Complaints Policy

Date: 22 November 2023

Complaints Handling Policy

Any expression of dissatisfaction about the provision, or failure to provide, a financial service and complaints handling procedure which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience is treated as a complaint. This includes correspondence in writing and that made during the course of verbal communication. Where any customer expresses concern about the service, steps will be taken to resolve the matter and it will be treated as a complaint.  

Complaints may be received directly from customers or from third party representatives. In the event of any complaint the matter must be recorded and logged and referred to the firm’s nominated complaints handler in accordance with the complaint handling procedure.  

Any complaint received from a third-party representative such as Trading Standards or the Citizens Advice Bureau will be immediately referred to the nominated complaints handler. 

If you’re not happy with your experience, and would like to make a complaint, please let us know so we can try to make it right. 

Complaints Handling Procedure 

The following complaints procedure is made available to every customer upon request, is published on our website. We define a complaint as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction whether oral or written, and whether justified or not, from or on behalf of an eligible complainant about a firm’s provision of, or failure to provide, a financial services activity or a redress determination, which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience’. We allow complaints to be made by any reasonable means in compliance with DISP 1.3.2 (1) and recognise that all complaints require a resolution. 

We have adopted a complaints handling policy, and have complaints handling procedures in place. We allow a complaint to be made by any reasonable means with the inclusion of: complaints by post and via e-mail. To make a complaint, please contact us using the information provided below. We will then review your complaint and provide you with our response. If you are not satisfied with the response we have provided, you can escalate the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service for a final decision. 

How to contact us with a complaint 

If you wish to make a complaint about our service, you can do so: 

Information to provide when making a complaint 

We aim to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. To help us do this, please provide the following when making your complaint: 

  • Your name; 

  • A description of why you are dissatisfied; 

  • What you would like us to do to put things right; and 

  • A phone number and email address that we can reach you on 

What happens next? 

We will write to you promptly after receiving your complaint to tell you what we have done to resolve the problem, or to acknowledge your complaint and let you know when you can expect a full response. 

We will finish our investigation and send you our final response as quickly as we can. Depending on the subject of your complaint and the nature of our investigation, this may take up to 15 business days after we received the complaint. If this is the case, we will keep you updated on our progress. In exceptional circumstances, where the firm cannot send a final response within this period of time, for reasons beyond its control, it will issue you with a final response by the end of 35 business days after the day on which we received the complaint. 

Within 35 weeks from the date of your complaint, our complaint handler will send you either: 

  • A final response addressing the complaint and outlining your right to appeal with the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with the resolution of your complaint; or 

  • A written response which explains why we are not in a position to make our final response, giving reasons for the further delay, indicating when we expect to be able to provide our final response and informing you that you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are dissatisfied with the delay. 

Our intention is always to address your complaint fully – if you feel that our response to your complaint does not do so, please let us know so we can do our best to address your concerns. 

Within our final response, we will either accept the complaint and, where appropriate, offer redress or remedial action or reject the complaint and gives reasons for doing so. 

What if you’re not happy with our response? 

If you are an eligible complainant you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge, within 6 months of receiving our final response if you are dissatisfied with the outcome or if you have not heard from us within the timeframes set out above.  

You can contact the Ombudsman at: 

Post: The Ombudsman’s address is: 

Financial Ombudsman Service 
Exchange Tower 
London 
E14 9SR 

Phone: You can call the Ombudsman on 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123. 

Email: [email protected]

Visit the Ombudsman’s website for more information: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.  More information regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service can also be accessed at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/consumer-leaflet.htm

Where you are not an eligible complainant, the firm does not use the services of another dispute resolution provider. 

Complaints Investigation 

Our nominated complaints handler is our Head of Finance and they will at all times be responsible for the investigation of complaints. Input will be sought from other employees where necessary. We will retain a log of all complaints received and the outcome. A complaints file will be created for each complaint, reference to the log, and which will contain all communication with complainants, the actions taken to investigate the complaint, the findings and a copy of the final response to the complainant.  

Root Cause Analysis 

Upon completing the investigation of a complaint the nominated complaints handler shall conduct a root cause analysis of the complaint to ascertain the cause of the complaint and the risk of that cause reoccurring. Where the cause is the compliance system or operational processes the nominated complaint handler shall submit a report to senior management to discuss in the next board meeting. 

Trend Analysis 

Each quarter our nominated complaints handler shall review the number of complaints received, the resolution or otherwise of those complaints, and analysis to identify trends which may exist within those complaints. Details of this analysis will be reported to the Board. 

Complaints Register 

We will maintain a complaints register which will be the subject of periodic review. A lack of complaints recorded may indicate that staff do not recognise what a complaint is or have concerns that recording a complaint may reflect negatively upon themselves. Our management will make clear that complaints play a positive role in furthering us and may be seen as a valuable tool for future product or service development.   

The Financial Ombudsman Service Ombudsman 

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is an independent service get up by parliament to intervene in disputes between customers and financial institutions, when agreement cannot be reached between them. It is a free service.  As part of our complaint handling service we must make a customer aware of their right to approach the FOS.  

The FOS request that a complaint must first be placed to the company they are unhappy with. The FOS will assist customers with that first approach. We have up to eight weeks to deal with the complaint after which, if the customer is still unhappy, they can contact the FOS. 

Monitoring 

This policy and procedure will be reviewed (and updated where necessary) on a yearly basis or as and when the DISP rules are amended.