Category

Ombudsman

30.06.08 | Colin Adamson

The Miserabilist Contribution to Happiness Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (1)
The New Miserabilism? Complaints and the people who make them are often seen as confirmation of the new miserabilism - a condition that led an outburst from Tom Harris MP asking why everyone is so bloody miserable in a world where in the UK at least, we have a lot to be grateful for. A new book on complaining behaviour by Julian Baggini "The Complaint Book" (www.thecomplaintbook.com) mentions a sub-set of chronic complainants labelled by a psychologist as "help rejecting" people who prefer moaning to being given a solution. The Victor Meldrew persona certainly hit that vein. The Ombuds View What does the Financial Ombudsman say about all this in his latest latest Annual Report? There were two areas where numbers of complaints rose very sharply - complaints about current accounts which saw a five-fold increase and those about payment protection insurance up from 1832 in the year ending March 2007 to ...
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29.05.08 | Colin Adamson

The Hunt Review of the Financial Ombudsman Service - Opening Up, Reaching Out and Aiming High Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (0)
The title has a bit of the ring of a rock anthem about it, don't you think? Up, Up and Away by the 5th Dimension? Or perhaps one of these inspirational business books that promise to get you out of that career rut. A big hallo then for the review of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) by the Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE available at http://www.thehuntreview.org.uk/ I took a look at what Lord Hunt (LH) identified as "the most contentious and difficult issue for this Review". It got a chapter of its own called "Transparency - Performance Data". The consumer bodies wanted lots of information with poorly performing companies 'named and shamed'. The companies resisted it for various fairly predictable reasons - one of which was that "consumers would not understand the information and might be misled by it." So easily confused they are - poor things. So consumer ...
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01.04.08 | Colin Adamson

When Citizens Complain – what should happen? Complaint Handling, Ombudsman | (1)
The Public Administration Select Committee are in the news for advocating a single entry point for public services complaints. Para 42. "We agree with Sir David Varney and the National Audit Office that the Government should explore the scope for a common access point nationwide for all non-emergency public services. This would provide a single point of contact for impartial information on where to make a complaint or seek redress. We restate our predecessor Committee's recommendation in favour of just such a service-'Public Services Direct'-which would offer an easy access, one-stop-shop approach to a complex web of public services. Public Services Direct should be both a gateway to government organisations and services, and a source of basic advice to public service users. It would act as the starting point for people unsure of how or where to lodge their initial complaint, and would provide them with the appropriate information and guidance." ...
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