IFO Delays

Geordiebrock

We were the victims of a push scam at the beginning of 2020 and, despite a compensation scheme then in existence, Santander refused to refund us the £800 lost -though they agreed that we had not been grossly negligent. We complained last March to the Independent Financial Ombudsman. The COVID pandemic has caused such a massive back log that now, almost a year later, an investigator has still to be appointed.

MattMattMattUK

Did you complain to the IFO, or the FOS?

Geordiebrock said:

We were the victims of a push scam at the beginning of 2020 and, despite a compensation scheme then in existence, Santander refused to refund us the £800 lost -though they agreed that we had not been grossly negligent. We complained last March to the Independent Financial Ombudsman. The COVID pandemic has caused such a massive back log that now, almost a year later, an investigator has still to be appointed.

There are delays with a lot of services at the moment, even before Covid the FOS had a backlog of around 30,000 cases, with an estimated time of 3-6 months to a decision, now the delay is far larger, with 56,000 cases unresolved after 6+ months. Is your case particularly complicated, or were any queries about, or did you dispute any of the facts of the case (rather than just your opinion that you should receive a pay-out) as investigation takes longer than judgement. 

mattyprice4004

You'll just have to wait - a lot of people (inc myself) are in the same boat. 

Sandtree

Presumably you have had an acknowledgement of your complaint from the FOS so you do at least know you are in the queue?

As others have said, the FOS can be a long process in the best of times, it gets even worse if you or the financial institute don't agree with the investigator/adjudicator's decision and request that it be escalated to an ombudsman (note an not "the" and small o) for a second decision. 

Took about 3 years to get an ombudsman decision on my issue several years ago from the date of originally submitting my complaint to the Ombudsman... the FOS themselves gave a fair amount of compensation for the delays.