Can customers influence how companies handle their complaints?

Ulrich

Hi All,

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.
Things like delayed ISA transfers, errors during transfers, violations of special offers' T&Cs etc.

Each have their own way of handling complaints but they all make it hard to make a complaint and keep track of it.

Here's some examples.

1. One broker officially accepts complaints via chat or web form only.
I don't normally use the chat option because I need to wait for a human to connect so it might take ages.
The web form is ok as it allows to attach files and upon submission I receive an automatic email with a reference number so it is easy to keep track.
However, that email does not include any information about the complaint itself so it is up to me to keep the text of the complaint and link it somehow with that reference number for future reference. It gets even more complicated if I have several open complaints, especially if raised on the same day.
On the FCA website there is a email address for complaints to that broker and sometimes I use that.
The problem is it looks like in this case they process emails manually and sometimes I never get an acknowledgment, which is not the end of the world but makes the whole process more difficult and potentially longer because I have no reference number and don't even know if they registered my complaint at all.

2. Other broker officially accepts complaints via a dedicated email address.
However, it looks like they always manually process incoming emails as it might take few days before they acknowledge a complaint (and sometimes there is no acknowledgment at all).
Their acknowledgment is a template and gives you no information that would allow to identify that particular complaint (no reference number or text of complaint), which makes it hard to track complaints or explain to their customer service what complaint you're referring to.
Recently they even started routinely email me back saying something like "I am not sure we have received the full message you intended to send." meaning they did not register my complaint.
Or a member of their team said that they already have a complaint regarding that matter and insisted on me adding that information to the open one and refusing to register that as a new one (took me more than a week to explain that it makes no sense to squash 2 different issues into one complaint so they eventually registered a separate one).

These are just few examples but it's very common everywhere from my experience.
Allowing customers to make a complaint via several different channels that accept attachments and provide a reference number (and maybe a subject or full text of a complaint) within a reasonable timescale is a way to go in my eyes but I'm not sure I've ever had such experience.

My question is can customers influence that so companies make their complaint handling procedures more friendly?
Because oftentimes changing a company is not a solution here, they all do more or less the same thing making it really hard for customers to solve issues.

dunstonh

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.

most consumers never need to raise a complaint and even if something doesn't go right, it can be resolved with a conversation without the need for complaint.     If you have had several complaints recently across multiple providers, then is it possible that you are the issue?   Not saying you are but there are some people out there who are serial complainers who are never happy or put themselves in a position where something is going to go wrong.  With the latter, I mean using a service that is not really suited to you giving you an outcome that you don't like.   i.e. if you have gone with an online only broker with little or no human contact to cut costs to the bone, then complaining about the lack of human contact.

Ulrich

dunstonh said:

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.

most consumers never need to raise a complaint and even if something doesn't go right, it can be resolved with a conversation without the need for complaint.     If you have had several complaints recently across multiple providers, then is it possible that you are the issue?   Not saying you are but there are some people out there who are serial complainers who are never happy or put themselves in a position where something is going to go wrong.  With the latter, I mean using a service that is not really suited to you giving you an outcome that you don't like.   i.e. if you have gone with an online only broker with little or no human contact to cut costs to the bone, then complaining about the lack of human contact.

I think I clearly described issues of my brokers' complaint handling and you elected to call me an issue, which is not what I asked for.
Have a nice day.

masonic

Other than giving feedback to the firms in question, no, you as an individual customer cannot force firms to change their processes. Neither can you force them to make functionality available within their app, accept communications through a particular channel, or process multiple ISA transfers concurrently.

If juggling many simultaneous formal complaints against several different firms, then I can see how that can be a challenge.

Ultimately, firms are free to deliver their services in any manner consistent with their regulatory obligations and both parties to an agreement are free to end it at any time, subject to the T&Cs.

I guess the danger in making lots of complaints against lots of providers is not just the difficulty juggling all of these but also the risk that firms might decide the overhead isn't worth continuing the relationship. Usually it is the customer that votes with their feet, but not always.

