Financial Fight Back Guide discussion

A question about : Financial Fight Back Guide discussion

Advice please...

August 2008 I wrote to the FSO because I felt I had exhausted the possibility of Barclays addressing a complaint I had made in respect of how they managed an ISA I held with them.

In January 2009, despite telephone calls as well as written responses from the FSO my specific query was not answered and I asked for this to be transferred for an Ombudman to deal with it. Since then every month I have had the same standard letter stating that they are dealing with my complaint and will contact again.

A few months ago I sent another letter asking the same question and pointing out how long it was taking to deal with my complaint. They were unable to tell me when an Ombudsman would be appointed.

Now it is the first anniversay of my complaint being lodged with the FSO.

What should I do next? Is there somehow I can complain to the FSO?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Best answers:

• Advice please...
  August 2008 I wrote to the FSO because I felt I had exhausted the possibility of Barclays addressing a complaint I had made in respect of how they managed an ISA I held with them.
  In January 2009, despite telephone calls as well as written responses from the FSO my specific query was not answered and I asked for this to be transferred for an Ombudman to deal with it. Since then every month I have had the same standard letter stating that they are dealing with my complaint and will contact again.
  A few months ago I sent another letter asking the same question and pointing out how long it was taking to deal with my complaint. They were unable to tell me when an Ombudsman would be appointed.
  Now it is the first anniversay of my complaint being lodged with the FSO.
  What should I do next? Is there somehow I can complain to the FSO?
  Any advice would be appreciated.
• Hi, I have read the Financial Fight Back Guide, but I would also point out that the FOS route is NOT a quick solution.
  I have a default which I believe has been applied unfairly and obviously I am desperate to get it removed. I initially wrote to the FOS on the 16th of September last year, I chose not to accept the decision of their adjudicator in January and my case was passed onto the ombudsman. Finally at the beginning of July I got a provisional decision from him. This morning I got an email to say that they have a response from my bank and they will be making a final decision 'as soon as possible'.
  Like Fishej before I got the provisional opinion in July I just received monthly letters telling me that I was in the queue for the Ombudsman to review my case. So i would say to you Fishej to hold on in there, it's crazy that you've been waiting so long but hopefully it will be worth it.
  I have a feeling my case will go to a full year, but the provisional decision from the ombudsman was that the default should be removed, so hopefully this will go in my favour, I think had I waited a year and had no result I would feel very very bad about it.
• The problem is i have the same problem.
  I even have a contact at the FOS and the replies are - we do not have your paperwork - please resubmit them. Or what were the banks again etc. etc.
  Therefore, if it is constantly lost - when does that one year start from? The date they stop messing me around or the date I originally sent the paper work i.e. one year to date.
• Must admit I found the Ombudsman great, yes it takes time but they are very thorough. In my case the company, Lloyds, refused to accept the adjudicator's decision in my favour so it had to go to an Ombudsman. All in it took over a year but much of the delay was due to Lloyds intransigence and determination not to pay quite a large insurance claim. In any event the FOS kept me in touch with what was happening and were very professional. I have no complaints at all.
• :confused:We have just won our case against CitiFinancial. The FOS gave them 4 weeks to repay to us the PPIs plus interest plus compensation. The 4 weeks has come and gone Citi have sold the loan to CAPQUEST on 28/9/09 and the FOS cannot do anything about it even though they inform us this was illegal and did not conform to regulations. We must point out the case was dealt with by the Ombudsman himself. Also we had until the 27/10/09 to accept the Ombudsman decision.
  What do we do now?
• Thank you for your response. We have contacted the Ombudsman and they have told us that Citi is liable to pay the redress. Having spoke to Citi the person who answered the phone didnt know who the Ombudsman was!!!! and gave the number of their head office. Guess what? It was CAP QUEST who answered, they stated when they bought this from Citi they werent aware of any dispute.
  Even though the Ombudsmans office have got a taped conversation of Citi admitting liability it is now back to us to start arguing with them again and what chance do we have when the people who they employ dont even know what the Ombudsman office is?
  CAP QUEST are now badgering us constantly for payment on an amount that we dont even owe.:confused:
• You could consider contacting the FSA and telling them that the FOS have upheld a complaint and Citi are not paying out and now want you to go through the complaints process again. What they are doing is a breach of FSA rules and whilst the FSA will not investigate your complaint, they do often look into rule breaches.
• Get a Citi contact from Cap Quest. Send the same letter to both of them informing them that they are to sort out which of them is responsible for complying with the Ombudsman's ruling within 28 days or you will report both to the FSA (for the insurance) and Office of Fair Trading (for the loan) as an indication of lack of fitness to be authorised and take both to the county court for the court to sort out which of them is to pay. The court is where you go to get the money if a company fails to follow the ombudsman ruling. You seek the amount of the ruling plus an order to cease trying to collect future payments on the PPI plus costs.
  In addition you write to Cap Quest reminding them of the FOS ruling and that it will be an unfair debt collection practice for them to pursue you for the payment when they know that there is a FOS ruling that it should not be collected.
  You can contact your local trading standards department and Consumer Direct for assistance with the process.
• I just wanted to say how grateful I was for this advice and to discover that even though the IFA/company which persuaded me to "buy out" my final salary pension into a personal one had gone bust, I could still pursue compensation.
  Via the FSCS I am going to be awarded the maximum amount (which is a bit scary when you realise how much money that IFA has lost me) which is a fantastic result - and without this forum I would never have followed it up.
• I made a complaint to FOS and what a waste of time that was.
  I complained about being mis-sold mort pmt protection.
  I was not advised about 1 of my options. They said i was given enough info to make an informed decision i asked how that was poss if i was not given 1 option and what happened to the truth the whole truth etc - no reply.
  The bank then told oft that they had made a mistake and i could not have used this option, oft just accepted this no argument and did not inform me so that i could dispute it, (despite the Independant Assessor mentioning in his report that this should be done.)
  The bank fail to provide info so FOS say they make a decision on the likelyhood it may have been mis-sold and found that it wouldn't.
  FOS then publish their figures showing that the bank had mis-sold PPI in 86% of cases.
  so on what info did they base this decision on ?????
• Can anyone clarify where the six months comes into it? I've read the main article several times but don't understand!
  We complained about a mortgage to HSBC about 18mths ago. They eventually told us where to go, and said we only had 6 mths if we wanted to take it to the ombudsman. Due to circumstances at the time I just didn't do it, but it's been bugging me ever since. Are they correct in saying there was a 6 mth limit? Could I make the complaint again? Anything at all I could do?! They stole Ј8k from me!!
  Thanks for any advice.
• In my opinion, the FOS is very rough and ready justice. Nobody who I have dealt with there appears to understand fairly basic points of law.
• right, couple of years ago my daughter finished paying for her car on finance from fiat, over the period of the finance they charged her late payment fees totaling Ј120. we sent letters asking for these charges to be returned ,but they told us in not so many words, to get lost. wrote again to ask for charges to be returned, they said reclaiming doesnt apply to them as they are not a bank ,and if we took them to court they would definately win the case,and we would have to pay all their court costs. we know that they are wrong , would we be better sending this case to the FOS. ok its only Ј120, but its not their money