Creation Financial Services bashing

[John]

Rui N. wrote:

I actually have one example of a company that never got back to me regarding a complaint first submitted over one year ago. This is my water provider, to which I’ve complained by email and post, never heard a peep. I’ve raised the issue to the “Consumer Council for Water”, they never replied to them and apparently never even picked up the phone on the multiple occasions that they’ve tried to contact them (the lady responsible for my case said she had never seen such a thing).

Which water company is that? I had a similar problem with Leep Utilities, though they did eventually reply to the CCW and me after 3 months.

[Rui N.]

They’ve increased the number of posts per page. See the news on the main website today.

[SGJNI]

My IHG Black card continues to perform as promised, no issues with points, spending or free nights. Have I done something wrong????

[SteveJ]

SGJNI wrote:

My IHG Black card continues to perform as promised, no issues with points, spending or free nights. Have I done something wrong????

Yes, you probably missed out on a Trillion easy IHG points by gaming the system. Or at least that’s the narrative Creation seem to be peddling.

[jj]

My delayed complaint final response arrived today. Creation is willing to refund the indefensible £99 annual fee that they charged me on 20 November, but, as expected, the voucher and points will not be honoured. The justification is that “Section 6 of the Terms and Conditions for IHG Rewards confirms that services and benefits may be added and removed at any time without notice to cardholders.” As a result, “Points ceased being transferred to IHG after notification of the account closure was issued… Free night certificates will also no longer be issued.”

No need for me to repeat what others have said about this being nonsense on stilts. Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to FOS we go.

[EvilGazebo]

jj wrote:

My delayed complaint final response arrived today. Creation is willing to refund the indefensible £99 annual fee that they charged me on 20 November, but, as expected, the voucher and points will not be honoured. The justification is that “Section 6 of the Terms and Conditions for IHG Rewards confirms that services and benefits may be added and removed at any time without notice to cardholders.” As a result, “Points ceased being transferred to IHG after notification of the account closure was issued… Free night certificates will also no longer be issued.”

No need for me to repeat what others have said about this being nonsense on stilts. Hey ho, hey ho, it’s off to FOS we go.

I got what sounds like an extremely similar letter, same justification wording etc.

Except they are also refusing to refund the £99. Given my fee was paid in June I can only assume that is why. Already escalated to FOS.

[Jon]

It’s quite astonishing that they seem to be putting so much store in Section 6 as their justification, when even a cursory glance at the actual wording of that clause would show that not only does it not say what they say it does, but it also does not mean what they think it does…

[Lady London]

Update for those who’ve decided to choose the FOS route.

Average time for FOS to complete dealing with a complaint now, was stated in the press today as 7 months. They are saying they are aiming to reduce that to 4 months. They have apparently more or less halved their backlog in nearly the past year

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Jon]

Is anyone else going direct to MCOL rather than FOS?

I have good reason for wanting this resolved a lot sooner than seven months from now, preferably less than four, so I’m thinking MCOL might be the quicker route (?).

[Aston100]

Geoggy wrote:

Just submitted my complaint to FOS online. Can concur it is very easy to do.

Must admit all the counter arguments in this thread have made me procrastinate on doing this, but the realisation that the only motivation and the time taken for certain factions to do this had to be deliberate.

If it isn’t, maybe get out more?

This. Exactly this.
Just think what JDB has achieved here.
What he has done is either put people off from taking the matter further, or made people procrastinate through self-doubt and some scaremongering.
Perhaps JDB hopes that if people delay long enough, his pals and/or employers at Creation will win the war of attrition.

JDB is undoubtedly a Creation shill, with some kind of damage limitation plan.

[Rui N.]

John wrote:

Rui N. wrote:

I actually have one example of a company that never got back to me regarding a complaint first submitted over one year ago. This is my water provider, to which I’ve complained by email and post, never heard a peep. I’ve raised the issue to the “Consumer Council for Water”, they never replied to them and apparently never even picked up the phone on the multiple occasions that they’ve tried to contact them (the lady responsible for my case said she had never seen such a thing).

Which water company is that? I had a similar problem with Leep Utilities, though they did eventually reply to the CCW and me after 3 months.

Bingo! Leep it is.

[Lady London]

Jon wrote:

Is anyone else going direct to MCOL rather than FOS?

I have good reason for wanting this resolved a lot sooner than seven months from now, preferably less than four, so I’m thinking MCOL might be the quicker route (?).

@memesweeper mentioned MCOL.

I’d be doing MCOL. Though I don’t regard the two as mutually exclusive, at all. Just FOS decisions too many instances reported over the years of MCOL going the right way when CEDR and some ombudsman, the FOS in parricular, didn’t.

Plus compensation I’ve seen in many reports awarded by the FOS for some quite serious mistreatment, years of fighting and stress to get sorted out – and FOS awards some pathetic amount like £75 or £150 for stress and inconvenience. I’d pay that for a lunch and I’m not rich.