Ulrich

@masonic
you have a good memory.
well, maybe in a couple of years there will be no way to communicate with a human being even electronically because of AI, and it'll be everywhere because of cost cutting.
"computer said No" is no longer a joke I'm afraid.

jimjames

Ulrich said:

dunstonh said:

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.

most consumers never need to raise a complaint and even if something doesn't go right, it can be resolved with a conversation without the need for complaint.     If you have had several complaints recently across multiple providers, then is it possible that you are the issue?   Not saying you are but there are some people out there who are serial complainers who are never happy or put themselves in a position where something is going to go wrong.  With the latter, I mean using a service that is not really suited to you giving you an outcome that you don't like.   i.e. if you have gone with an online only broker with little or no human contact to cut costs to the bone, then complaining about the lack of human contact.

I think I clearly described issues of my brokers' complaint handling and you elected to call me an issue, which is not what I asked for.

You haven't given any details of why you've needed to raise complaints with multiple brokers. Having used brokers for nearly 30 years I've only ever needed to raise one complaint about handling a DD many years ago so 2 in quick succession seems unusual. Can you explain the problems and you may give an indication from experienced users here whether they are worth pursuing? 
Companies can and do adjust their complaint processes from outside inputs whether that is regulatory or consumer. Unfortunately sometimes regulatory inputs can have a negative impact in ways that were not anticipated - such as recording some types of contact as a query or complaint which encourages companies to direct towards those channels.

masonic

jimjames said:

Ulrich said:

dunstonh said:

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.

most consumers never need to raise a complaint and even if something doesn't go right, it can be resolved with a conversation without the need for complaint.     If you have had several complaints recently across multiple providers, then is it possible that you are the issue?   Not saying you are but there are some people out there who are serial complainers who are never happy or put themselves in a position where something is going to go wrong.  With the latter, I mean using a service that is not really suited to you giving you an outcome that you don't like.   i.e. if you have gone with an online only broker with little or no human contact to cut costs to the bone, then complaining about the lack of human contact.

I think I clearly described issues of my brokers' complaint handling and you elected to call me an issue, which is not what I asked for.

You haven't given any details of why you've needed to raise complaints with multiple brokers. Having used brokers for nearly 30 years I've only ever needed to raise one complaint about handling a DD many years ago so 2 in quick succession seems unusual. Can you explain the problems and you may give an indication from experienced users here whether they are worth pursuing? 

There's already a separate thread discussing it here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6580850/transfer-cash-between-2-s-s-isas-and-broker-might-need-to-sell-shares-question

eskbanker

jimjames said:

Ulrich said:

dunstonh said:

Recently I had to raise several complaints with my 2 financial brokers.

most consumers never need to raise a complaint and even if something doesn't go right, it can be resolved with a conversation without the need for complaint.     If you have had several complaints recently across multiple providers, then is it possible that you are the issue?   Not saying you are but there are some people out there who are serial complainers who are never happy or put themselves in a position where something is going to go wrong.  With the latter, I mean using a service that is not really suited to you giving you an outcome that you don't like.   i.e. if you have gone with an online only broker with little or no human contact to cut costs to the bone, then complaining about the lack of human contact.

I think I clearly described issues of my brokers' complaint handling and you elected to call me an issue, which is not what I asked for.

You haven't given any details of why you've needed to raise complaints with multiple brokers. Having used brokers for nearly 30 years I've only ever needed to raise one complaint about handling a DD many years ago so 2 in quick succession seems unusual. Can you explain the problems and you may give an indication from experienced users here whether they are worth pursuing? 

Pretty sure OP has documented these in other threads, so probably not worth revisiting the detail of each one in this thread, as it'll distract from the fundamental question, albeit that gets answered with a single word!

Bostonerimus1

For large firms the individual is pretty powerless when it comes to getting them to change their policies. If it's a small firm your voice might be louder. 

Change will happen when a company starts to lose money and that can happen when they are "named and shamed" in the media and people start to use their services of other companies. I regularly read "Which" reports on companies like utility providers and would never use "British Gas" because they have so many complaints and deal with them so inefficiently. Right now all you can do is look for better service elsewhere.