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Just bit the bullet and rang the FOS after 6 months of hearing nothing whatsoever from them. Got through straight away, on a plus. I spoke to a call handler who initially said he couldn’t find my complaint, then said he wasn’t able to see any details apart from the initial case reference. This apparently could be due to anything from an IT issue to Creation “restricting the case”, whatever that means! Now waiting to hear back from the team he had to refer it to.
Anyone else come across anything similar?!Your post just convinced me to ring them Anna…
I could hear them mumbling something about not finding anything and they asked to re-confirm the case number.
I now have to wait a few days for another team to call me back with an update.
Have they really “lost” a swathe of cases?
How annoying, but I am quite relieved it’s not just me! I wonder if you spoke to the same person, lol. He did suggest they might all be being dealt with en bloc, but I pointed out that that didn’t explain why I hadn’t had a single update, even to say that a case handler had been assigned.
Definitely not the same person as I spoke to a female!
She was not forthcoming with any speculation at all, just the fact someone will contact me hopefully today but more likely next week.
I raised my complaint with the Ombudsman early to mid February (my auto response with the case number is from 15th Feb).
My account was shut down immediately after the notification, rather than in December.
Now, if they were working on these together then why are there examples in this very thread of peoples complaints progressing…
I was told to expect an email in the next 48 hours but I’m not holding my breath. Let us know if your hear anything!
Given the thread is alive again, I’ll provide my unexciting update: my MCOL has been transferred to an actual court. I might need to put together a decent evidence pack…
I was told to expect an email in the next 48 hours but I’m not holding my breath. Let us know if your hear anything!
I was just told the same (registered my case in Jan). Was told that a ‘team have been assigned to these cases, but not an individual handler’
Email through already:
“At the moment the case is still in the queue to be allocated to an investigator. I’m sorry for the time it’s taking, our timescales aren’t where we would like them to be at the moment as we are experiencing high volumes of complaints being referred to us. In fairness to all of our consumers we are dealing with complaints in the order that we received them. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a timescale on when your case might be allocated this as each case varies in complexity and so it’s hard to say how long each case ahead of yours in the queue will take.
I can assure you that the complaint is in the right place and it hasn’t been forgotten. We’ll be in touch to let you know as soon as the case is allocated. The investigator will contact you directly to introduce themselves and to let you know they are now dealing with the complaint.”
I’ve got the same. This beggars belief, frankly, especially as other people have submitted cases later and had them dealt with! I’m wondering if something else is actually going on now.
That occurred to me too. I wonder if they’re either combining under one big case or waiting to see how Creation respond to the initial cases which have progressed
This would be perfectly reasonable, but in that case why not communicate it? The most basic customer service standards would be to send a generic email to each complainant with this information. I’m thinking more along the lines that a bunch of cases were given to someone who’s then left or gone on long term sick without doing anything with them, or Creation has launched some counter-offensive that they don’t know how to deal with!
I received the following acknowledgement today of my complaint, first made last week, to FOS:
“Your complaint about Creation Financial Services Limited
… We try to resolve complaints as quickly as we can. But there’s currently a very high demand for our service – so it might take around four months before a case handler gets in touch with you and starts looking into your complaint. It could be more – or less – time than this, depending on what your complaint is about.
To find out more about our timescales for different types of complaint, look at the ‘how long it take’s section on our website … If you can’t access our website, call us on 0800 023 4567 or write to us at our postal address.
What you can do
When a case handler gets in touch, they’ll want to get your side of your story. So you might find it helpful to keep a note of the events that led to your complaint – and to keep records of your communications with the business you’re complaining about. The case handler will also find that helpful when they speak to you in due course.”
By lodging a formal complaint with FOS, I have already given “my side of my story.” I infer that “keeping a note of the events” is not so much something I might find helpful, but that they would find helpful if there is some loss of data their end.
“If your circumstances change
Please let us know straightaway if your circumstances change – or something happens that could affect your complaint. For example if Creation Financial Services Limited makes an offer…” I don’t think that is likely, again unless they know something I don’t.That’s the standard reply on first submission – I would have been quite happy to get a case handler after 4 months!
I always keep a copy of my “side of the story” (terrible wording, implies they don’t believe you) as I am fully aware of how easily things go missing. I imagine a lot of people who don’t have much experience of submitting reports don’t include sufficient detail and the FOS will need to chase this up to get the full picture.
Creation doesn’t seem to be in the mood to make offers, from what other posters have said!I registered my case with the Financial Ombudsman last month on 23 August 2022 and received an email on 01 September 2022 saying “it might take around four months before a case handler gets in touch with you”. However I received an email today with a link to a secure message saying that my case handler had been appointed yesterday.
I registered my case with the Financial Ombudsman last month on 23 August 2022 and received an email on 01 September 2022 saying “it might take around four months before a case handler gets in touch with you”. However I received an email today with a link to a secure message saying that my case handler had been appointed yesterday.
Nobody likes a show off!!!
Smiley face.
I didn’t get any email regarding delays… I’d rather hear *something*!
Had another email from FOS today assuring me that case handlers are allocated strictly on chronological basis, which is garbage as OH’s complaint went in after mine and he was allocated a case handler in June (though not heard anything further). And posts here confirming otherwise, of course. Claimed they are still in the process of allocating cases which were submitted prior to March. I call BS.
I dare you to politely write back to them and point out the growing concern about dilatory allocation of case handlers, and that anecdotally cases are not, in fact, being dealt with in chronological order as reported by various parties who have complained to the FOS about their treatment by Creation in particular.
We have plenty on this very thread where it’s clear the FOS simply are not allocating case handlers in any reasonable time, and not even meeting their own unsatisfactory deadlines over and over.
Having filed my claim with the FOS against Creation only a week ago, I was mildly surprised to receive a questionnaire from them today, “how do you feel about the service we’re providing?
We send out unique surveys at different stages of a complaint to understand how we’re doing. So we hope you’re able to spare a few minutes to complete our short survey which relates to your complaint.
Your answers will help us understand whether we’re meeting the needs and expectations of our customers and our work is consistently of a high quality.”
Allocating a computerised case number is not, itself, providing a service; nor is estimating a wait of four months for someone to look at the complaint.
Playing the system to the limit, Creation managed to spin out its final decision on my claim to two months; it seems all wrong that the ombudsman takes twice as long to do nothing as the organisations it is supposed to monitor.
Where cases are examined out of order, this lengthens the wait for those passed over.
Anything else I might add?Just bit the bullet and rang the FOS after 6 months of hearing nothing whatsoever from them. Got through straight away, on a plus. I spoke to a call handler who initially said he couldn’t find my complaint, then said he wasn’t able to see any details apart from the initial case reference. This apparently could be due to anything from an IT issue to Creation “restricting the case”, whatever that means! Now waiting to hear back from the team he had to refer it to.
Anyone else come across anything similar?!Creation “restricting the case”?… and FOS *allows* it? Would love to know more about this. It may be the key to what’s [being allowwd to] be going on here.
@JDB have you ever heard of “restricted by the complained-about company” being used as a wording by the FOS? Has anyone?@LL, I am really struggling to get anything out of the FOS beyond what I was told on the phone, and subsequent emails insisting they are allocating the cases in date order. If they actually were and just had major staffing issues (or even admitted to messing up over the allocations), it would be ok, but there’s clearly something they’re not disclosing.
Just got my generic “we are working on them in the order received” email…
I’m tempted to do both a SAR & a FOI request because this is becoming a bit of a joke…
They cannot lie to / incorrectly inform consumers claiming to be processing all claims in date order when that is very clearly not the case.
@stevenhp1987 I can’t see a SAR helping but FOI has the means to get senior people squirming in organisations that care about their public image. Number of creation complaints in the past 12 months? Number resolved? Average time for Creation to respond? Average time post response for decision? Complaints rejected/upheld?
@JDB You mentioned a case DRN 2242979 which said all three triggers – spend, anniversary and fee – had to be triggered. I can’t find this online, do you have a link, please.
@JDB You mentioned a case DRN 2242979 which said all three triggers – spend, anniversary and fee – had to be triggered. I can’t find this online, do you have a link, please.
If you go to the FOS website and put that whole reference in to the search with no space after DRN, it will come up.
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