Co-operative Refer a Friend Switching Offer £125 (Nov 2022)

Dustybee

Their replies to my complaint have slowed down.  I had a response the next working day when a messaged through the online banking secure message service.

A week ago I sent a pdf complaint form through to their email and heard nothing except a "We have received your email" standard response.

Maybe they are inundated or maybe my complaint is just lost.

Alex9384

Dustybee said:

Their replies to my complaint have slowed down.  I had a response the next working day when a messaged through the online banking secure message service.

A week ago I sent a pdf complaint form through to their email and heard nothing except a "We have received your email" standard response.

Maybe they are inundated or maybe my complaint is just lost.

How many messages have you exchanged so far?
I've given up as it's obvious they can't answer my questions and keep playing dumb by repeating something else than I asked about.

youngretired

Husband's complaint took a month for a response after receiving his complaint reference email, my sisters took the whole 8 weeks for her final response after receiving her complaint reference email (both complaints were submitted by the Customer Service secure message team, when they said they would write a formal complaint). Both asked to only be dealt with by email.

Dustybee

Alex9384 said:

Dustybee said:

Their replies to my complaint have slowed down.  I had a response the next working day when a messaged through the online banking secure message service.

A week ago I sent a pdf complaint form through to their email and heard nothing except a "We have received your email" standard response.

Maybe they are inundated or maybe my complaint is just lost.

How many messages have you exchanged so far?
I've given up as it's obvious they can't answer my questions and keep playing dumb by repeating something else than I asked about.

I had two replies to my two messages in the secure messages within online banking. I wasn't getting an answer to which terms and condition they were referring to so thought I needed to officially lodge a complaint via the complaint email address.

No reply to my pdf complaint form submitted via email a week ago.

WillPS

Slight curiosity - for every one of my referals thusfar I've received an email confirming (or rejecting) the referal, along with the referred person's first name.

For my latest one, I received a physical letter with exactly the same text as the email but without the referred person's first name. Predictably this arrived a week or so after the fact. I think I know which referee it belongs to but my previous technique of throwing these things out and just waiting to see what comes back might need finesseing a bit!

adamp87

WLewer98 said:

I applied for a Co-op account in time to benefit from this offer, and my debit card finally arrived on Friday. During the application it gave me a switch date of 23/03, but I have not heard anything since.

Will Co-op contact me regarding my switch? Or should I just assume that the switch will take place on 23/03?

I heard absolutely nothing at first. After about 5 weeks I had a letter with a ‘Thanks for your application’ on it which stated they were just finalising checks (letter had account details on it though..) and a card a week later.

theonenonly

I still haven't recieved my bonus, switch was complete on Friday. Do I have to resubmit the form?

_wishful_thinker

theonenonly said:

I still haven't recieved my bonus, switch was complete on Friday. Do I have to resubmit the form?

My switch was complete yesterday, then I submitted the form and we received payments today. Maybe you submitted the form before the switch was complete, which I believe was fine if you had a switch date. The T&Cs said it could take up to 60 days so i was surprised it was next day, unless of course it's a chaotic process and I've not been impressed with the time it has taken until today. I am sure you can call and they can advise?

Alex9384

On a side note,
I applied for the Coop account on the 1st Feb but it's now showing on my credit reports as opened on the 14th Feb. This bank is unbelievable... Even the super slow HSBC was showing the date of the application as the account opening date, rather than waiting 2 weeks while scratching their heads or whatever, then reporting it to CRAs.

Bridlington1

I've had a response from the FOS. They've sided with Co-op:

Dear Bridlington1

Your complaint about The Co-operative Bank Plc

  

Thank you for your patience whilst I’ve been looking into your complaint.

I am the adjudicator who’ll be reviewing your case against The Co-operative Bank Plc (The Co-op). It’s my role to look into the concerns you’ve raised and let you know what I think is a fair outcome in the circumstances. You can find out more about how we handle complaints on our website. My contact details are below. If you need to contact me, my usual working hours are Monday to Friday 9am-4.30pm.

I’ve now reviewed all of the information available and I’m ready to start. Based on what I’ve seen, I won’t be asking The Co-op to do anything else. And I’ll explain why.

The complaint

You’re unhappy that The Co-op have not paid you the £125 promised with their current account ‘Refer-a- Friend’ switching campaign. You would like The Co-op to pay you the £125 promised, the £1 cost you spent in making the phone call to complain and an apology for the inconvenience caused.

