Complaints Procedure

This information summarises the Foresters complaints procedure. It is designed to help you understand how we will deal with your complaint.

Our complaints procedure

We treat all complaints with equal importance and have a written procedure to ensure that the Financial Services and Customer Relations Teams follow a complaint procedure. The purpose of this procedure is to ensure complaints handling relating to Foresters business is efficient, consistent and, where applicable, complies with regulatory requirements.

The procedure, where relevant, takes into account the regulatory requirements of the Financial Services Authority (FSA). It informs relevant staff of the importance of dealing with complaints efficiently and in accordance with the regulatory requirements.

We also deal with complaints concerning activities and products not regulated by the FSA.  Examples of such activity include branch/membership activity and membership benefits. These complaints are dealt with in the same way as those concerning regulated activities and products, but the complainant cannot refer them to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if he or she is dissatisfied with our final response.

Our complaints procedure helps staff to appreciate that:

  the Company is committed to providing the highest level of service;

  even in the best run business there will be occasions when customers will feel aggrieved and will complain;

  Company policy is to deal with complaints effectively and efficiently. Complaints will be given prompt attention and dealt with fairly, promptly, and impartially;

  our aim is to always treat customers fairly and to ensure customers do not face any unreasonable barriers should they wish to make a complaint.

What is a complaint?

The Financial Services Authority define a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction whether oral or written, whether justified or not, from or on behalf of, an eligible complainant about our provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service.

Oral complaints may be made face to face, by telephone or by recorded message. Written complaints will normally be by letter but may also be by facsimile, e-mail or other form of electronic transmission.

Timetable for dealing with complaints

Acknowledgement within 5 working days

A complaint must be acknowledged to an eligible complainant or their representative* within 5 business days of receipt by the company (this includes receipt by a representative not located at Head Office).

An acknowledgement will typically:

  include all relevant reference numbers quoted;

  state the details of the complaint to show that we have a full understanding of the complaint and will therefore take the appropriate course of remedial action;

  request any further information required from the complainant and enclose a prepaid envelope;

  give the name or job title of the person who will be handling the complaint;

  include details of our internal complaint handling procedure.

In some circumstances it may be possible for us to provide a final response to a complaint with our acknowledgement letter.

*If you have asked someone else to make a complaint on your behalf, we can only deal with that person if we have your written authority.

Holding letters

Within four weeks

We aim to provide our final response within four weeks of receiving your complaint. However, this is not always possible. If we cannot give you our final response within four weeks we will write to you explaining why we are not yet in a position to resolve your complaint. We will also indicate when we will contact you next, which must be within 8 weeks of receipt of your complaint.

Within eight weeks

If we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks of receipt, we must write to you explaining why we are not yet in a position to provide our final response. We must explain the reason for the further delay and let you know when we expect to be able to provide a final response. We will, where applicable, also inform you that you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if you are dissatisfied with the delay. We will enclose a copy of the FOS's leaflet with details of how to do this.

After eight weeks

After this, if we have not resolved your complaint, we will keep you updated with the progress of our investigation by writing to you every four weeks until we can provide you with a final response.

Final Response

When our investigation is complete, we will write to you:

  explaining the outcome of the investigation;

  outlining the nature and terms of any offer of settlement which we are prepared to make in satisfaction of the complaint or giving the reason for rejecting the complaint;

  giving you the opportunity to provide us with further information or documentation in support of your complaint;

  informing you that you may refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you remain dissatisfied with our response;*

  providing you with a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s explanatory leaflet, unless we have already done this after 8 weeks.*

We will also inform you that if we do not hear from you within eight weeks from the date of our letter, we will consider your complaint closed.

*If your complaint concerns an activity or product not regulated by the Financial Services Authority you will not have the right to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Examples of such activity include branch/membership activity and membership benefits. 

If you require any further information about our complaints procedure you can telephone Customer Relations on 020 8628 3400 (8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday).