Complaints procedures

Any expression of dissatisfaction from or on behalf of a customer whether oral, electronic, or written and whether justified or not, which includes an actual or potential financial loss, material distress, or material inconvenience.

To be ‘eligible’ it must also be about the provision of (or the failure to provide) a regulated activity or product. In this context, ’eligible’ means a complaint that must be treated according to the prescribed procedures i...

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... provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service or a redress determination, which:

(a) alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience; and

(b) relates to an activity of that respondent, or of any other respondent with whom that respondent has some connection in marketing or providing financial services or products, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service.”

In this section, examples are given to help to illustrate the difference between a complaint that must be dealt with in line with regulatory requirements and one which may be dealt with less formally.

Brief examples of hard and soft complaints:

A customer calls to complain that his call has not been returned.

In this case it has to be assessed whether or not the customer has lost out financially or been caused material distress or inconvenience. It is likely that there has only been the minor annoyance of having to call again, in which case this can be treated as a ‘soft’ complaint.

A customer calls to complain that he has been incorrectly advised to invest in risky assets when he had explained his need for instant access to the full amount of his initial investment, which has now been depleted in a volatile fu...

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...arrangements with a view to, or administering any regulated product. There is a wide range of regulated products, including investments, mortgages (residential and consumer buy to let) and insurance. There are some investments, commercial mortgages, unregulated collective investments and warranty products (unless sold as an insurance product) that are unregulated. Complaints about these are neither subject to the rules on complaint handling and cannot be referred to the FOS.. Firms may still use the same procedure.

Means of Communication

A firm cannot insist that complaints are made by letter. Verbal complaints, those submitted via email and even complaints made via social media must be considered if it is appropriate to do so.

If a complaint is not deemed eligible, the complainant cannot:

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