Financial Ombudsman Service

eskbanker

michaelnotwinner wrote: »

I have 2 complaints running, both against First Direct.
One started in April 2019 and the other in July 2019.
Both are still outstanding.
If you complain then they just apologise for having a big backlog.
If you escalate then they say that you can only escalate once the complaint has been resolved.
The whole service is out of and a joke

I can understand the frustration but in the context of OP's question about timescale expectations, are you able to share more detail of the chronology so far for each, i.e. how long did it take before any sort of acknowledgement, when were they picked up by a case handler, what actions have happened since, etc?

SonOf

michaelnotwinner wrote: »

I have 2 complaints running, both against First Direct.
One started in April 2019 and the other in July 2019.
Both are still outstanding.
If you complain then they just apologise for having a big backlog.
If you escalate then they say that you can only escalate once the complaint has been resolved.
The whole service is out of and a joke

The FOS was set up to deal with several thousand referrals each year and was originally resourced on that basis. It grew into the tens of thousands as people became more aware of complaining. PPI took into the hundreds of thousands but when PPI is over, it will return to the tens of thousands (or around the 100k mark as claims companies look for new things).

There was a large burst of PPi complaints before the deadline and claims companies, in particular, appear to be referring far too many cases to the FOS. This is why things are slow. The FOS is not responsible for the volume.

xlnc99

FOS is useless, always side with the companies. Had a few complaints with them and dead end.

They will speed up the process if you tell them you are vulnerable, have financial difficulty or medical conditions

masonic

xlnc99 wrote: »

FOS is useless, always side with the companies.

I've had a 100% success record. It really depends on what you are complaining about.

xlnc99

mine was a payday loan. So much evidence of irresponsible lending, was so confident it was an open and shut case. Ridiculous the case handler disagreed.

eskbanker

xlnc99 wrote: »

FOS is useless, always side with the companies. Had a few complaints with them and dead end.

xlnc99 wrote: »

mine was a payday loan. So much evidence of irresponsible lending, was so confident it was an open and shut case. Ridiculous the case handler disagreed.

Clearly and demonstrably not the case that FOS always sides with the companies - the most recently published data shows 62% of payday loan complaints being upheld (in the consumer's favour).

How far did you take it beyond the assessment by the case handler?

xlnc99

Ile cut a long story short-

in my case it was against sunny loans. I made mistakes of payday loans in the past (my own fault).

I had about 5 of them which i complained and all of them we reached an agreement. Pay back the original sum owed and no interest or record on your credit file. Done and dusted. The only one ouutstanding was sunny loans who didnt budge. IT was for £500 and the believe they did nothing wrong.

1 - I had credit debts of 20k at the time of application - alll visible on the credit report
2 - i had various debts of pay day loans on my credit file which showed no payments made and defaults for as little as £100 for a payday loan
3- i had an unpaid CCJ for a payday loan showing
4- i showed bank statements for the period which showed i had no money in there

There were other factors and debts and defaults, missed payments etc. I wont go into detail. On top of that ive requested the default notice from sunny for the last 6 months and they still aint sent it. I asked the FOS case handler and he said he will request it. 2 months later ive chased him and he said he cant do nothing as he is still waiting for it from sunny loans

Basically this case handler had it in for me from the start. He has stated that sunny did nothing wrong and lent it to me based on my credit file. - I mean !!!!!!? Seriously? CCJ's, defaults, credit card debts all showing missed payments and unpaid. If i couldnt afford to pay a 100 payday loan that was in default why would sunny lend me 500?????//

I went back and forth with the case handler and told him to review the information i sent him again, he said he did and he agrees with sunny. He said u can appeal this with the FOS but i wouldnt bother as they will stick to my decision......

I mean seriously? Is he having a laugh?

I told him i wanted to appeal it anyway so that is were we are

FOS are a bunch of crooks

masonic

So your complaint was that when you applied for the loan they should have refused it because in your view your credit file was in a bad state? But they didn't and you received the loan you applied for. What were the consequences?

Here's a recent example of an Ombudsman decision against Sunny loans: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/263991/DRN6315922.pdf

xlnc99

Complaint was irresponsible lending - credit file was one of the factors and the main point of discussion as that is what sunny and the FOS kept alluding too!

All other payday loan companies upheld my complaint before even going to the FOS! Which means they felt they were in the wrong. Sunny did not for some reason.

xlnc99

Also it seems a main point of this complaint not being upheld was because i didnt reapply for loans with sunny. It was just the one loan and no further loans.

Doesnt make any sense