsumerGuy0016 wrote: »

http://www.theretailombudsman.org.uk/page/initial-complaints-first-page.html

The link above lists out some of the companies that the Retail Ombudsman covers.

What is confusing is that Vodafone, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc are covered by other Ombudsman - what stops Vodafone for example, referring customers to the Retail Ombudsman instead of the Telecoms Ombudsman, if they are aware that the Retail Ombudsman charges less per complaint and has more retailer-friendly complaint handlers?

No, these are the companies they are " saying " they cover..but it's not neccesarily true.

keyser666

You can see which companies are signed up if you do a pretend claim as you can choose them from the list

hollydays

keyser666 wrote: »

You can see which companies are signed up if you do a pretend claim as you can choose them from the list

But some of those companies are not backing the scheme -so how do we know any of them are?

Takeaway_Addict

Loving your effort on this Hollydays.

hollydays

I'm a little disappointed mse Paloma hasn't come back with responses to our questions yet, but had edited the original header this morning.

hollydays

From my paper copy of yesterday's Sunday times by Anna Mikhailova- Article entitled RETAILERS SHUN NEW WATCHDOG
" The Retail giants Amazon and Topshop , for example, are not signing up and Sainsburys also said this weekend that it was not planning to take part."


Strange that they are named in that list, no?

That article continues"based in Northampton with a staff of 37, the ombudsman is the first watchdog founded to provide protection for shoppers. Until now they have been at the mercy of retailers, who can make it difficult to complain about poor service or get a refund"

In addition , in the Money section of the times anna mikhailova adds " Dunham said , though, he would consider naming and shaming those who are worst on customer issues and handling complaints if more did not register. "

Er..there's a name for that isn't there?



. Also now allegedly " Members can be fined for failing to follow the code of practice"

I wonder if anybody checked directly, how many of these retailers have signed up.......that's the question I asked mse Paloma to answer..

wealdroam

Many of us will have missed this update to MSE Paloma's earlier post:

MSE_Paloma wrote: »

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.

There is also a thread on ConsumerActionGroup which has similar reservations to those expressed in this thread.

Former_MSE_Paloma

We’ve updated the news story after putting some of the questions raised in this story to TRO.

The telephone number has been changed to an 03 number, and we’ve also indicated that the funds paid by members are used to run the scheme, which is not-for-profit.

We’ve asked about TRO’s code of conduct and been advised that it will be available on its website, but that at present the download has been taken down while it is updated.

As for the list of retailers already signed up - TRO has declined to confirm any members. Obviously we asked prior to publication of the first version of the story and we've repeated the question since to no avail.