Independent Assessor Reviews 27

Dame Gillain Guy is a DISGUSTING FRAUDSTER like the rest of the FOS

The reply is final and unaccountable, the same as FOS, this people need to be criminally charged,

Extraordinarily awful and I am left at a loss as to what to do. The person who looked at my case has misread the file and got it wrong as a matter of fact, not of opinion. But she ends by saying there will be no further correspondence. So she has made a mistake but will not double check, how can this be any demonstration of diligence or customer care?

Clearly in cahoots with the ombudsman and just sends a generic reply saying there’s nothing they can add and refuse to uphold your complaint. Even when the ombudsman does not abide by their own rules and guidelines the independent assessor ignores it entirely. It’s clear they don’t even read your complaint and send essentially the same response to anyone. Impartial they are definitely not.

The FOS and it's independent Assessor are a waste of time. Spent eight months wasting time and effort to get justice. You get none from a not fit for purpose organisation and it's independent Assessor. Should be on top of the bonfire of the quangos. The IA does not look into the lack of thoroughness. Fourth issue sent to FOS, fourth rejection. 90% bad trustpilot reviews. How can they take their salaries. They are not impartial, reasonable, timely or thorough.

What a waste of time, the FO had a complaint running for 17 months before agreed closure, and even though I had sufficient details from HM Treasury to support a review prior to completion, the IA decided that she may do what she likes even though this was different to her peers
She advised that time is not an issue irrespective that they report way shorter than this period, but hey we are jo public and obviously way below her snobby nose!!
Pointless waste of time, at the moment you may as well take your chances with any Organisation at Court!!! Knowing she will still get paid for running a shamble of a organisation, time for HM Treasury to start investigating a bit deeper 🤷

I had three experiences one good two bad. Her office helped ensure I got my Freedom of information request promptly to see what the ombudsman had investigated for his incompetent provisional decision that ignored my complaints of being deliberately mislead and used his version of their service not being up to their usual standard. The ombudsman actually spoke with me (as he was the only person left before Xmas) for the first time in his 12 month sham of an investigation. He told me my request wouldn’t change his decision so I could only have two weeks to respond.
I submitted a highly critical and corrective response with evidence of being mislead and the takeover being non compliant with FCA rules and heard nothing for 6 months. Another FOI request showed he had not investigated anything in that period.
In desperation I asked the IA to contact me about placing a pause on the investigation explaining the Chief Executive was involved as she nominated the Ombudsman and was aware of our rejection of it but had done nothing. I wasn’t contacted but at 8pm that night I got a letter accepting “my complaint” - when I had not complained and her office can’t do that until the case is closed. This meant everyone mentioned would be sent a copy.
The unchanged final decision arrived shortly after
I wrote requesting her complaint be withdrawn was told it had been “by this office” and I had now to send my complaint within 30 days of the decision being issued. I should have had 30 days from the case being closed. More complaints on this led to no change and me being told they wouldn’t answer any more.
I submitted my complaint to her with explanations of how FOS had not met its legal obligations under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2006 and asked her to alert the Financial Conduct Authority to the mass of evidence I sent. They were not quick and had taken over 3 and a half years when new cases are resolved in 3 months.
Meantime the complaint I hadn’t made was answered by an Ombudsman manager offering £250 redress for the delay!! This caused confusion and I wrote to him and her about what was going on to get no response.

The IA said most comments in my complaint were outside the scope of her remit. My comments were helpful and she offered me an increase to £500 for service failures and £75 for her office failings.
I’m still waiting for her money a month later.
I can’t complain to the FCA as they don’t accept complaints about FOS.
It’s all a big let down.

