Friends Life have stopped collecting pension contributions

Blue_Parrot

30 Dec 2015: letter from Friends Life saying retirement date is June 2016. I phoned saying not retiring for two years. SALLY said I am deferring this to June 2018, no further action required.

No pension contribution was collected in July. The direct debit (usually activated on 1st of the month) on the bank account is marked Final. I phoned 6th July. ALEXANDER said they would collect the missing contribution, no further action required.

30th August I phoned. They have now missed July and August. DANIELLE said we'll re-start in September.

1st September, email from BECKY, saying this will take two weeks (me having completed and returned by email, new but identical DD mandate) but no further action required.

30th September, with no deduction for September, I left a Complaint on their website, using their on-line complaints facility, quoting all the above. No response whatsoever.

They have now failed to collect July August and September contributions and probably also October.

Any advice? (Apart from this naming and shaming.)

PeacefulWaters

Financial Ombudsmen Service.

ex-pat_scot

Blue_Parrot wrote: »

30 Dec 2015: letter from Friends Life saying retirement date is June 2016. I phoned saying not retiring for two years. SALLY said I am deferring this to June 2018, no further action required.

No pension contribution was collected in July. The direct debit (usually activated on 1st of the month) on the bank account is marked Final. I phoned 6th July. ALEXANDER said they would collect the missing contribution, no further action required.

30th August I phoned. They have now missed July and August. DANIELLE said we'll re-start in September.

1st September, email from BECKY, saying this will take two weeks (me having completed and returned by email, new but identical DD mandate) but no further action required.

30th September, with no deduction for September, I left a Complaint on their website, using their on-line complaints facility, quoting all the above. No response whatsoever.

They have now failed to collect July August and September contributions and probably also October.

Any advice? (Apart from this naming and shaming.)

Poor service and not really acceptable.


However give them a few days to respond to your complaint, before you escalate to FOS.


The process for complaints handling has recently changed (June this year), so they might still be coming to terms with the new response time SLAs.


Also - you do know that FL is now part of Aviva? In general, their complaints handling was pretty decent, when I had a look at it.

ScottyLP

The financial ombudsman may not be an option depending on what type of scheme you're a member of - but I would definitely wait for a response from their complaints team.

In terms of remedial action, if I was you I'd have them collect the missed payments BUT I would want them to back date the payments to the right dates to ensure I was in the correct position had their error not occurred.

You may also receive a trouble and upset payment for the inconvenience caused by their poor service.

xylophone

Make a formal complaint in writing and send it signed for.

https://www.friendslife.co.uk/managing-your-policy/complaints/

dunstonh

You cant jump to the FOS without giving them at least 8 weeks (or a final response from them) to answer your complaint.

Friends are poor on admin at the moment. Especially on the old Friends Provident side. They are moving a lot of their admin to Aviva methods. A lot of the forms now look like the Aviva forms. Mistakes are happening as you would expect in any major upheaval like that. It is how they deal with mistakes that matters.

As you have complained, you have done your bit. You would expect the complaints team to give you a response along the lines of correcting it for the future, honouring the unit prices as they were when you should have paid in by either asking you for the backpayment or perhaps (depending on amount) them paying for the backpayment as a goodwill gesture. If they dont do that, then they will usually offer you a goodwill gesture separately

As I have used the word Aviva in this thread, it will probably be picked up by the Aviva rep that monitors this board. They may well post on here, ask you to contact them quoting a reference where they can take details and pass it on to Friends for you.

Blue_Parrot

dunstonh wrote: »

You cant jump to the FOS without giving them at least 8 weeks (or a final response from them) to answer your complaint.

Friends are poor on admin at the moment. Especially on the old Friends Provident side. They are moving a lot of their admin to Aviva methods. A lot of the forms now look like the Aviva forms. Mistakes are happening as you would expect in any major upheaval like that. It is how they deal with mistakes that matters.

As you have complained, you have done your bit. You would expect the complaints team to give you a response along the lines of correcting it for the future, honouring the unit prices as they were when you should have paid in by either asking you for the backpayment or perhaps (depending on amount) them paying for the backpayment as a goodwill gesture. If they dont do that, then they will usually offer you a goodwill gesture separately

As I have used the word Aviva in this thread, it will probably be picked up by the Aviva rep that monitors this board. They may well post on here, ask you to contact them quoting a reference where they can take details and pass it on to Friends for you.

Thanks dunstonh and all others who have replied.

This pension policy is/was with Sun Life then Friends Life took it over. With "friends" like this, who needs enemies? They have not even sent through the list of expected contributions for this financial year, which usually comes in September, and is A LEGAL REQUIREMENT.

If your mentioning Aviva prods them into action, good. But what a poor show for me to have to name and shame on this website, to have someone pick it up?

[Deleted User]

Blue_Parrot wrote: »

Thanks dunstonh and all others who have replied.

This pension policy is/was with Sun Life then Friends Life took it over. With "friends" like this, who needs enemies? They have not even sent through the list of expected contributions for this financial year, which usually comes in September, and is A LEGAL REQUIREMENT.

If your mentioning Aviva prods them into action, good. But what a poor show for me to have to name and shame on this website, to have someone pick it up?

Hi Blue Parrot

I'm very sorry to see what has happened and as Dunstonh predicted we're here to help if you need us. If you would like us to help further can you please email us at social@aviva.co.uk and include your

Full name
Post code
Policy number

We can then follow up with the relevant team for you and ask them to get in contact.

If you could also include in your email your contact telephone number and your MSE username so we can link your email to your MSE post we will do all we can to help.

Kind regards

Dave
Aviva Social Media Team

Blue_Parrot

Having waited some time for a reply to the online complaint, yet another phone call was made to this lot on 24th November. This time a NICOLA took the call, made some apologies and promised that:

a. an email would be sent that day to confirm that:
b. payment deductions would recommence on December 1st.

Unbelievable but true. NO email has arrived (yes, I have thoroughly examined everything trapped in spam) and NO deduction was made yesterday December 1st nor today December 2nd.

The deficit is now over £3,000. We have made what? five or six? contacts to them directly, got a different person each time, had assurances each time, and each time.............

NOTHING HAPPENS! I'm thinking of sending this to that Jessica on the Telegraph: she seems to get results in the 'cases' she picks up.

Logen

Blue_Parrot wrote: »

Having waited some time for a reply to the online complaint, yet another phone call was made to this lot on 24th November. This time a NICOLA took the call, made some apologies and promised that:

a. an email would be sent that day to confirm that:
b. payment deductions would recommence on December 1st.

Unbelievable but true. NO email has arrived (yes, I have thoroughly examined everything trapped in spam) and NO deduction was made yesterday December 1st nor today December 2nd.

The deficit is now over £3,000. We have made what? five or six? contacts to them directly, got a different person each time, had assurances each time, and each time.............

NOTHING HAPPENS! I'm thinking of sending this to that Jessica on the Telegraph: she seems to get results in the 'cases' she picks up.

Did you take up the offer from the Aviva Rep. (David) which was made on the 7th October?

atush

Has it been 8 weeks since your formal complaint?

If so, escalate to the regulator