Monzo Complaint Delay

Tinaroo

Hi all, 

I made a complaint to Monzo back in June which covered several issues and have only just received my final response, some 73 business days later which is far in excess of the 15 business days required to respond to my complaint outlined in the FCA regulations and even longer than the 35 business days they allow for exceptional circumstances. During that time, I was not provided with any update, wasn't told why the complaint was delayed, received no holding response etc. This delay has caused me significant distress, which they were aware of as I told them in an email which remained ignored. 

I have since heard back from them and they've accepted the delay in response breached regulatory deadline and for the inconvenience caused, they're willing to offer me £125 which so far I have declined as I believe the level of stress, anxiety and inconvenience caused by them, compounded by the significant delay in resolving the matter warrants a higher compensation amount. 

They've declined to increase their offer of compensation for the delay, and I just wondered whether anyone has experienced something similar with another bank? Did you take it to the Financial Ombudsman and if so, what was the outcome? Is it okay for me to accept the compensation of £125 and then refer it to the Financial Ombudsman? Any advice would be appreciated. 

Thanks,
Tinaroo

boingy

You are perfectly within your rights to take the money and proceed with the ombudsman route but unless you have lost out financially I'd suggest just taking the money and moving on. The ombudsman takes months to process a case and generally only looks at financial loss so they are very unlikely to order an increase in that goodwill payment.

PRAISETHESUN

You can't claim compensation for "emotional distress", only for quantifiable financial losses resulting from their error(s). I'd personally just take the money and move on, assuming it covers the loss you initially complained about. The ombudsman process can take a very long time, and there isn't any guarantee you will get anything else above what is on offer.

eskbanker

PRAISETHESUN said:

You can't claim compensation for "emotional distress", only for quantifiable financial losses resulting from their error(s). I'd personally just take the money and move on, assuming it covers the loss you initially complained about. The ombudsman process can take a very long time, and there isn't any guarantee you will get anything else above what is on offer.

FOS does offer compensation for distress and inconvenience as well as tangible losses, and publishes a scale against which OP can perhaps measure their situation:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation-for-distress-or-inconvenience

boingy said:

You are perfectly within your rights to take the money and proceed with the ombudsman route but unless you have lost out financially I'd suggest just taking the money and moving on. The ombudsman takes months to process a case and generally only looks at financial loss so they are very unlikely to order an increase in that goodwill payment.

I think that accepting the bank's offer compromises the complainant's chances of succeeding with an escalation to FOS....

Tinaroo said:

They've declined to increase their offer of compensation for the delay

It's unlikely that FOS would take that into account, as they only deal with complaints about regulated activities, and complaint handling isn't one of those, so they'll often dismiss complaints about how an institution has dealt with a complaint.  Having said that, if the delay exacerbated the actual underlying issue(s) then that might make a difference - are you willing to share more detail of what the multiple original issues are?

Edit:

Tinaroo said:

I made a complaint to Monzo back in June which covered several issues and have only just received my final response, some 73 business days later which is far in excess of the 15 business days required to respond to my complaint outlined in the FCA regulations and even longer than the 35 business days they allow for exceptional circumstances.

Are you sure that the complaint was definitely one that should have been addressed within three weeks, as most are eight weeks?