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Complaints Procedure

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

All staff are fully trained on our Complaints Policy, as well as ensuring that we are compliant with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Principles and Outcomes as laid out by this regulatory body under which, as a Pawnbroker’s the company falls.

As a company we strive to offer a high-quality service to all our customers, however we acknowledge that from time to time things can go wrong. We will at the very least give an explanation of why a customer has been treated in a particular manner, with opportunity to question what has been done. We wish to learn from our mistakes so that we can improve our service to our customers and ensure that they are treated fairly.

We are particularly concerned that:

Our Customers are listened to should a complaint arise
Our Customers find it uncomplicated and simple to make a complaint
Our Complaints Procedure should be available and accessible to our customers
Complaints will be handled within a reasonable timescale
Any complainant will be treated with upmost confidentiality

STAFF TRAINING

All staff will ensure that they inform our customers of our Complaints Procedure in a clear and understandable manner should a complaint arise. Upon request staff will provide a copy of our documented process to our customers. There is no charge for this.

All complaints will be recorded on the Complaints Log Sheet by the Manager which will be kept in the Training Records File.

PROCEDURE

In the first instance a complaint can be raised by a customer in the following way: Letter, Email, Telephone in person.

Acknowledging the Complaint

If the complaint cannot be resolved within 72 hours following its receipt, we will promptly send a written acknowledgment of the complaint.

If an oral complaint has been made our written acknowledgement will set out our understanding of the complaint.

Reviewing your Complaint

All Complaints will be investigated diligently and assessed fairly, consistently and promptly.

Copies of documentation and further information may be requested from the Complainant to assist with our investigation.

Keeping you informed

If the complaint cannot be resolved within 72 hours following its receipt, we will ensure that the Complainant is kept regularly informed of our progress with regards to the investigation of the complaint.

We will undertake a thorough investigation of the complaint. In the event that we are unable to conclude our enquiries within 56 days we will write to the Complainant to let them know when we expect to be in a position to issue our final response letter.

We will provide the claimant with details of their right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

The Financial Ombudsman Service
12 Endeavour Square, Stratford
London
E20 1JN
0845 080 1800

e-mail enquiries@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Resolving your Complaint

When our investigation into the complaint has been finalised, we will issue our Final Response letter.

Our Final Response letter will be fair, clear and not misleading. Confirm details of our investigation and decision; and if relevant, include any offer of remedial action or the appropriate level of redress (or both) And any next steps

If the Complainant is unhappy with our decision and wish to take it further, they can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to look at the complaint. This is a free, independent service for resolving disputes. If the Complainant decides to refer the complaint after we've issued our Final Response, they need to do so within 6 months of the date on our Final Response letter.

Although a complaint can be referred to the FOS at any time, they will require our consent to investigate complaints where:

we have not had the chance to put things right
we have not exceeded the 56-day timescale and haven't yet issued our Final Response letter

If the complaint can be resolved within 72 hours, 3 working days, we will send a Summary Resolution Communication Letter to advise the Complainant how we have resolved the complaint, any further actions we are to take or the appropriate level of redress (or both), and again we will refer the Complainant to the Financial Ombudsman Service if they are not satisfied with our handling of the complaint.