Creation Financial Services bashing

[Harrier25]

NorthernLass wrote:
@Harrier, aren’t you in danger of missing the 6 month cut off?

I think if you guys win then Creation will feel obliged to pay me off too.

[memesweeper]

JDB wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

@Harrier, aren’t you in danger of missing the 6 month cut off?

You have six years to complain to Creation! The six months to take to the FOS only kicks in once you have a final decision from Creation.

I’m not sure Creation will last six years. I got in early with my complaint in part because I can see their parent company looking for a swift UK exit.

[Lady London]

tw33ty wrote:

…[FOS] found in my favour after zero communication from creation, and

*****they request creation give me a card refund, points accrued until dec 10th and then financial compensation, which is a figure based on loss of night and inconvenience*****
suffered due to it all.

Yaay Well done Tw33ty.

Though I do agree with TGLoyalty I would probably only have commented on my own usage of Curve, but I do understand how these things can come up in conversation and an off the cuff remark can be made.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 1 month ago by .

[Benilyn]

jj wrote:

memesweeper wrote:

Rui N. wrote:

Jon wrote:

it is clearly referring to IHG adding or removing Rewards Club services and benefits

Not only that, but if anything was unclear to anyone about what Section 6 refers to, Section 6 includes a link to the IHG Rewards website.

The words in Section 6 are there to protect Creation from changes that IHG might make that customers don’t like. It can’t be construed as meaning anything else.

@memesweeper you are, of course, completely correct – but that’s not Creation is saying in its final response letters.

So my earlier comment regarding contract variations was about defence in depth. The argument is that Creation is mistaken when it says that it may vary its terms unilaterally. But, even if Creation’s reading is correct, the resultant interpretation would breach the FCA’s guidance and must therefore be struck out.

Do you mind sharing where/what FCA guidance it would breach. Thanks

[jj]

@Benilyn see my earlier post in this thread timestamped
11th April 2022 at 09:59

[jj]

JDB wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

@Harrier, aren’t you in danger of missing the 6 month cut off?

You have six years to complain to Creation! The six months to take to the FOS only kicks in once you have a final decision from Creation.

Almost, but not quite. You have 6 years to lodge a complaint with FOS, but you can’t go to FOS until you have a final response from Creation. So, in practice, you have five years and ten months.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I don’t recommend leaving things for long enough for the distinction to matter, though.

[Cranzle]

My contact at the FOS has said this issue hasn’t really hit their radar in any significant way. They also stated that Creation rarely respond to anything (across all products) and generally complaints are upheld on the basis of Creation no providing sufficient evidence.

[NorthernLass]

Interesting – how do they get Creation to comply with rulings if they won’t engage?

[JDB]

Cranzle wrote:

My contact at the FOS has said this issue hasn’t really hit their radar in any significant way. They also stated that Creation rarely respond to anything (across all products) and generally complaints are upheld on the basis of Creation no providing sufficient evidence.

Not sure your contact is on top of the facts! If you look on the FOS website you will see that there have been 41 decisions involving Creation FS from the start of 2021 to date. Of those, 22 were upheld and 19 were not upheld. Given the empirical evidence of the complete inaccuracy of second statement, perhaps the first should be taken with a pinch of salt but it must be nearer the mark than comments here suggesting there would be hundreds of complaints.

[Thegasman]

What I would say from reading past FOS cases is that Creation have a track record of submitting fairly weak responses to complaints leading to the initial case handler finding in customer’s favour. They then devote some significant resource to the appeal which they win, relying on what joe public would refer to as technicalities.

I must say I think some of the appeals seem to give undue weight to Creation’s arguments & ignore the oft quoted principles of “fairness” & favouring consumer where there is doubt. The fact they delay, obfuscate & ignore the initial stages should also count against them. All of the above leads me to believe the FOS is a weak organisation that fails to address the poor behaviour of many financial institutions.

The FCA are far more effective eg. the PPI scandal & remedy which was heavily tilted in favour of consumers. Unfortunately they won’t deal with individual cases.

[PeteM]

Thegasman wrote:

All of the above leads me to believe the FOS is a weak organisation that fails to address the poor behaviour of many financial institutions.

Agree entirely. I enquired about the status of my case with the FOS investigator and was told that “Creation’s current wait times are eight weeks plus. This isn’t them purposely delaying things, but unfortunately due to a backlog of requests they’ve had from our service.”