After some 12/13 years and the botched provision of Certificates of Interest for some 45% of that time my husband and I decided the service provided by firstdirect was dire, abysmal, awful. As we no longer wished to bank with them we approached another provider and complied with all their set up requests - providing information even going back 20 years. Wrote to firstdirect in February 2023 and advised we wished to close our accounts as soon as possible. This letter was NOT replied to. We thought that by not pushing we were giving them time to sort out the closure of a 12 month savings account. What we did get (despite firstdirect stating we will not try to persuade you to stay) was a telephone call from a firstdirect(?) member of staff asking us to do that. (So please note firstdirect as a business LIE.) It got to August 2023 and my husband and I decided to complain to CEO Mr C Pitt about the non-closure of our accounts plus the DIRE and ABYSMAL service we had received over 12/13 years. Of course he passed the letter to Customer Services - who of course write again with their 'we apologise for X' on a continuous basis. However the root cause was never addressed! All we asked for were Certificates of Interest each year and as I have stated elsewhere - staff have come with new and novel ways of botching that request some 45% of the time. Don't wish to receive any more ' we apologise' letters - HAD ENOUGH - the catalogue of errors Individually may not seem much but when it happens so often it grates! Got no satisfaction from Customer Services who believe we need to talk to them about closing our account. NO CHANCE. We followed what it stated on one of their web sites and wrote a formal letter, sent by recorded delivery, requesting closure of our accounts. Decided to take our complaint to Financial Ombudsman. Well once I realised that they will only deal with issues raised in the previous 6 months which you have complained about to your bank - knew we were not going to have an easy ride. The outcome was that the Financial Ombudsman investigator came out on the side of firstdirect BECAUSE THEY HAD FOLLOWED THEIR PROCEDURE. firstdirect told the investigator they had responded with what was deemed to be a very important letter. That was accepted as the truth! It was inferred that my husband and I were LIARS - this information was found in an email that we had not realised opened up further, when checking something else out!!!

A further point made by the FO investigator was that they were providing a free service for people. I well understand that a levy is paid by financial institutions which comes from the profits they generate from clients deposits. The Financial Ombudsman does not seem to recognise that without clients to make profits from there would be NO Financial Ombudsman 'service'.
A member of firstdirect staff pointed out that it may well be that the very important letter may not have been received. We can assure you the days of running after firstdirect and doing some of the work for them are long gone. In our twilight years the control of our funds has been taken away from us since March 2023.

FOR THE INFORMATION OF ANYONE WITH AN ACCOUNT WITH FIRST DIRECT - PLEASE CHECK ON THEIR WEBSITE WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT CLOSING ACCOUNTS. I HAVE TODAY TAKEN ANOTHER COPY FROM THE firstdirect WEBSITE AND IT STATES, AMONG OTHER DATA, THAT YOU CAN RIGHT IN AND GIVE DETAILS FOR CLOSURE. THIS IS ANOTHER LIE.

SOME 2 YEARS AGO WE SENT A LETTER TO firstdirect REQUESTING CERTIFICATES OF INTEREST (THIS WAS BECAUSE WHEN A MEMBER OF STAFF WAS ASKED FOR THEM ON THE PHONE - SHE SAID 'WE DO NOT DO THEM'). THE LETTER INCLUDED A BROKEN DIGIPASS AND WAS SENT RECORDED DELIVERY. AFTER TWO MONTHS RANG TO ASK WHERE THEY WERE. STAFF MEMBER DENIED LETTER HAD BEEN RECEIVED - SO NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. IT WAS LEFT TO ME TO CHASE IT UP BY ROYAL MAIL - WHICH WAS EASY ENOUGH. END RESULT firstdirect HAD REDIRECTED ALL MAIL TO A LEICESTER FACILITY. TALK ABOUT THE LEFT HAND NOT KNOWING WHAT THE RIGHT HAND WAS DOING.

My experience with the person holding this position clearly shows that they are neither professional nor impartial. This is not a service, but a silly joke.

At the top of that there is nobody controling and supervising that person. So, that person won the bingo in their life - doing nothing, unctrolled by anyone but receiving quite good money for such a 'service'.

Welcome to the Financial Ombudsman Institution!

Dame Gillian Guy, Independent Assessor, is incompetent and definitely NOT independent. If you believe that she did not investigate your matter properly, write to your MP and demand that she resign immediately. She MUST be replaced with someone who takes complaints from public seriously and investigate matters thoroughly.

