Feedback about our service

We aim to resolve disputes between financial service providers and their customers fairly, quickly and informally. No matter the outcome of your dispute, it is important we have made it easy for you to understand the reason behind a decision and remained professional in all our dealings with you.

Your feedback is a vital tool to helping us improve the way we do things. Below you will find information about how you can raise an issue with us and how it will be resolved.

How to provide feedback about our service

To lodge your complaint, suggestion or compliment about our service please complete a feedback form.

Fact sheet

The information on this page is also available as a fact sheet.

What happens after I send my feedback to FOS?

Complaints

We take complaints about our service very seriously. If your complaint cannot be resolved immediately, we will send you an acknowledgment letter within 6 business days of you making the complaint.

Once we have considered all your concerns, we will send you a response letter. If we agree that your complaint about our service is justified, we will tell you how we will rectify the problem and how we plan to ensure that the problem does not occur again. We aim to send you the response letter no longer than 28 days after sending you the acknowledgment letter.

If for any reason we are not able to conclude our review within 28 days, we will send you a progress letter explaining why we need more time and stating the date by which we will send a full response.

Compliments and suggestions

Your compliments and suggestions will help us review and improve our services. We will not respond to you unless you ask us to do so.

What are our service standards?

Timing

We aim to resolve most disputes within six months. Some cases involving more complex issues can take longer than this.

Process

When we start to review your case, we will explain our dispute resolution process to you. We will keep you informed of the progress of your case throughout. You will always know the name of the person handling your case and you can get in touch with them directly – by letter, email or phone – if you have any questions.

Fairness and impartiality

In every case, we consider the facts and arguments from both parties – the consumer and the financial services provider. In many cases, we can settle the dispute informally, by making suggestions that both parties accept.

If the parties cannot agree on a resolution to their dispute, the dispute will be referred to an expert Ombudsman or Panel to make a final decision on the case, based on relevant laws, codes of practice, good industry practice and what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

Can I complain about an Ombudsman or Panel decision?

An Ombudsman or Panel decision might be in favour of one party. Sometimes, as a result, the other party will be dissatisfied with outcome. Under our Terms of Reference, which came into effect on 1 January 2010, Ombudsman and Panel decisions are final and not open for review. Our feedback process cannot review complaints about Ombudsman/Panel decisions. It can only review complaints about our handling of a dispute (ie. about our service).

The FOS policy on feedback

For more detail, please have a look at our Complaints and Feedback Policy.