Introduction
Turney & Associates Ltd is always conscious of its duty to service its customers fairly. However, it recognises that there may be occasions when things go wrong, and when its customers have cause to complain.
The FCA sets out detailed requirements for the handling of complaints by regulated firms in its Dispute Resolution (DISP) sourcebook.
Turney & Associates Ltd recognises that, whilst a customer who has complained is clearly a dissatisfied customer, that handling a complaint well and admitting wrongdoing and providing sufficient redress where it is due can help to retain customers.
This procedure is designed to:
- Allow staff to identify a complaint when they receive one
- Inform staff of what they ought to do should they receive a complaint
- Explain how a complaint will be investigated
- Clarify how Turney & Associates Ltd will liaise with the Financial Ombudsman Service, if applicable.
We will ensure that our complaints handling procedures are available to complainants in the following ways, as appropriate:
- By providing complainants with written notification that complaints handling procedures exist, which will be at, or immediately after, the point of sale
- By referring to the complaints handling procedures in our client agreement, terms of business or key features document
- Publish details of the complaints handling procedures
What is a complaint?
The FCA defines a complaint as:
“Any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service; and which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.”
Complaints must be accepted in the form they are received, e.g. letter, telephone call, email, fax, personal visit, etc. If you receive an oral complaint, it is not acceptable to ask the complainant to put the matter in writing before it can be looked at. There will be no charge for the handling of a complaint.
Similarly, complaints received from other parties who are acting on behalf of Turney & Associates Ltd customers must also be treated in the same way as if the customer themselves had made the complaint. It is not acceptable to ignore the complaint because it has not been made directly by one of our customers. This might apply to complaints received from claims management companies, solicitors or relatives. For the purposes of this Complaints Procedure, the person or firm submitting the complaint is referred to as the ‘complainant’ whereas the person they are complaining on behalf of is referred to as the ‘customer’.
What should you do on receiving a complaint?
Almost any member of staff of Turney & Associates Ltd could conceivably receive a complaint. Remember that complaints can be made in a variety of ways, so as an employee of Turney & Associates Ltd you could receive a complaint if you ever:
- Receive customers in the office, or visit them at their home or another location
- Conduct telephone conversations with customers
- Read emails sent by customers
- Handle the firm’s post
If you receive a complaint, you should gather as much information as possible about the complaint, and complete the attached Complaints Form as fully as possible. The form should then be forwarded to Mark Turney Managing Director and Complaints Officer.
If you are in any doubt as to whether the grievance meets the FCA definition of a complaint, i.e. ‘financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience’, you should still escalate the matter, as failing to identify a complaint correctly will mean that Turney & Associates Ltd has breached the FCA’s complaints rules.
Once you have gathered all the information about the complaint, you should ask yourself whether it is reasonable to be able to resolve the matter by the end of the third business day following receipt. For example, if a complainant says they have not been provided with important documentation, it may be enough to apologise to the customer and ensure that the missing documentation is provided immediately.
If a complaint is resolved within three business days, a summary response letter will be sent to the customer and the complaint will be logged in Turney & Associates Ltd.’s complaints register.
However, if a complainant has a more complex complaint, making it unrealistic to expect the matter to be settled within three business days; or the complainant does not accept the attempts made to resolve the complaint, then the detailed complaints investigation process detailed below needs to be followed.
How will a complaint be investigated?
Mark Turney Managing Director and Complaints Officer will be responsible for investigating complaints. Mark Turney may on occasion delegate some of the work involved in a complaint investigation, but he retains overall responsibility for the investigation and will have the final say on whether to uphold or reject a complaint and on the redress (if any) to be offered to the customer.
In order to maintain impartiality, if a complaint was to directly concern Mark Turney, responsibility for investigating the complaint would be passed to B-Compliant our compliance support firm.
The first step will be to send a complaint acknowledgement letter to the complainant within five business days of receiving the complaint. This letter will summarise the complaint as Turney & Associates Ltd understands it and explain the investigation process to be followed.
Mark Turney will consider all available evidence, such as the firm’s records of dealings with that customer, when investigating a complaint. If necessary, he will contact the complainant with any queries, or to seek further evidence. If necessary, he will also interview staff members who have dealt with the customer in question to seek their recollections.
Based on this evidence Mark Turney will then reach a decision as to whether the complaint is justified, and whether the complaint should be upheld, partially upheld or rejected. If he decides that the customer has been disadvantaged as a result of the way Turney & Associates Ltd handled the issue, then he will also make a decision as to what redress, financial or otherwise, would be appropriate.
It should be noted that the burden of proof used when investigating complaints is not the same as the ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ principle used in criminal courts. It is not up to either side to prove whether a particular event occurred, and if there is conflicting evidence, Turney & Associates Ltd must make its decision based on the ‘balance of probabilities’, i.e. what it believes is most likely to have happened.