When I asked what the time limits for their response are I was told that “It’s not that they’re choosing to not engage with us. We liaise with Creation’s specific Financial Ombudsman Service team. And to remain fair, they respond to their requests and emails in date order. I’ve explained there is currently a backlog, so we are experiencing delays in their responses.”

I find it bizarre there are no time limits for an institution’s response…

[NorthernLass]

How long are they going to give them then? Didn’t someone post recently that the FOS found in their favour despite getting no response from Creation?

[Harrier25]

NorthernLass wrote:

How long are they going to give them then? Didn’t someone post recently that the FOS found in their favour despite getting no response from Creation?

Unfortunately FOS needs replacing because it’s not currently fit for purpose.

[PeteM]

NorthernLass wrote:

How long are they going to give them then? Didn’t someone post recently that the FOS found in their favour despite getting no response from Creation?

Despite asking that exact question directly four times I got four evasive answers, so presumably as long as Creation wish. Not quite sure if it depends on the investigator, but I did not get the impression mine is in any hurry.

[Lady London]

If Creation is now wanting to be indulged in terms of lead times by the FOS then perhaps they should have arranged proper processes and staffing before they treated whole tranches of their consumer customers badly. If FOS was competent it would put a stop to this. Or perhaps FOS really exists to protect the finance industry and not the consumer.

The way the FOS is reported to have been behaving, seems similar to reports of the CAA’s lack of action in calling time on blatantly anti-consumer behaviour patterns of British Airways. It’s almost as though the FOS will keep extending Creation time to reply until Creation finally comes up with the correct anti-consumer response.

[NorthernLass]

Someone also posted that the FOS had told them something to the effect that the Creation complaints aren’t even a blip on their radar so which one is it?!

[PeteM]

Well if the Creation “FOS Team” is Lesley who works Tuesday and Wednesday mornings you can see how she’d be overwhelmed. And that sort of volume wouldn’t register at the FOS itself! 🤣

[NorthernLass]

It’s almost as though they had no idea people would be upset with them.

[memesweeper]

I assume one could send a Letter Before Action to Creation giving them 14 days to either settle with you *or* respond to FOS. If they do not respond in 14 days, move to MCOL? IANAL but I can’t imagine the courts will entertain indefinite titting about by one party at a dispute resolution service thus preventing a proper hearing in court.

Meanwhile we hear that Creation are asking for more time to defend actions that have been raised at MCOL. *Surely* they have researched their position thoroughly and can confidently defend these actions with copy-and-paste responses? What on earth do they need more time for? … cobbling something together ex post facto perhaps?

• This reply was modified 55 years, 1 month ago by .

[Lady London]

Creation’s tactic appears to wear people down by infinite delay and ignoring customer complaints. Then only get the big guns out and actually put someone professionally skilled when it looks like they might be going to lose. I.e. they have a tactic of only deigning to pay professional attention at 2nd level of FOS sfter initial FOS handler has upheld the complaint against them. Or presumably, Crestion might just get out of bed for an MCOL.

By not acting to limit the time Creation has to respond to complaints FOS is making themselves look really bad. It hints of bias in FOS process towards providers.

[rams]

Curve sent a refund to my cancelled Creation card. No idea why. On hold for an hour to Creation to get it transferred and still waiting. I called 03713769236. Is there a better phone number/way to sort this?

[NorthernLass]

I got a refund of the £99 fee after I submitted my initial complaint to them. I’ve just left the credit on the account for now as I don’t want Creation trying to claim that by accepting the refund I’ve given up my rights to my points and free nights!

[memesweeper]

NorthernLass wrote:

I got a refund of the £99 fee after I submitted my initial complaint to them. I’ve just left the credit on the account for now as I don’t want Creation trying to claim that by accepting the refund I’ve given up my rights to my points and free nights!

Good. You paid £ 99 for a year’s service, the least they can do is refund it. Absolutely doesn’t get them out of any other contractual obligations. Not accepting it means they can’t claim you’ve taken their money as some kind of complete settlement.

[EwanG]

NorthernLass wrote:

I got a refund of the £99 fee after I submitted my initial complaint to them. I’ve just left the credit on the account for now as I don’t want Creation trying to claim that by accepting the refund I’ve given up my rights to my points and free nights!

Another benefit is your account is not closed, helping the clock tick down to your anniversary! 😉

[Rui N.]

Highly doubtful that is in any way relevant for the definition of the account being “not closed”.