The Independent Assessor and her office provides nothing more than a bureaucratic bollard to the consumer complaints process. It adds no value at all.
It only deals with process issues and trivia and is definitely not independent.
I have complained to my Member of Parliament about the inadequate governance structures for the insurance industry and would strongly encourage others to do the same.
The more feedback the government receives the greater the chance of future change.
A truly independent appeals mechanism for FOS decisions needs to be found.
The insurance companies work hand in hand with the FOS and so does the Independent Assessor.
What chance does the consumer have?

Dame Gillian Guy is incapable of writing for herself and should be questioned in Parliament for the shameful abuse of office. The title Dame should be removed as it implies decency and integrity and fool individuals to thinking they are dealing with a competant person. The amount of complaints here are shameful indictment and really should be looked at and speak for themselves. You will note there is not a rebuttal from the Independent Assessor and who audits the auditor ? Welcome to North Korea.

This is not an Independent Assessor of outcomes, it would be difficult to say they are independent in any way.

I had complaint that an " Investigator" was caught red handed lying and asked for him to be removed from the case. As most people with integrity and honesty will understand that when an individual is caught lying and an apology given ( meaning they agree) should be removed as credibility is the utmost importance for an organisation called the FOS, especially the Financial Ombudsmen,however, this behaviour is endorsed by Dame Gillian Guy.

The Investigator was not removed. As spart of the complaint to Dame Gillian Guy the reply was: The Investigators manager apologised and that is pretty much the end of the matter. Most intellectual fair minded people would expect the lying investigator to be removed and someone new appointed. As Dame Gillian Guy approves this behaviour it speaks more about Gillian Guy and should be looked at further.

As most of you who are reading this will be mostly unhappy with the FOS, as you should. I understand that circa 2/3rd of all complaints to the FOS is rejected or not founded upon. If you were a gambler you would not like the odds to succeed. The reason for this failure rate is poor incompetant Investigators that is employed by the FOS. They lack legal and general understanding of law and Principles laid down by the FCA ( Financial Conduct Authority ) leading to poor outcomes. With these numbers in mind, do you think the big Institutes sleep well at night from fear of the FOS ?

ADR is non existent. The failures and complaints are the same year after year but nothing is done to improve the service, and this is ashame as people genuinely need a good organisation to assist against the corporates such as banks and Financial institutes.
The reply from Dame Gillain Guy is final and unaccoutable, pretty much the same as FOS.

The truth they have been found out like the Post Office and the Horizon scandal. They could not admit poor service and unqualified staff as the good name of the Financial Ombudsman and the Financial Conduct Authority can not be tainted for the loss of faith and integrity,at any cost ,well maybe and Dame hood or a CBE to hand back is the payment for a very poor organisation and service.

Trust is not a given but earned through time. We are in dark times and this organisation is not fit for purpose.

