Trying to resolve complaints with banks - anyone else been put off complaining?

simonp

I've had a couple of relatively minor issues lately with credit card companies. In the past they'd have been resolved promptly and easily by the call handler but twice now in recent months (Santander and Sainsbury's Bank) I've been told they'll have to raise a 'complaint' and that the process will take some time as there's lot of form filling. 

They're not saying they won't do it but they're very clearly trying to put you off. The second time (with Sainsbury's) I stuck with the process and it did take 30 mins+ all for a £30 error on their part but I wasn't going to let it go.

Is this common practice now? Seems unfair

Brie

They have to be seen to follow specific company and industry practices with complaints.  If they don't they (the individual as well as the bank) could get in serious trouble.  

Some will try to see if the issue is actually a legitimate complaint rather than a "concern".  A concern may be something you are worried about on how the account is running, being handled, communications being received whereas a complaint will be requiring an action to put right some wrong.  Your perception of the situation may be very different from the agent on the phone as it's a bit of a misty slope from one extreme to the other.  

Once it's established that it's a complaint there will be a certain incentive for the individual to show that it has been resolved at first point of contact.  So you ring in all shouty about whatever, they see what's gone wrong and put it right, bung you £10 for the fuss and you go off happy would be a complaint resolved at first point of contact.  Only if you aren't satisfied or the agent isn't able to resolve the problem is it likely to be escalated to a complaint team.  Either way though it would be logged for company reporting practices as a complaint.

[Deleted User]

They will be following the processes they have to in order to meet their guidance e.g. investigating, carrying out a report and then sending it to you with the FOS option. They are moving away from someone moaning a bit and getting £25-50 go away money just in case it comes back to bite them

born_again

No form filling here. If we can't resolve it than it has to go to complaints team. Simple pass the call onto them.

I would think that a rep failing to report a complaint & asking for it in writing is stoking up a problem, as they do not have to be in any certain format. 

DullGreyGuy

The FCA defines a complaint as:

any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a  about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service, claims management service or a redress determination, which:

• (a) alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience; and
• (b) relates to an activity of that respondent, or of any other respondent with whom that  respondent has some connection in marketing or providing financial services or products or  claims management services, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If you have made a complaint (there is no "official complaint") then most FS companies believe it has to be logged even if they open and close it within a single call. How long that takes depends on systems naturally and most agents will try and do the complaint logging whilst the customer is on the phone because otherwise they have to go in wrap up after the call to do it and that screws their KPIs .

In my call centre days our complaints system was terrible, it was a totally independent system and so you had to rekey everything like customer name, postcode etc (in case if you incorrectly typed the customer number).

born_again

Above is correct, even a complaint resolved by the rep @ 1st point of contact has to be logged. Or it is a breach of regulations.
We even get pulled up if it is not in the correct format...