FOS say I’m not an eligible complainant - what can I do?

DaveTheJackal

Hello all, I’ve found myself in an unusual (and fairly complicated) situation and I’m looking for advice…

We started receiving letters to my mother’s address, but with another lady’s name. I dutifully wrote ‘not know at this address’ and returned them. I did this over and over again…

I searched for the return address and it came up as Nationwide, so I added ‘please check for fraudulent use’ to the envelopes I returned and… they kept on coming!

Frustrated, I opened one to see if there was a specific team / department that I could get in touch with and there was… the power of attorney team! This caused alarm bells to ring - at best someone wasn’t getting important letters or, at worst, someone was using my mother’s address to set one up. More worrying was that there was already a deputyship order from the Court of Protection registered at my mother’s address.

So, with a stack of another person’s sensitive letters and bank statements, I contacted Nationwide to let them know - cue non-existent call backs, being passed from pillar to post and no one taking responsibility until I receive a final response letter from their complaints team.

Now, I’m a bit of a stickler for customer service and process (I work in Operational Excellence in financial services), so I contacted the Court of Protection (they checked their records for any further applications at the address) and the ICO (I still haven’t heard anything in 6 months) for good measure.

I, naturally, referred the complaint to the FOS, who have just confirmed that, because neither I, nor my mother, is a Nationwide customer, they can’t make a judgement… we are not ‘eligible complainants’.

My question is, what are my options? Do I just go back to Nationwide and settle for the small amount of compensation so I at least have something to show for the hassle? Should I ask for an actual Ombudsman to look at the case, as opposed to a case worker? 

What I’d hoped to achieve was for the Ombudsman to officially compel them to improve their service, especially stopping sending letters intended for someone else to a vulnerable person’s address when they’ve been told repeatedly not to!

The actual customer whose letters we were receiving lives in our village - I don’t know if she’s even aware that she was subject to a fairly serious breach - do I contact her?!

Advice please (and sorry for the essay)!

Thrugelmir

Keep returning the mail. 

eskbanker

FOS are right - you're not an eligible complainant, either for Nationwide or FOS themselves, so there's no point in continuing down that route.

Having said that, the ICO (and Court of Protection) should show an interest if there is evidence that an organisation isn't fulfilling its responsibilities under the Data Protection Act - have you been in contact with Nationwide's data protection officer via the details at https://www.nationwide.co.uk/about-us/cookies-privacy/how-we-use-your-information/ ?

Carrot007

Complain under GDPR. The FOS route is as you found out pointless.

However look at it from their side. They need an address. Logically they should set it to their head office as it is wrong, but they may want more proof than you saying so (like you proving you live there which you may not want to do).

You may get somwhere with a (public) post on social media of the letter in full moaning at them (retract the address if it worries you than something that is puiblic knowledge is on it).

It is solvable but you have to do the work if you want it. Much simpler if to open it  see if anything is of concern to you then bin it. (and since it is correctly delivered (the name does not form part of this by law) that is perfectly legal).

Ergates

OP can't complain under GDPR either as they're not the customer so it's not their data.

A bank shouldn't change the registered address of a customer if someone other than the customer contacts them and demands it, *that* would be a massive of customer security.

DaveTheJackal said:

Do I just go back to Nationwide and settle for the small amount of compensation

Compensation for what exactly?  You've not lost anything.

DaveTheJackal said:

The actual customer whose letters we were receiving lives in our village - I don’t know if she’s even aware that she was subject to a fairly serious breach - do I contact her?!

Yes - tell them you've been getting letters you think were meant for her and that she should contact her bank and check her address is correct.  Don't pass on the mail unless you're absolutely 100% certain it's the same person (and not just someone else with the same name).  Why haven't you done this already if you know the person, it would seem like an obvious first step.

[Deleted User]

Ergates said:

OP can't complain under GDPR either as they're not the customer so it's not their data.

A bank shouldn't change the registered address of a customer if someone other than the customer contacts them and demands it, *that* would be a massive of customer security.

DaveTheJackal said:

Do I just go back to Nationwide and settle for the small amount of compensation

Compensation for what exactly?  You've not lost anything.

DaveTheJackal said:

The actual customer whose letters we were receiving lives in our village - I don’t know if she’s even aware that she was subject to a fairly serious breach - do I contact her?!

Yes - tell them you've been getting letters you think were meant for her and that she should contact her bank and check her address is correct.  Don't pass on the mail unless you're absolutely 100% certain it's the same person (and not just someone else with the same name).  Why haven't you done this already if you know the person, it would seem like an obvious first step.

The small amount of compensation is for the inconvenience of having to keep sending letters back and trying to deal with them coming, it's "go away" money

Ergates

Deleted_User said:

The small amount of compensation is for the inconvenience of having to keep sending letters back and trying to deal with them coming, it's "go away" money

Exactly, it's "go away" money, not compensation - which would be to rectify a loss.

theoretica

It is easy to prove a positive - that your mother lives at her address - but do you actually have any way of proving that the person the letters are addressed to does not also live there? Proving a negative is hard. I would not take it well if my bank listened to some random person who was not me and stopped sending letters on their say so.

Have you tried to find the correct address for the name involved?

Ergates

theoretica said:

It is easy to prove a positive - that your mother lives at her address - but do you actually have any way of proving that the person the letters are addressed to does not also live there? Proving a negative is hard. I would not take it well if my bank listened to some random person who was not me and stopped sending letters on their say so.

Have you tried to find the correct address for the name involved?

Again though - it doesn't matter what the OP/their mother can or cannot prove, the bank cannot update their customer's records based on what someone else tells them.  The *actual* customer, and/or someone authorised to speak on their behalf have to get in touch with the bank and get them to correct the address.

Yorkshire_Pud

OP shouldn’t be sitting on a stack of someone else’s letters and statements for over six months without letting them know (not Nationwide), playing God/piggy in the middle of something that’s none of his business. If you know the person in the village give her the letters or other responsible adult if vulnerable so she /they can sort it out with Nationwide. Telling Nationwide not to send any more letters won’t work if that’s the address they hold for the recipient. You haven’t done much/anything to really sort the problem out you just want to play games with other peoples stuff.

I’d have redirected the letters to the intended recipient if I know their address.

General_Grant

Unless the addresses are very alike - perhaps one letter wrong in a postcode (eg F instead of S) - and number or name of house is similar - then it is hard to see how the mistake arose in the first place.

If this has been brought to the attention of Nationwide, why cannot they try contacting the individual concerned in some other way to verify the address?  Nationwide certainly have two phone numbers and an email address for me as well as my postal address.