What is a reasonable good will gesture amount?

Takmon

Tilona said:

Please read my comments above. I am not going into any detail about the misselling as this is not relevant to my question. It is confirmed that I have been missold but can't take it further - end of.

My query is about the good will gesture they have offered in the scheme of things and what I could reasonably ask for as a counter. Surely that's not too much to ask?
I feel that some people (not all of course!) have been quite sarcastic and unfair when they don't know my personal situation and I have asked a general question with enough information to help provide me with a "helpful" answer. I sincerely regret having posted on this forum now as I only looked for some genuine advice to a genuine and general question. I have learned my lesson...

Yes you might have been missold because you blindly listened to what they were saying without doing any checks yourself to make sure the insurance was suitable. So this is the assumption that people will be making because your failing to answer any questions. 

You haven't given us any information about the situation so how can anyone possibly say how much a good will gesture should be without knowing anything about it? 

Tilona

@Takmon
I appreciate your reply however I have said that I was missold insurance for more than one reason (which we have queried with the FOS) and that nothing can be done about it which I have explained previously so even though this is the reason for my monetary loss this is not relevant to my query. The long and short of it is that I can't get that money back and that they are now offering a good will gesture instead. I don't know what other details are needed. I have asked a general question and have given the overall general facts that is all. 
Of course I would like all my money back but that's not possible so all I would like to know is what is a general decent good will gesture offered by a company or how much I could reasonably counter with.
I could have told you it was for a builder messing up a build however that is still irrelevant to the actual question. I apologise if I am not making myself clear. Thanks again.

HHarry

Unfortunately there’s too many variables and no-one’s going to be able to offer an answer.

I recently received £100 from Virgin Media for some shoddy customer service - which caused me no monetary loss, wasn’t asked for and was far more than I would have expected to receive.

Before that British Airways gave me 1000 Avios for no longer providing refreshments on their flights - that felt a bit stingy.

If you want £500 ask for it, and explain why.  

Aylesbury_Duck

Is this still going?  

£54.

Jack_Cork

Tilona said:

I sincerely regret having posted on this forum now as I only looked for some genuine advice to a genuine and general question. I have learned my lesson...

If you were coming on here looking for genuine advice, as you've realised, you've come to the wrong place. Its hard work, it really is 
I'd ask for £100, with a hope of getting £75. I guess you have to weigh it up if it worth the hassle, difficult i know when there are emotions at play

sheramber

You have been given suggestions which you obviously reject  but with no more information you are not going to get anything else.
Goodwill is a  'gift' from the other person so  there is no set amount or percentage.
No two people will consider the same amount as suitable.
You have to decide what you think is  suitable and propose that baring in mind they  have no need to pay you anything.

Takmon

Tilona said:

@Takmon
I appreciate your reply however I have said that I was missold insurance for more than one reason (which we have queried with the FOS) and that nothing can be done about it which I have explained previously so even though this is the reason for my monetary loss this is not relevant to my query. The long and short of it is that I can't get that money back and that they are now offering a good will gesture instead. I don't know what other details are needed. I have asked a general question and have given the overall general facts that is all. 
Of course I would like all my money back but that's not possible so all I would like to know is what is a general decent good will gesture offered by a company or how much I could reasonably counter with.
I could have told you it was for a builder messing up a build however that is still irrelevant to the actual question. I apologise if I am not making myself clear. Thanks again.

If you have genuinely been missold then you can take them to court for the £600 and win. If they have taken £600 from you and not supplied the insurance product as they stated it would be then you are legally due that money back and it doesn't matter whether or not they are part of any FOS scheme.
To use your builder analogy if you paid a builder to build you a house and he put up a shed instead then you would take him court to get the money back. 

So the amount that they are paying you should be £600 minimum, the fact that you are considering taking £50 instead of taking it to court to get the full amount suggests to me that there is far more to this which is why i'm asking for more details.  

[Deleted User]

Tilona said:I have said that I was missold insurance for more than one reason (which we have queried with the FOS) and that nothing can be done about it 

Tilona said:The long and short of it is that I can't get that money back and that they are now offering a good will gesture instead. 

It looks to me that you complained about mis-sold insurance  and that your complaint  was rejected by the seller. Then you approached the Ombudsman for adjudication.  Unfortunately, until 2005,  the sale of any general insurance was not regulated and from this we  can safely  assume that if the company concerned was not "not part of any FOS scheme" it was a long ago sale prior to that regulation. 

So, if FOS has no jurisdiction, nothing they can have said to the company concerned will have compelled  them to offer even a goodwill payment. 

Therefore, if they are offering such goodwill then anything at all is surely better than nothing at all? 

If you now attempt to force the issue by demanding more than they are offering  then the offer can simply be withdrawn completely and you will not have any comeback. 

So, to answer your question (finally), any offer of goodwill is exactly that. Accept what they have offered in good faith and simply get on with your life. 

Or, if you believe you have a strong enough case, you could go the court route as others have said. Just how long ago did the alleged mis-selling take place? 

Fosterdog

The reason you are not getting the replies that you would consider helpful is because things just don't add up.

As you have already been told by several people a goodwill gesture is just that, goodwill, there is no set amount of what would be considered reasonable, I might accept £5 for something but another person won't accept less than £500 and it's up to the company whether or not they choose to pay it. They don't have to offer it at all and can revoke their offer. Most companies if they admit they have done wrong will reimburse your actual costs and offer an additional goodwill payment on top. Others if there has been no financial loss will just give you a goodwill payment. The only times we ever see on here about people being left out of pocket and being offered a small goodwill gesture is when the company is just paying somebody off to get rid of them without really thinking they have done anything wrong. Other companies just don't offer anything at all. It's highly unusual for a company to admit fault but not reimburse what you are owed but to then offer a goodwill gesture.

If the company has admitted wrongdoing then it seems unlikely that you have no avenue to get some if not all of your money back, you could simply take them to court with your proof that they have admitted wrongdoing and they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. All insurance products are regulated so the fact FOS are saying they are not regulated means it's probably not actually an insurance product but something else that is unregulated. 

People are asking you more in depth questions about the details involved in order to genuinely offer you some helpful advice that could help you get some or all of your money back (or to be honest and tell you straight if you have no entitlement to it but would explain why there is no entitlement to it).

Ultimately it's your choice, go more in depth to get the extra help or leave it as it is and accept the answers you've been given that goodwill gestures have no guidelines and hope that the company doesn't revoke their £50 offer if you push them too far trying to get more, some will haggle a bit and you can get it increased but others give a one time only offer and any attempt to increase it will get the whole offer removed from the table.

Personally I wouldn't take losing £600 lying down if it was a companies fault and would be demanding it back and taking them to court, I'd forget the £50 goodwill but would add on costs of phone calls, postage etc. to the claim, I would expect to come out with more but would expect to be reimbursed for my actual costs.

Fender4

Without commenting on your particular case I would normally ask myself "would I go through this hassle, stress and inconvenience again if I was to get x amount as a GOGW if they answer is yes then the good will is satisfactory.

Example I had to make several phone calls the other day and went through bad service then had to spend time writing a letter. They compensated me £25. (If my neighbour was to give me £25 to go through all of that for them and I was to accept then I know the level of good will is fine)