I am now preparing LEGAL ACTION against Independent Assessor/UK Financial Ombudsman should their SEVERE, GROSS MISCONDUCT continue & not be ceased. After I have been DRIVEN TO BRINK OF SUICIDE & RUIN by CLEAR/EVIDENCEABLE, SICK CAMPAIGN OF ILLEGALITY, TERROR/TORTURE & EXTREME FINANCIAL ABUSE by HSBC BANK - that saw me LEFT FOR DEAD & WITHOUT ACCESS TO MY MONEY FOR 3 MONTHS RENT (despite Bank CEO, Colin Bell, being informed directly over a week in advance of due rent payment..), UK Financial Ombudsman have 'bent over backwards' & gone out of their way to BREAK THE RULES, ACT IMPROPERLY & JUSTIFY HSBC BANKS CAMPAIGN OF LIFE-DESTROYING ILLEGALITY & ABUSE as all absolutely fine because, "relations weren't better". After growing tired of ongoing Financial Ombudsman SEVERE ABUSES & MISCONDUCT/ILLEGALITY, I raised substantial complaint to Ombudsman management. However, in spite of this, Ombudsman staff decided they didn't fancy addressing or responding to my complaints, & tried to just carry on as if nothing had happened! Suffice to say, there was thereafter NO POSSIBILITY for me to continue my complaint against HSBC bank through the Ombudsman (due entirely to above-referenced GROSS, DISTURBING MISCONDUCT of multiple Ombudsman staff) - & I have raised this now with the "Independent" Assessor. Should they decide to choose not to adhere to their/the Ombudsman's LEGAL OBLIGATIONS to receive complaints & respond to them in a professional & civilised manner, then I will accordingly feel OBLIGATED to commence LEGAL ACTION. As they have already taken an unacceptable/unwarranted amount of time & as I have yet to hear back anything from them - despite CLEAR & INDISPUTABLE, SERIOUS ABUSES & MISCONDUCT identified & outlined to them - I now consider this to be a strong likelihood, also after reading the ABYSMAL, SHOCKING & HORRENDOUS reviews of their 'service' on here. In addition, Ombudsman staff have been engaging in a catalogue of widespread DISTURBING/CRIMINAL conduct - including also the TOTAL FABRICATION/CREATION of INCIDENTS that NEVER HAPPENED. To clarify: an organisation (Financial Ombudsman) charged with investigating serious complaints against UK Financial Organisations is not only refusing to do so - even when evidence against is OVERWHELMING & UNDENIABLE. But said organisation is then REFUSING TO RECEIVE & ADDRESS COMPLAINTS AGAINST THEMSELVES by complainants - & in a brazen & HIGHLY ILLEGAL attempt to persist this & negate their legal obligations are FABRICATING & CREATING INCIDENTS ENTIRELY FROM SCRATCH: in other words, Ombudsman seeking to find fault in conduct of complainant/member of public (even CREATING this, should it not exist...) - while failing to 'see' any wrongdoing, nor explore or carry out in any way approaching properly scrutiny & investigation of conduct of UK Financial Institution (HSBC Bank), engaging in CLEAR, FULLY EVIDENCEABLE, FINANCIAL ABUSE & TORTURE OF PEOPLE WHO SUFFER FROM SEVERE HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH A HIGH LINK TO SUICIDE - with complainant being LEFT FOR DEAD, TORTURED FOR WEEKS & WITHOUT ACCESS TO THEIR OWN MONEY FOR RENT (something HSBC & CEO Colin Bell knew FULL WELL, as can be shown), forced to find c. 5000 EUROS on SHORT NOTICE or LOSE THEIR HOME. Reviews of this ongoing SEVERE ABUSE & MISCONDUCT will continue until SEVERE MISCONDUCT CEASES & these DELIBERATE, DANGEROUS & UNHINGED attempts to DESTROY MY LIFE are properly investigated & responded to/dealt with

Copy of my email to Independent Assessor 25/7/23
Regrettably I have only just found IA response to my complaint re the Financial Ombudsman which again takes no cognizance of the fundamental lack of service provided by the Financial Ombudsman who substituted her "beliefs" for the factual evidence presented.

I sincerely request that the Independent Assessor re-assess her findings in this case – or there is truly no justice in this land when an evidenced individual experience can be overruled at the whim of a bureaucrat.(Financial Ombudsman)


The Financial Ombudsman stated that the event which was the basis of my complaint re Metrobank "never happened" - giving the lie to both me and Metrobank about whom the original complaint was made., This is a serious lack of service/duty of care by the Financial Ombudsman .

Please see attached Word doc for more detailed analysis of self contradictory findings of the Independent Assessor upon whom I had relied for a just and fair assessment having battled for over a year both with Metrobank and then the Financial Ombudsman.

I look forward to your prompt response
Susan Reed BA(Hons) FRSA

That's a lot of one star reviews! I can vouch for the attitudes expressed.
Improve the mess? The Personal Assurances of the Independent Assessor are used car salesmanship. How can her selection by the FOS for the FOS ever be "Independent"? Check on her history: the one she hides, and who pays her? How much? 150,000 plus?
Now check on the Virtue Signalling of an FOS Ombudsman. Bias appears on a business site. Ombudsmen should have the same code of conduct as judges.
Now check on the FOS nominated "investigator". Another scam where the "Investigator" masquerades elsewhere as a "Financial Investigator" a different job description where accreditation is essential. Check the Home Office, the MET, and the 2003 POC data. Ability to find the way out of a paper bag is also needful!
Worst of all? The FOS actually condones such fraud. Include the apparently vacuous Independent Assessor in that: In writing, as she faithfully imitates "her" Ombudsman.
A website of true investigation of this fraud is apparently underway. "fosfraud.co.uk"?
Ethics? Long gone in a sea of promises.

