Complaints | The Claims Bureau

1. TITLE COMPLAINTS POLICY

2. POLICY STATEMENT

We strive to provide the best service at all times, unfortunately however, sometimes the customer may feel that our service did not meet their expectations. It’s very important to us that our customers are able to provide feedback about the issues they are facing, so that we can improve and prevent the same issues from occurring in the future.

Any and all complaints should be taken seriously at The Claims Bureau (TCB). Employees should have a proactive attitude to resolution. A complaint is defined as:

‘Any expression of dissatisfaction, whether oral or written, and whether justified or not, from or on behalf of an eligible complainant about the firm's provision of, or failure to provide, a service’.

3. PURPOSE

To ensure that all customer complaints are dealt with in an efficient and effective manner, and that customers are aware of what to expect when they make a complaint to us.

4. SCOPE

All employees who interact with or whose work includes servicing the customer should be familiar with this policy, so that they are able to correctly inform and direct the customer towards a resolution. This is of vital importance to employees who take part in resolving customer complaints or whose responsibilities include supervising complaint handlers.

5. OBJECTIVE

Outline the process for us to effectively record and deal with a complaint from a customer.

Inform the customer of their right to refer their complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman and the information they need to be aware of.

6. POLICY DETAILS

This section covers the information we provide to customers in regard to our complaints policy and process.

6.1 Complaint Policy

We are very sorry that you feel we have not provided the service that you expected, and we are grateful that you are taking the time to let us know about the issues you are facing.

Please be assured that complaints will be taken seriously at The Claims Bureau (TCB) with a proactive attitude being taken to resolution. Below is everything you need to know about making a complaint and what you can expect from us.

6.2 Contacting us:

Our office hours are Monday – Thursday 8.30am – 5pm. Friday 8.30am to 2.00pm.

6.3 How to complain:

You can complain to us in three different ways:

1. Call us on 01903 868251

2. Email us at: info@theclaimsbureau.co.uk

3. Write to us:

The Claims Bureau Limited

Suite 3, Anchor Springs

Duke Street

Littlehampton

BN17 6BP

6.4 Once a complaint has been received, we will:

Send you a prompt written acknowledgement of your complaint to reassure you that we have received your complaint and are dealing with it, and
Thereafter, keep you informed of the progress of the measures being taken to resolve your complaint;

investigate the complaint competently, diligently and impartially, obtaining additional information as necessary;
assess fairly, consistently and promptly:

(a) the subject matter of the complaint;

(b) whether the complaint should be upheld;

(d) if appropriate, whether it has reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another respondent may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint;

taking into account all relevant factors;

offer redress or remedial action when we decide this is appropriate;
explain promptly and, in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading, our assessment of your complaint, our decision on it, and any offer of remedial action or redress; and
comply promptly with any offer of remedial action or redress accepted by the complainant.

6.5 Complaints resolved within 3 working days:

If we resolve your complaint within three business days from the day you make it, we will write to you confirming that the complaint has been resolved and provide you with a summary resolution communication. We will only consider a complaint to be resolved within this timeframe when you indicate your acceptance of our response.

6.6 Forwarding a Complaint

Where we have reasonable grounds to be satisfied that a third party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in in your complaint, we may forward your complaint or the relevant part of it, in writing to the relevant third party, we will:

do so promptly;
inform you promptly in our final response of why your complaint has been forwarded by us to the third party, and of their contact details; and
where jointly responsible for the fault alleged in your complaint, we shall comply with our own obligations in respect of the part of your complaint we have not forwarded.

6.7 Complaints not resolved within 3 days:

If we cannot resolve your complaint within three business days from the day you make it, we will send you a written acknowledgement letter, letting you know that we’ve received the complaint and that we are looking into it. We will provide this acknowledgement to you promptly and no later than five days after the day we receive your complaint. Once we receive your complaint, our complaint handler will investigate the cause and circumstances surrounding your complaint. Within 8 weeks from the date of your complaint, our complaint handler will send you either:

1. 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

2. 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 Claims Management Ombudsman (a Financial Ombudsman Service) if you are dissatisfied with the delay.

Within our final response, we will either:

• Accept the complaint and, where appropriate, offer redress or remedial action;

• Offer redress or remedial action without accepting the complaint; or

• Reject the complaint and give reasons for doing so.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you have the right to make a formal complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman (part of the Financial Ombudsman Service) who will investigate the complaint independently. For more information on this, please see the information on the Claims Management Ombudsman below.

6.8 The Claims Management Ombudsman

If we have not provided you with a final response within 8 weeks from the date you made your complaint or if you are not satisfied with our final response, you have the right to complain to the Claims Management Ombudsman (part of the Financial Ombudsman Service), their contact details can be found below.

Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0800 023 4567

Address: Financial Ombudsman Service, Harbour Exchange Square, London E14 9SR.

Online: https://cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/complain-online

For further information, you can visit the Claims Management Ombudsman’s website at https://cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

If you wish to raise your complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman, doing so is free but you must do this within six months from the date of our final response unless we have expressly said otherwise within our final response. You can find more information on the services provided by the Financial Ombudsman Service by visiting their website at https://cmc.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complain

When we send you our final response, we will also provide you with a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s explanatory Leaflet. You can also view this explanatory leaflet by visiting https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/resolving-complaint/ordering-leaflet/leaflet

There are certain types of complaints that are outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction. Before you refer the matter to the Ombudsman you may wish to contact them on 0800 023 4567 to discuss your complaint. You can also visit the Financial Ombudsman Service website for more information. This includes details of how to make a complaint against the business and provides a questionnaire for you to complete.

We have a duty to cooperate fully with the Ombudsman and comply promptly with any settlements or awards made by it.

6.9 Time-barred Complaints

Where we receive a complaint outside of the time limit for FOS referral, we may reject the complaint without considering its merits. In these circumstances, we will notify you within a final response explaining our reasoning.

7. INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

The above details show how a customer can complain to us. The details of how an employee should deal with a complaint are shown in the ‘Complaints Procedure’ located at “R:\Compliance Policies\Complaint\Complaint Forms and Letters”.

The nominated person is identified in the Governance Handbook. They are responsible for oversight of the compliance with our complaint rules set out in this policy, as well as ensuring that this policy is kept up to date with the current regulations, and that all relevant employees are notified of any changes to the complaint process.

To treat the customer fairly, all complaints must be investigated impartially, and any offered resolution must be complied with promptly. We have a 3-tier process for auditing and to assure quality of the investigation:

The person who investigates the complaint is expected to review it before the complaint is closed and any resolution is offered. The Department manager will review and sign-off the complaint.
The Senior Manager will complete a quarterly spot-check for quality assurance.
We use the service of New South Law, an external law firm to audit our compliance, which includes making sure that the complaint procedure and policy is adhered to. These checks will be done on an annual basis unless any significant changes are implemented by the regulatory body, which warrant earlier audits.

7.1 Complaint Recording

All complaints must be recorded and kept up to date on proclaim, irrespective of whether they are same day resolutions or complaints requiring further investigation. The Complaint Assessment Form used to work out a resolution is available here R:\Compliance Policies\Complaint\Complaint Forms and Letters. A complaint handler needs to update this form for every complaint and every time there is a substantial change in circumstances which warrants a new look at the offer of resolution we can give.

Each complaint will be investigated by the relevant complaint handler and all responses will be issued by him/her. Client letters are accessible from Proclaim and are available here: R:\Compliance Policies\Complaint\Complaint Forms and Letters\Complaint Letter Examples.

The complaint handler will need to have a manager sign-off the complaint and any redress or remediation offered will need to be authorised by a suitable superior before offering to the client. Details of this are included in the complaint procedure document. An executive summary will be prepared for the directors of the business quarterly and all trends will be analysed. This will allow us to identify root causes of complaints as well as recurring and systematic problems.

Remedial training programs will be developed and/or changes to processes and systems to improve the customer experience/make the process more efficient. Changes will be made within one month of the executive summary being discussed.

If a recurring or systematic problem is identified, we need to complete an impact assessment, located at R:\Compliance Policies\Complaint\Complaint Forms and Letters to identify the issue, scale and severity of impact on customers. Using this assessment, we will consider whether to also act in regard to the position of customers who have not complained. If appropriate, we will act to ensure they are pro-actively offered a remediation to provide fair treatment.

The Ombudsman Service cannot consider a complaint if it’s referred more than six months after the date on which TCB sent the customer our final response or a ‘Summary Resolution Communication’ or more than six years after the event which the complaint is about, or (if later) three years from the date on which the customer became aware that he had cause for complaint. Complaints we receive outside of the above time periods may be rejected with a clear explanation as to the reasons being sent to the customer.

7.2 Data Retention

Our Data Retention policy explains how long we will retain the customer’s data (including any complaint information) for. We are required by the FCA to retain the complaint records for a period of 3 years. If a customer makes a complaint after that time, we may no longer have any of their data and so will be unable to investigate the complaint further.

7.3 FCA Reporting

The FCA require us to make an annual report on complaints. We must report on the numbers of complaints received, along with the reasons for complaints and any redress paid to customers. The report must be submitted within 30 business days of our Account Reference Date (ARD – 30th November). If the number of complaints in the 12-month reporting period exceeds 1000, we will be required to publish that complaint data.