absolute scam: vouchersent £25 gift card (Santander)

mta999

If they refuse (or weasel their way out of) opening a complaint can you also get a Deadlock letter after eight weeks have passed ?

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973471#Comment_81973471

They are obliged to open a complaint and failure/refusal to do so would be worth another, but once opened, it can be escalated to FOS after eight weeks even without a final response (aka deadlock letter).

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973488#Comment_81973488

It has been a while since my last complaint so my memory could be wrong, but I think if the provider informs you they will not be treating your complaint as a complaint and/or that they won't be issuing a deadlock letter then you don't have to wait the full 8 weeks before going to FOS. The "we won't be treating this as a complaint" can count as a final response.

As part of the triage process FoS want details of the complaint ref and final response, but there is a route through triage for cases where no complaint ref has been provided and no final response given - I've not used it myself, but presume if you got to that point FoS would contact the provider to make (informal) enquiries whether the customer should expect a response of some kind within the 8 weeks?

Also, although probably not applicable to this thread, I understand there's also a hardship route if a response won't be forthcoming and the complainant's financial suffering would be exacerbated by waiting the full 8 weeks.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81973580#Comment_81973580

Yes, I should perhaps have been clearer and emphasised that institutions are obliged to accept valid complaints, i.e. from their own eligible customers, about their own regulated activities, within the defined timescales, etc - if they assert that it isn't valid and the complainant disagrees then, yes, FOS should be the next port of call without any requirement to wait eight weeks.

And yes, FOS does have some sort of expedited process where time is of the essence, but as you say, claiming a modest gift hardly qualifies!

Dentonn

Got through to Santander complaints, they gave £50 to cover the original voucher and the messing about

youlittlecharmer

Dang. Wish I'd seen this thread and the Trustpilot score before signing up to Santander. When it comes to Martin Lewis, I pretty much trust him and MSE implicitly. Guess there's a lesson learnt here. I am hoping that this dodgy voucher website will cough up for me (I've had the usual 'if you haven't had it by 4th June, get in touch' email) but I see from other people I'm going to have to prepare for a fight or just chalk it off as an unpleasant scam.

danny13579

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023415#Comment_82023415

I'm not sure why people keep calling it a scam. It isn't. It's a genuine offer run by a genuine marketing agency on behalf of Santander. Now, when it comes to efficiency, customer service and overall professionalism they are pretty lousy. But it's not a scam.

If you haven't received your gift card you need to manually claim it and let the process take its course. You can put in a complaint to them or Santander if necessary, but for now get your manual claim in within the next two weeks and see what they say.

I posted in the offer thread earlier today about how to go about manually claiming.

Gambler

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82023423#Comment_82023423

I claimed yesterday and I've just received the voucher.