Do you trust Financial Ombudsman?

dunstonh

The FOS is an independent adjudicator of complaints. it has no consumer or firm bias. Although it does have a pretty liberal consumer slant (assumes low knowledge unless proven otherwise for example).

Financial firms generally feel the FOS is biased to the consumer. You read some decisions and it does feel that way. A consumer that loses their case is more likely to feel the opposite.

OceanSound

If I had a pound for every time I heard someone say 'FOS is an impartial, independent, unbiased adjudicator of complaints', I'd be a millionaire!

Financial firms may feel the FOS is biased towards the consumer, however, the figures (even though somewhat muddled) tell a different story.

paragon909

I only ever used them once to get Bank of Scotland to release my savings from a fixed term account, Bank of Scotland would not give me my money back for anything in this world... So had to go to FOB and they got them to release it.

masonic

OceanSound wrote: »

If I had a pound for every time I heard someone say 'FOS is an impartial, independent, unbiased adjudicator of complaints', I'd be a millionaire!

Financial firms may feel the FOS is biased towards the consumer, however, the figures (even though somewhat muddled) tell a different story.

For a complaint to get as far as the FOS, the financial firm must either be pretty convinced it won't be upheld, or have a pretty serious failing in their complaint handling process such that the complaint isn't answered within the 8 week time limit.

The figures show that different firms have very different rates of complaints being overturned in favour of the customer, from 0% up to 80%. This suggests two things:
1) Companies vary significantly in their ability to handle complaints
2) Consumers vary significantly in their ability to judge whether or not their complaints have merit

It would be interesting if there were any statistics on consumers who had rejected FOS claims who later went on and took their case to the small claims court. That would speak to bias against the consumer.

JuicyJesus

paragon909 wrote: »

I only ever used them once to get Bank of Scotland to release my savings from a fixed term account, Bank of Scotland would not give me my money back for anything in this world... So had to go to FOB and they got them to release it.

Holding you to the terms of a product you willingly opened doesn't seem all that unreasonable.

OceanSound wrote: »

Financial firms may feel the FOS is biased towards the consumer, however, the figures (even though somewhat muddled) tell a different story.

Interested to know how you think that is the case. And no, the split between upheld/not upheld not being 50/50, or 100% in favour of the consumer, does not make that the case at all.

OceanSound wrote: »

However, there's been some awful decisions. (I know..I know..Sour grapes and all that). One was about Paypal the other was about Bank of Ceylon. Both were pretty clear cut, however, Ombudsman said 'business had done nothing wrong'.

The thing is, we have no way of knowing what their reasoning was other than that you weren't happy with it. You seem to think them ruling against you at all is what's unfair - you've not explained (say) what they've overlooked and how they got the decision wrong in your view. You've also said that FOS has ruled in your favour multiple times, so I can't really see what your issue is other than, well, sour grapes.

Without providing the DRNs, or the decision letters redacted, we can't see what information they're going on that we don't have access to and thus can't really take any of this at face value.

paragon909

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Holding you to the terms of a product you willingly opened doesn't seem all that unreasonable.

Things change in life.... You're welcome.

JuicyJesus

paragon909 wrote: »

Things change in life.... You're welcome.

And if you're that concerned about things changing in life to that extent then don't lock your money away where you can't get at it. You're welcome.

paragon909

JuicyJesus wrote: »

And if you're that concerned about things changing in life to that extent then don't lock your money away where you can't get at it. You're welcome.

Well, It got locked away in that account before the unexpected change happened which meant i needed it, You're welcome.

sassy_one

I can only speak from my own personal dealing with them, which is the one and only time I ever have.

Submitted a complaint to them in June, after a final response letter, and they contacted me June 16th/17th to advise that they would be taking the complaint on; and I'd hear from them within the next 4 weeks regarding the matter and how it would / was proceeding.

Now, still to date nothing.
Have e-mailed them via resolver (where this complaint is going through) and that was a week ago, still no response.
Spoke with someone yesterday by phone who has messaged someone on my behalf, but to date, obviously being Sunday, nothing.

I'm losing any hope with them; seem useless, lack motivation and they don't seem very quick to deal with the matter.

My case isn't even anything to do with me; the company won't believe me though so I've had to go to the FOS,

So, from me, at present no I do not trust them but I haven't lost anything, besides patience waiting for a E-mail that's never arrived.

dunstonh

I'm losing any hope with them; seem useless, lack motivation and they don't seem very quick to deal with the matter.

They have to go to the firm and request details and wait for that to arrive.

Also resolver has a habit of losing messages. So, you are sitting there waiting for a response to a message that was never received.
These things cant be quick due to their very nature. Be patient.