When Banks don't Act on FOS Findings

Cotta

masonic wrote: »

I suppose in the parallel universe in which they reside, they issued you with a debit card and allowed to you make payments in and out of the account - you know, those things that are pre-requisites of using it as your main account.

If you were just in it for the savings, your balance never would have exceeded £1,500.

In fairness TSB never issued me a debit card and I was never allowed to make payments out of the account other than the small direct debits that were attached to the account at the switch.

masonic

Cotta wrote: »

In fairness TSB never issued me a debit card and I was never allowed to make payments out of the account other than the small direct debits that were attached to the account at the switch.

Not issuing a debit card (actually I thought they issued them and sent them to a previous address), and not allowing you to make payments were what happened in this universe, not the parallel universe to which I was referring above

Cotta

masonic wrote: »

Not issuing a debit card (actually I thought they issued them and sent them to a previous address), and not allowing you to make payments were what happened in this universe, not the parallel universe to which I was referring above

We think it went to the old address but nobody knows and TSB can't confirm it.

JuicyJesus

Cotta wrote: »

This saga goes on, the below arrived in my inbox at 5pm.

Dear Mr. Cotta,

I'm sorry to learn that you're unhappy with TSB's offer. As advised earlier we are not at the stage of referring this to an Ombudsman, however my Manager is deliberating with me in relation to a final response. Additionally as outlined previously I'm recommending compensation to the value of £75 be awarded on top of what TSB have offered.

It is being placed on record that you were unable to outline a workable and evidenced compensation request. I feel using the previous £500 as a baseline to request the same amount again stating you were at least doubly inconvenienced was a misguided approach.

Finally a conversation with my colleague at TSB has outlined they now feel that since you've been locked out of your account for so long you should be reliant without it, therefore negating the impact this has on you. TSB have also asked why if the funds were needed so urgently did you open the account for its saving's rate? This leads them to believe this was a holding /saving account and not one for regular expenditure.

I have now exhausted my avenues of resolution and once my Manager approves the final response it will be sent to you.

Kind Regards
FOS

The tone of this is unacceptable and she does appear to totally believe whatever TSB are saying.

I hope the Ombudsman goes better for you.

HampshireH

Finally a conversation with my colleague at TSB has outlined they now feel that since you've been locked out of your account for so long you should be reliant without it, therefore negating the impact this has on you. TSB have also asked why if the funds were needed so urgently did you open the account for its saving's rate? This leads them to believe this was a holding /saving account and not one for regular expenditure.

Completely irrelevant and absolutely nothing to do with TSB. They have no right to determine someone's need for funds. Regardless of what account it was in. Circumstances change. They are detracting from the issues by saying you didn't need the money anyway.

As I said completely irrelevant to the complaint. They provide banking services providing access. This they have failed to do.

This adjudicator sounds like she is making it up as she goes along.
Have you ever had the opportunity to speak to this manager she claims to be discussing your case with?

Cotta

HampshireH wrote: »

Completely irrelevant and absolutely nothing to do with TSB. They have no right to determine someone's need for funds. Regardless of what account it was in. Circumstances change. They are detracting from the issues by saying you didn't need the money anyway.

As I said completely irrelevant to the complaint. They provide banking services providing access. This they have failed to do.

This adjudicator sounds like she is making it up as she goes along.
Have you ever had the opportunity to speak to this manager she claims to be discussing your case with?

The only feedback I have had from the Manager was through the adjudicator when he suggested the £75 mentioned seemed a little low even though the £75 would take the total compensation to £575.

Cotta

Some progress this morning as follows:


Dear Mr. Cotta,

Once again I am sorry that you are unable to gain access to your TSB account. TSB have advised this morning that an in-branch visit would resolve your issue, however as you live in Northern Ireland where there are no branches this will not be possible.

I am therefore instructing TSB to close your account and transfer the balance to a separate account in your name. Unfortunately as TSB are having difficulty issuing documentation to you we cannot allow them to send a cheque in the post. Therefore could I ask you to furnish our offices with an account to transfer the balance to?

My Manager and I are now going through the entire case to advise on a final settlement figure.

Cotta

I've just been advised on the phone that my current balance with TSB will be transferred to an alternative account of mine by Friday.

As it looks like a decision from the adjudicator is close and in the event that their Manager agrees with her assessment and I am forced to go to the Ombudsman, what is a suitable figure to be requesting?

eskbanker

Cotta wrote: »

As it looks like a decision from the adjudicator is close and in the event that their Manager agrees with her assessment and I am forced to go to the Ombudsman, what is a suitable figure to be requesting?

Assuming you feel that the figure they put forward isn't adequate, it's up to you to explain why - if, for the sake of argument, they propose £100 but you feel that £500 would be more appropriate then you should be able to define the basis of your contention.

In your shoes I'd go right back over the whole thing and revisit the issues you faced at each stage and in particular exactly what the previous April to July £500 figure was compensation for. If similar inconvenience was caused during the subsequent 4-5 month period then it still seems reasonable to me that a similar figure would apply but from one or two adjudicator comments above it would seem that her view differs, so you need to construct a rebuttal of her argument that's strong enough to convince an ombudsman.

It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that some sort of recompense would be appropriate for the vast amount of your time spent on liaising with the adjudicator and TSB, which has ultimately proved fruitless, but again if the adjudicator has rejected that line of argument then you need to be able to convince an ombudsman that it was inappropriate to knock back your claim.

So, especially in light of her criticism of your inability (or unwillingness) to justify a number, it's probably best not to start from a figure and work back from that but instead to start from all the things you had to do (or have been unable to do) and build up a figure from those.

Probably also worth considering exactly what you want from escalation to the ombudsman - if it's more compensation than the adjudicator is offering then you will need to put some effort into quantifying these for the counter-argument. However, if it's some form of sanction for the adjudicator, then highlighting her numerous failures shouldn't be difficult, and ultimately some of these could effectively have caused you unnecessary delay and inconvenience, so there is an argument that this should be recognised too.

Cotta

I know I keep going on about the original £500, however this was essentially for locking me out of my account. This time whilst I've had an equal length of time of being locked out of my account I've also had to contact TSB and FOS on innumerable occasions and perform a string of tasks as TSB's insistence. This compounded with the fact that the original FOS recommendations were not met and today FOS conceded through the Adjudicator's Manager that at no point have TSB been active in addressing the issues with my account.

Based on the above I'm going to be looking for over £500.