Notifying the outcome of investigations
Immediately such a decision is reached, Turney & Associates Ltd will send a letter to the complainant, known as a Final Response letter. This letter will set out whether the complaint is being upheld, partially upheld or rejected, and explain the reasons as to why such a decision has been reached. Details will also be given in this letter of any redress, financial or otherwise, is offered.
Where it is judged that financial loss has occurred as a result of the firm’s actions, then the level of financial redress paid for this should be sufficient to put the customer back in the position they would have been in had they not been disadvantaged by the firm’s actions.
It may also be appropriate to offer additional payment for material distress or material inconvenience.
Regardless of the decision Turney & Associates Ltd reaches on a complaint, the complainant must be given the right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). A complainant might, for example, disagree with the decision to reject a complaint, or might think that insufficient redress has been offered, and in each of these circumstances they have the right to ask the FOS to adjudicate on the matter. The FOS will consider such matters, for example as to whether the complainant is an ‘eligible complainant’; or whether it would be more suitable for the complaint to be dealt with by a court, arbitration or another complaints scheme.
The Final Response letter will inform the complainant that they have six months from the date of the letter to refer the complaint to the FOS. A copy of the FOS leaflet entitled ‘Your complaint and the ombudsman’ will be enclosed with the letter.
FOS contact details:
Tel: 0800 023 4567
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Postal address: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
Turney & Associates Ltd will endeavour to complete all of its complaint investigations as soon as possible. But in the unlikely event that it is unable to complete these investigations within eight weeks of the date of receiving the complaint, then it will write to the complainant advising them of this and informing them of the reasons for the delay and the length of time it believes it will take to complete the investigations. If a letter of this nature is sent to the complainant, then the letter also needs to give details of their right to refer the complaint to the FOS, and the FOS leaflet needs to be enclosed with the letter.
Turney & Associates Ltd will co-operate fully with the FOS should a complaint be referred to them and will comply promptly with their requests for information.
In the event that Turney & Associates Ltd disagrees with the decision made by a FOS adjudicator, it has the option of an appeal to an Ombudsman. No further appeals procedure is available to Turney & Associates Ltd after this, and we must accept the decision made by the Ombudsman if the customer also accepts it. In these circumstances, we must also comply with the redress instructions of the FOS.
Please note however that the requirement to make the complainant aware of the FOS does not apply if the complaint is ‘time-barred’. The FOS will not consider a complaint if it is more than six years since the event the customer is complaining about, or if later, it is more than three years since the customer should reasonably have known that there were grounds for complaint.
Complaints about other firms
On occasion, Turney & Associates Ltd might decide that a complaint received by Turney & Associates Ltd is in fact wholly or partially a complaint about another firm. For example, the complaint may actually be about the activities of another firm with which Turney & Associates Ltd works closely.
If it is decided that the complaint solely concerns another firm, the details of the complaint will be forwarded to that firm. A Final Response letter will be sent to the complainant, explaining that the complaint has been forwarded to the other firm. The letter will give the other firm’s contact details and summarise the reasons why Turney & Associates Ltd believes the complaint does not relate to us. However, the complainant must be allowed to appeal against any decision that the complaint does not relate to us, so the Final Response will give details of the complainant’s right to refer the matter to the FOS, and the FOS leaflet will be sent with the Final Response.
If it is decided that the complaint relates partially to Turney & Associates Ltd and partially to another firm, then Turney & Associates Ltd will continue its investigations into the part of the complaint which concerns us. The part which concerns another firm will be forwarded to them and the complainant shall be informed in writing that this has occurred.
In the event, that Turney & Associates Ltd receives a complaint forwarded from another firm it will deal with the matter in the same way as all other complaints received from or on behalf of the customer.
Actions to be taken once a complaint has been closed
Records need to be kept of which products/services and/or business areas the complaints received by Turney & Associates Ltd relate to. This will allow Turney & Associates Ltd to identify any trends which may need to be addressed.
However, even a single complaint could necessitate Turney & Associates Ltd taking action. Once a complaint has been closed, Mark Turney will consider the lessons to be learnt from the complaint (including root cause analysis), and whether any of the following are required:
- A change to the firm’s practices or procedures
- Additional training for the staff member(s) concerned with the complaint
- Additional training for all staff
- Disciplinary action against the staff member(s) concerned with the complaint
The complaint should also be reviewed in terms of the firm’s breaches policy and consideration given as to whether a regulatory breach has occurred of which the FCA should be informed.
The firm are also required to report complaints to the FCA as part of routine complaints data reporting, which includes any obligations in relation to ongoing alerts for retail adviser complaints.
In line with the policy requirements, the firm must consider and make the necessary notifications to its insurers under its PII policy of any actual or potential complaint. This must be done at the earliest opportunity.