Background

You’ve sent us supporting documents with your complaint and you told us in the complaint form that:

• The Co-op have not paid you the £125 promised with their current account ‘Refer-a- Friend’ switching campaign
• The Co-op have said that you already benefitted from the ‘Refer-a- Friend’ offer and you weren’t a new customer
• you agree that you benefited from the £50 Refer-a- Friend offer but you believe the £125 was an entirely separate offer with separate terms and conditions and you have not benefitted from this offer
• you said that at the time you applied for your second Co-op account you held no other accounts with them and considered yourself a new customer within the terms of the offer.

The Co-op sent us their business file and have told us the following:

• their ‘Refer a Friend Scheme’ was launched by the Bank in November 2020.  At the time existing customers who referred a friend to the Bank were eligible to receive a payment of £50.
• in May 2022 you switched in your account from Lloyds Bank to the Co-op and received a £50 credit as part of the Refer a Friend Scheme which you don’t dispute.
• in July 2022 they amended the terms of the scheme to allow existing customers to refer five eligible customers and receive a total of £250, were as previously customers could only make two referrals and receive £100 in total. 
• in November 2022 they amended the terms of the scheme further and increased the amount to be awarded to £125 for both parties.  In addition, they also amended the definition of the term ‘new customer’ enabling customers who had held an account since June 2021 (but did not currently hold an account with the Bank) to be eligible.
• on 4 November 2022 they received a bank switch request from the Royal Bank of Scotland and your account was switched out on 11 November 2022, and the account closed on 14 November 2022.
• on 15 November 2022 they received a new application for a current account from yourself and this account was opened on 16 November 2022 and on 17 November 2022 they started the process to switch in your account from Lloyds Bank.
• even though you didn’t hold a current account with the Bank at the time you made your latest application, you were still not eligible for the incentive payment as section 3.6 of the scheme terms and conditions clearly state that ‘The Recommended Friend is entitled to only one payment even if they switch more than one account to us or if more than one Recommender refers them’.
• one of the qualify points of the scheme advertisement states that, to be eligible for the offer the person you are referring must; ‘Complete a full switch from their main current account to their new Co-operative Bank account using the Current Account Switch Service.’ They do not believe you switched your main current account based on your account behaviour (account activity).
• as you previously received a payment under the scheme, you aren’t eligible to make a further claim as you can only claim for one payment irrespective of the number of accounts you switch into the Bank.
• their £125 offer was not a new scheme and you therefore weren’t entitled to a new pay-out
• the ‘Refer a Friend Scheme’ was launched in November 2020. They amended the existing scheme but did not withdraw the scheme until 16 December 2022. There was no notice on their website announcing an end to the scheme before December 2022

 

My findings

My role is to consider what both sides have said, along with any evidence provided – to decide if The Co-op have acted fairly. In doing this, I’ve thought about things such as the law and regulation in place at the time, as well as good industry practice. And whether their actions were fair and reasonable.

After reviewing the case file, I have considered all evidence received from yourself and The Co-op including listening to the call recordings you had with The Co-op.

I’ve not been able to find that the 'Refer a Friend' Scheme which launched in November 2020 ended at any point (or was relaunched) before December 2022.

The web information I’ve seen shows that there weren’t two separate offers but only a single one which had been ongoing for quite a length of time.  The offer amount was enhanced and the scheme terms & conditions were updated during the lifetime of the scheme. I’ve found that The Co-op only ended the scheme for the first time in December 2022.

Looking at the updated £125 terms & conditions document I think you would have been considered a new customer as I don’t think the requirement to switch your main current account was clear.

However, looking at the terms & conditions of the £50 and updated £125 document, I think it’s clear that the bank intended to pay out only once to each new consumer switching into their bank who had never benefited from the scheme before.

I therefore don’t think you were eligible for a second payment under the same Refer a Friend scheme because I can’t find that you met the full terms and conditions attached to the scheme as it was still the same campaign.

While I acknowledge that you made a mistake in believing you were eligible to benefit from what you thought was a brand-new offer, I’m not able to hold The Co-op responsible for this mistake. You had already benefitted before.

I appreciate you may be disappointed and that this is not the outcome you were expecting, but I think The Co-op have acted within their terms to withhold the payment, so I won’t be asking them to do anything more.

Next steps

I think this is a fair outcome in the circumstances, for the reasons I’ve explained. If you accept my view, please let me know as soon as possible and we'll close your complaint.

But if you decide that you don't accept what I’ve said – and want an Ombudsman to make a final decision on your complaint – you must provide any further evidence or representations by 6 April 2023. Requests for more time must also be made by that date. If I don’t hear from you by 6 April 2023 we might not be able to look at your complaint again.