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Customer Complaints

We know there may be occasions when things go wrong. As a priority we will investigate and try to establish the facts. We will explain our findings to you. Then, if we are at fault, we will work hard to resolve the matter to your satisfaction.

In all of our dealings, we are regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority.

Our Customer Complaints Procedure has the following goals:

• To deal with complaints fairly, efficiently and effectively;
• To ensure that all complaints are handled in a consistent manner throughout;
• To increase customer satisfaction;
• To use complaints constructively in the planning and improvement of all our services.

The first step

Complaints may be made in a variety of ways, in writing by letter or email or verbally by telephone or face-to-face. So, if you feel you have reason to complain about Prison CU or a member of our staff, please contact us with the details as soon as possible.

If all else fails

In a very few cases, if a complaint really cannot be satisfied by our internal processes, you have the right to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS); full contact details are shown below.

You will need to bring a complaint to the FOS within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint.

If your complaint is something that the FOS is able to deal with, their specialists will usually work with you and Prison CU to see if they can resolve the issue in an informal way. They’ll take a fresh, independent look at the facts and advise both parties on how they think an agreement could be reached. This is called ‘mediation’.

If mediation fails to work, one of the FOS staff (usually called an ‘adjudicator’) will begin a full investigation, looking into the case on both sides – so you and Prison CU may be required to provide more information. It’s only fair to say that this formal process may take some time.

The adjudicator and Ombudsman will make a final decision. Prison CU will honour any decision made but you would be free to contest it in a court of law – although the FOS cannot give you any advice concerning legal issues.

Ordinarily, it would never come to this; we value the goodwill of our members very highly and will do everything in our power to resolve complaints amicably.