building society error - compensation due..??

[looobylooo]

hi all,
do you think i will be entitled to some sort of compensation from my building society due to a huge error they made with my savings a couple of months ago?
i sent them a letter of complaint back in july and apparently theyre still 'investigating' and will be intouch soon.
very briefly this is what happened.
they made an error with how my �24,000 savings were to be invested in savings accounts with their bank.
whilst this error was being looked into i wasnt able to access any of the money which was crucial to me as i do not have any income coming in and i use this money to live on and get by on.
i had appauling service from the building society, noone taking or retuning my calls that i made every day, a few times a day and having no access to my money were all causing me great stress and upset.
finally the manager came on board and took responsibility of my query and started to chase it up for me.
while this was happenning i was having to borrow off family to cover bills and every day spending necesseties which wasnt nice as ive never had to borrow in my life before.
everything had to go on hold, i wasnt able to go out socially with friends or anything.
the error was finally corrected after 8 weeks.
i was told to put everything in writing to their head office which i immediately did so.
i asked for compensation to cover the immense upset and stress and inconvenience their error caused, plus ive asked for reimbursement on the interest my savings lost over the time it took to rectify.
imagine the threatening letters idve been getting from them if it was me owing them �24,000 and the interest that wouldve been piling on each day!!
anyway, its all sorted now thank goodness, just waiting to hear back from them now, but id be interested to hear any of your thoughts or comments on the issue please.. thanks

[factor-fiction]

Assuming the building society accepts it was their error there is a good chance they will offer compemsation, and if they don't yoou can go to the ombudsman. They seem to have been slow to sort this out and so it may still take some time but give them chance. State clearly what compensation you expect. How much are you wanting?

[looobylooo]

i dont really know how much i want.
i didnt want to mention a figure to them as i might be short falling myself, so i thought id wait to see what figure they come up with first.. if they do.
surely theyve got agree that i need something to make up for the trouble it all caused??
and surely theyve got to take ownness of the error as it certainly wasnt mine.

[factor-fiction]

Hi-I'm just trying to understand what you could claim for.

Can you clarify what interest you lost. Did the bank put it in an account with lower interest? If so, what rate did you get and what rate did you expect.

AndI'm puzzled as to why they wouldn't let you have access to any of the money over the 2 month period. Did they in error put your savings into an account that didn't allow any withdrawals at all whereas you wanted to have instant access?

[looobylooo]

hi factor,
�5,000 should have gone into a 5 year plan account where i couldnt touch it without losing bonuses etc and �19,000 should have gone into an isa account where i can have access to it to regularly draw on to live on.
but, in error all the �24,000 went into the 5 year plan account.
i accepted the error and assumed that within a reasonable amount of time it would all be sorted, i thought a cheque would have been raised and sent to the isa account and all would be hunky dory again and that would have been fine.
but, it didnt happen like that, it just took so long for this cheque to be traced and finally put into the isa where i could get at my money.
i felt i was just being fobbed off all the time, and noone was ever 'available' to take my call each time i rang, the frustration and stress was just growing by the day..
i felt a very unvalued customer and that wasnt right.
me and my money are just as important as the next person no matter how little or small our savings are.
so yes, the interest lost in the 8 weeks or so is important but also is the upheavle and stress it all caused me.
in a nutshell it was a mistake made by them, caused me alot of inconvenience, it took too long to sort and their customer service care was hardly satisfactory until the end when the manager stepped in.

[annie0000]

Apart from the obvious debacle, they were also in the wrong asking you to write in to complain, anyone in the company can take a complaint beit in person, on the phone or in writing. The also have to write to you within a reasonable timeframe with either a response or letting you know that they are investigating, the also need to give you regular updates and if it is not resolved within 8 weeks, the need to tell you that you have a right to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman service. They should also give you the information on how to do that in their closing letter to you in case you are still disatisfied.

