A really horrible experience with this failure of an ombudsman operation. Simply not fit for purpose and ridiculously slow. Expect it to take months and months before an actual ombudsman will look at your issue. The Treasury Select Committee need to take serious action to sort this mess.
The Financial Ombudsman Service has been an absolute let-down. The investigation into my case was lazy, shallow and felt completely biased. They ignored key facts, didn’t challenge the finance company at all, and practically rubber-stamped whatever the business said. There was nothing “independent” about the process. If you expect real help, you won’t get it here. Their decision-making feels pointless, slow and totally detached from the actual evidence. You’re honestly far better off taking your case to court, because the Ombudsman offers nothing more than false hope and a box-ticking exercise. A complete waste of time — I would never trust them again.
They are as much use as a chocolate teapot. Investigator Jonathan Mein totally failed to grasp the basic points of my complaint. Ombudsman Emma Davy clearly didn't understand it either. The whole process took several months, and their final decision was that it is fine for a bank to advertise a product, charge money for it, and then remove the main benefits 1 month into a 12 month contract. Save yourself the bother of contacting them, because they won't read anything you send them.
I ultimately got my complaint against Nationwide Home Insurance upheld but it was long and protracted. I lost count how many times I was told "it is not our role how to tell a company how to run its business" even when that was the crux of my complaint. Financial Ombudsman Service also refused to accept that my complaint was about Nationwide - always changing it to the name of the underwriter (RSA). I was also put under quite a lot of pressure to take the ex-gratia settlement £100 rather than proceed to adjudication even though I said my reason to claim was about fairness not compensation. My case worker would only confirm that Nationwide had "taken on board" my complaint but refused to confirm what had actually changed ("it is not our role to tell a company how to run its business"). I resisted the pressure, my complaint was upheld and Nationwide has changed its website that made it impossible to cancel insurance from automatically renewing. It also signs letters from RSA now. Albeit no apology from Nationwide. From this limited experience, I encourage people to push for a formal decision - financial businesses really want to avoid having to report complaints upheld against them. Just remember that Financial Ombudsman Service is staffed by lawyers. Lawyers are trained to make decisions on disputes and not to solve problems or help parties to come to agreement.
The good reviews are fake or paid. The Ombudsman services is scam the government uses to make it seem like we have a chance. They never rule in favour of the complaintent as the companies pay them for their services. It is rigged better off going straight to court
Utter rubbish! Even when they are presented with evidence they still didn’t carry out a thorough investigation and helped yet another shady company continue to continue to carry credit responsibilities for people who can’t deal with the said business in an acceptable way. This agency should be abolished utter waste of time and money from wherever pays for it! This is the second time this agency has been useless in terms of unscrupulous companies, in my experience! Utterly useless!
Really surprised at a number of negative reviews. I recently used the FOS service and found it very helpful, professional and most important of all impartial. They told the building society that it had messed up and gave them clear instructions on how to put me as a consumer in the position had the error not occurred. Very pleased with the service and will happily use them again. The service is completely free and staff is pleasant with good communication via emails and phone. Complaint waiting time before investigation began was painful at c.5 months but the service they provided made the wait worth it.
Financial Ombudsman Service is located at Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR, UK
You can contact Financial Ombudsman Service at +44 800 023 4567
You can find directions to Financial Ombudsman Service by following this map link
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