Communication in writing, denied by bank.

scotsilk

davidmcn wrote: »

Have you actually told them you are hearing impaired and would prefer them to communicate with you in writing?

Yes, of course. They are fully aware of my hearing impairment and my desire to communicate in writing has been expressed in more than six letters.

scotsilk

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

What is it you want to communicate about them with? They should be sending you annual statements about your mortgage which should have a fair amount of information.

If you have notified them of your hearing impairment and yet they still refuse to make accommodations then you do have the option of making a complaint to them (you can do this in writing). If they still continue to ignore/refuse then you can ultimately refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

It is not about annual statements. They are fully aware of my hearing impairment and refuse to communicate in writing as they state "it is not their process to do so"

scotsilk

tacpot12 wrote: »

Yes, the legislation will still apply to you as your disability requires an adjustment to be made. The legislation doesn't say you have to be deaf, I mentioned deafness because your bank should have a way to communicate with deaf people and there is no reason for them not to allow you to use the same facilities if you need to do so.

This page may be useful : https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/live-well/products-and-technology/products-and-technology-to-help-with-profound-deafness/using-textphones/

Thank you very much for your advice, it is greatly appreciated

scotsilk

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Is letter correspondence a suitable method of resolving the issue then.

Written communication is absolutely suitable, in fact a better way of sorting the issue, as all parties will be clear and have a record of what was said

davidmcn

Deaf acquaintances of mine routinely use text relay services for this sort of thing, and call centres ought to be used to doing it that way (though occasionally there's resistance from employees who aren't familiar or can't be bothered). Probably easier to go down that path than try insisting on any other form of written communication.

KeepOnKnitting

As expressed by others, it is absolutely your right to communicate in writing. The Equality Act requires "reasonable adjustment" to enable you to have access to services. Letters written on gold-leaf might be a stretch, but a regular letter or email is not "unreasonable".

scotsilk

davidmcn wrote: »

Deaf acquaintances of mine routinely use text relay services for this sort of thing, and call centres ought to be used to doing it that way (though occasionally there's resistance from employees who aren't familiar or can't be bothered). Probably easier to go down that path than try insisting on any other form of written communication.

Thank you for this. I'll check out text relay and if it needs me to have any special equipment, which I don't currently have. I think, in this case, the "can't be bothered" factor, on the part of the bank, is quite high.

scotsilk

KeepOnKnitting wrote: »

As expressed by others, it is absolutely your right to communicate in writing. The Equality Act requires "reasonable adjustment" to enable you to have access to services. Letters written on gold-leaf might be a stretch, but a regular letter or email is not "unreasonable".

Many thanks for this, much appreciated. I am not asking for anything fancy e.g. "gold leaf" or parchment, just simple keyboard and paper. They are just being awkward (imho) because they can't be bothered and they state "it is not our process to do it".