Companies rarely give compensation for distress and inconvenience only these days, but you should have a quantifyable compensation claim e.g. loss of interest, loss of earnings, cost of calls and postage and also any bank charges you may have incurred whilst going overdrawn.

[looobylooo]

thanks annie for your input,
luckily i did not incur bank charges, i could have done if i hadnt got a good family that i could borrow from and help me out to get me by, which wasnt nice, but it had to be done. ive now paid back all that i leant from them.
also there were no loss of earnings because im not working at the moment. (im also not signing on or claiming benefits because im living off my savings)
annie, please can i ask why was it wrong that they asked me to put my complaint in writing?

[bednobs]

do they have a complaints policy and have they stuck to the timescales allowed?
Were the bs following your instructions as to what proportion of the money was to go where? Were those instructions in writing? You must have been present if they are opening an account for you? Or if they did it by telephone/internet, there must have been some sort of instruction from you? Did they just misunderstand what you said?
I think it's probably to early to be thinking about compensation, as the bs still have to admit fault from your account

[looobylooo]

hi bednobs,
thanks for replying,
i had an appointment with a member of staff, so yes i was there at the b/s to sign the amounts that were agreed upon.
it was afterwards when it went off to be processed that it all went wrong.

[annie0000]

loooby, the reason I say about not having to put it in writing, because FSA regulations state that they don't have to have it in writing. The regulations also state under treating Customers Fairly outcome 6 , that they should not be putting barriers in your way to make a complaint - asking you to put it in writing is creating a barrier as they presume that a lot of people wont bother and therefore they dont have to report your complaint to the FSA. They do have to report your complaint as you are alleging financial loss and they have failed to resolve your complaint by the end of day following the day you made your complaint.

As i said, they dont really have to pay compensation , but they should pay redress to ensure that you have not lost out financially. It also costs a fair bit of money to them if FOS get involved regardless of whether they are subsequently found at fault, so they should try to avoid you reporting it to them.

As a side note, you need to be very careful with the tax man in relation to not signing on or earning. I did the same as you and it took three years for them to accept that for 3 months I was neither earning nor signing on - like you, I was living of savings while I waited to start my new job. I eventually got a tax rebate :o)

[looobylooo]

hi again annie,
thanks for your helful knowledge, its handy knowing all this, so thank you.
eh?? excuse my ignorance lol, but can you tell me what have i got to be careful of with the taxman? im not doing anything wrong... am?
infact i thought i was doing the right thing by not claiming or signing on beings im not actively looking for work at present.
my savings are just what ive saved flippin hard for over the years from working since leaving school thats all, theres been no inheritance or lump sum gifts. its all my own money.
i could be signing on like the rest of them, but i couldnt live with my concience that i was claiming money dishonestly, so thats why ive chosen to do what im doing now....
sooo... eeeeeek!!... help lol ....

[annie0000]

i know what you mean, I was exactly the same, I had been made redundant just sfter returning from maternity leave, I temped for a couple of months, was then due to go on holiday and by that time had a new job starting in a few months, so chose not to bother signing on or working, just to take a few months off with the kids and live of my savings.

The problem came when I returned to work. Trying to work out my tax code, the tax man was constantly querying what I was doing for those few months and i had no evidence other than no money coming into my accounts to prove that I had no income. I think they struggled to believe that there are people around who don't try to screw for every penny they can get. As an upshot I was on emergy tax code for the rest of the year and it took 2 years to get back overpaid tax.

I seem to remember one chap telling me that there is a way of registering with the benefits agency or something as unemployed but not claiming so that you get your NI benefits paid but don't take any money or declare that you are looking for work - might we worth looking into.

Good luck with whatever it is you decide to do.

[looobylooo]

i know this is old hat now, but for those that kindly replied to me, just to let you know, ive just had a telephone call from the building society this morning and theyre offering me £300 compensation for the inconvenience i went through due to their error, plus the interest that my savings lost over the 3 month period it took to get it resolved, so thats good and im very happy with that.
thank you all for your interest and advice, very much appreciated.