Money sent to wrong account

colsten

The complainant always has the option to complain to the the FOS. The FOS can. of course, turn down any claim, too. The banks only have to pay (extra*) if an actual ombudsman investigates the complaint. Many, may be even most, complaints are fully actioned by a complaints handler and don't need the involvement of an ombudsman.

* the FOS is actually funded by a statutory levy on the financial service industry which becomes due irrespective of any claims. Only cases which go to an actual ombudsman incur an extra charge. It is not down to a bank to decide whether the case needs to be handled by am ombudsman.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faqs/rules-powers-information-us/financial-ombudsman-service-funded

eskbanker

colsten said:

Only cases which go to an actual ombudsman incur an extra charge.

That wasn't my understanding - https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/resolving-complaint/case-fees says that "If a case does need to be investigated, it becomes a chargeable case, regardless of the outcome", which I've always understood to mean investigation by a case handler (as opposed to batted away by frontline triage staff), not just those escalated to actual ombudsmen.

Edit: this is also endorsed by https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding

Case fees

A fee applies every time one of our case handlers investigates a case. All businesses are entitled to 25 free “chargeable” cases a year.

Read more about when a case fee is payable and how much it costs.

kaMelo

eskbanker said:

colsten said:

Only cases which go to an actual ombudsman incur an extra charge.

That wasn't my understanding - https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/resolving-complaint/case-fees says that "If a case does need to be investigated, it becomes a chargeable case, regardless of the outcome", which I've always understood to mean investigation by a case handler (as opposed to batted away by frontline triage staff), not just those escalated to actual ombudsmen.

Edit: this is also endorsed by https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding

Case fees

A fee applies every time one of our case handlers investigates a case. All businesses are entitled to 25 free “chargeable” cases a year.

Read more about when a case fee is payable and how much it costs.

Which was how I understood it, that any investigation counts towards the relevant charging model the company uses whether an actual Ombudsman is involved or not. 

I also think I was confusing myself by conflating things. An institution can refuse an Ombudsman permission to investigate if the complaint meets certain criteria rather than the complainant. 
I also note on the FO website under the heading "Who can bring a complaint"  they state "We can look at complaints from customers or potential customers of financial businesses" 

A customer is obviously a current customer, my interpretation of "potential customers" would be a complaint restricted to the process of trying to become a customer.

Namechanger

Thanks for your responses, I did request in writing their response to my complaint so I am waiting on that before deciding what next.