The sour joke about the self-style `Independent Assessor’ lies in the first word of their title. This sham is appointed by the Board of the Financial Services Ombudsman (FSO) to oversee – wait for it – what the Financial Services Ombudsman itself gets up to. It is thus `independent’ in name alone. The FSO cocked-up my dual complaints about Santander bank for three years before overlooking one aspect of them altogether and then making a judgement which – in its first line – misidentified who had complained about the bank; who had been sold the PPI policy I was complaining about and which company I had claimed sold it to me in the first place. But according to the Independent Assessor, this is absolutely fine – nothing to see here; move along. When you ask either organisation how many complaints to it about Santander’s refusal to refund mis-sold policies (I happen to know that it’s 2,061) have been successful, they suddenly become very coy. I made a Freedom of Information request to the FSO last August (it’s now January of the following year) and they took 111 days to tell me the data isn’t easily accessible so they don’t have to tell me. They are supposed to give you a full answer within 20 working days. 657 people asked the FSO for help as Santander attempted to hold-on to a quite mind-boggling one hundred and eighty-three million pounds worth of assets held by deceased customers. The Financial Conduct Authority fined the company an eye-watering £32,817,800 for this exercise in dishonesty and cheating in December 2022 – a fine which would have been twice this size if the bank hadn’t put its house in order and sorted things out quickly. And how many of these unfortunates were helped either by the FSO or the alleged `independent Assessor’ when they requested intervention into this scam? What do you think? Not one.
Both the FSO and the rubber-stamp in the shape of the Independent Assessor are not fit for purpose. Avoid them like the plague. The sooner these lazy, incompetent and totally disinterested halfwits are sacked, the better off we will all be because we are literally paying for them.

Case: PNX-4376816-Z4B1
One will never receive a response from Dame Gillian Guy, in my case her negligence to deal with complaints against the Ombudsman are passed on to an unqualified junior who have:
1. Incapacity to act.
2. Makes unlawful agreements.
3. Ombudsman decision inconsistent with the policy of Ombudsman.
4. Decision based on falsehoods.
5. Failure to consult Expert Advisory Panel.
6. Failure to to communicate with all parties as required.
7. Failure to comply with ADR as required.
8. Refused to answer questions as required by ADR.
9. The Ombudsman failed to provide structure, focus, assistance and communication to the parties in dispute.
To cap it all; they say the original decision will not change.

What an absolute sham.

Dame Gillian Guy; hang your head in shame; you have betrayed your reputation as a so called "champion" for consumer rights. How things change when the shoe is on the other foot!

This person has no power whatsoever and hides behind the "outside of my remit" excuse though I doubt that she would do anything if she had the authority anyway!

As someone who led the Citizens Advice Bureau for so many years, one would have expected better but she has become just another "employee" of this utterly contemptuous organisation. What is the point of her?

Indeed, if Dame Gillian Guy had any honour or integrity about her she would resign from this entirely ineffectual role on principle. Instead she bumbles along paying lip service; no doubt drawing a handsome salary for the privilege; again, shame on you!

So, Dame Gillian, keep up the "spin" regarding your amazing and influential role at the FOS. Also, remind yourself each day that you are still important. Hopefully, if you do so enough times you may begin to believe it yourself.

What an awful legacy to end such a distinguished career.

Welcome to the Pantomime of the Independent Assessor, starring lead performer Dame Gillian Guy, supporting act The MUPPETS and a few clowns for good measure!

If you have the means you're better off investing your hard earned money in a civil claim rather than throwing it in the trough!

Independent assessor won’t do anything and has probably one of the best jobs.

No responsibility
No ownership
Zero added value
No accountability

Best of all that they get paid

The whole thing is shameful