Then there are the delays with FOS, 18 months has been not at all unknown and the strong suspicion that quite a few of their ombudsmen who decide your case with them, are not actually very good. (They’ve made a lot of redundancies, spending a bit on consultants, recruiting some more, and reorganising, so things may well improve but they’re definitely not there yet.)

[Jon]

Lady London wrote:

Then there are the delays with FOS, 18 months has been not at all unknown and the strong suspicion that quite a few of their ombudsmen who decide your case with them, are not actually very good. (They’ve made a lot of redundancies, spending a bit on consultants, recruiting some more, and reorganising, so things may well improve but they’re definitely not there yet.)

That was my concern really. I’ve sent my Letter Before Action and given them 21 days to respond, so we’ll see what happens and take it from there. I have my court submission written and ready to go…

[NorthernLass]

We’ll be taking submitting our cases to the FOS when we get back from the half term holiday. I think it would be asked why FOS hadn’t been at least tried if we went straight to MCOL. I don’t actually want compensation, just what I consider that Creation owes us. I’m not particularly bothered how long it takes either, as I’ve plenty of trips to take in the meantime which are already paid for.

Nothing anyone has said on here has affected my decision, it’s purely been down to how many other commitments I have that it’s taken this long!

[Paul B]

I don’t suppose someone is happy to kindly share their FOS or MCOL template? I guess we all have the same complaint and expecting pretty much the same recourse those few whom have been offered a refund of their card fee aside.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[NorthernLass]

The FOS submission can be done online. I’ll just be referring to the terms of the card, stating what I haven’t had which I think I should have had, and citing a monetary value in the event that this is offered instead of points and free nights. I’m not going to mention the £99 fee as I don’t want it muddying the waters – as LL has pointed out, that is for the use of the card and isn’t a substitute for the other benefits.

[Lady London]

Paul B wrote:

I don’t suppose someone is happy to kindly share their FOS or MCOL template? I guess we all have the same complaint and expecting pretty much the same recourse those few whom have been offered a refund of their card fee aside.

I believe when @memesweeper wins his MCOL he will consider sharing an example of a template via PM, with strict confidentiality with each individual and subject to the usual ‘at your own risk’ caveats. For a very reasonable contribution equivalent to 1/3rd of the Creation prepaid annual fee, ie £33.

[wideboys182]

FOS complaint submitted. Happy to wait 7 months if it means I take £200-500 back of Creation for this mis-handling of this.

Complaint raised to IHG them at they should look for a new partner in the UK given Creation is not even listed a s partner of their complaints page

[NorthernLass]

I’m very reluctant to involve IHG in this as they actually can shut you down without any recourse to the FOS or anyone else if they feel like it! And have been known to do on occasion.

[Rui N.]

There is always recourse. Courts exist for a reason.
We even have someone in this forum that was considering taking them to court in Georgia.

[wideboys182]

Well this is interesting as IHG came back to my query. Quicker than expected stating

“ I received your email about Creations Finance that is no longer our list of providers. Partnership with Creations Finance and IHG Rewards has ended effective October 1, 2021. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you. Should you need further assistance in regard to this matter, you may contact Creation Customer Service at 0371-376-9214.”

[Thegasman]

If that’s true then it’s very interesting. Presumably there is a notice period as some cards remain open & earning points but it would certainly partially explain the decision to send out the mass closure letters on 30th September (knowing Creation they probably pre dated them by a few days).

[SteveJ]

wideboys182 wrote:

Well this is interesting as IHG came back to my query. Quicker than expected stating

“ I received your email about Creations Finance that is no longer our list of providers. Partnership with Creations Finance and IHG Rewards has ended effective October 1, 2021. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you. Should you need further assistance in regard to this matter, you may contact Creation Customer Service at 0371-376-9214.”

Useful info, cash alternative is definitely the recourse with Creation. 1,000 points sold for $13.50 by IHG/points, that’s the valuation for a cash equivalent claim for points.

[Jon]

That is interesting. Would the end of the partnership actually prevent Creation from being able to issue points and free night vouchers? Which might explain their refusal to do so. Although presumably they could buy points at standard rates if need be. Not so sure about vouchers. And it certainly doesn’t excuse them not giving any notice of that – and leaves the question of how/whether they’re still issuing to those who haven’t had their cards closed… Is there anyone here who still has an open Creation IHG card and *has* received points after October 1st?

[SteveJ]

Jon wrote:

That is interesting. Would the end of the partnership actually prevent Creation from being able to issue points and free night vouchers? Which might explain their refusal to do so. Although presumably they could buy points at standard rates if need be. Not so sure about vouchers. And it certainly doesn’t excuse them not giving any notice of that – and leaves the question of how/whether they’re still issuing to those who haven’t had their cards closed… Is there anyone here who still has an open Creation IHG card and *has* received points after October 1st?

My card was closed Dec 3rd, the last points transfer I had was mid October, so the 1st Oct date certainly wasn’t a closure of the door between IHG and Creation