Complaints

COMPLAINTS HANDLING POLICY AND PROCEDURE 

Any expression of dissatisfaction about the provision, or failure to provide, a financial service and complaints handling procedure which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) monetary loss, material distress or material inconvenience is treated as a complaint. This includes correspondence in writing and that made during verbal communication.

Where any customer expresses concern about the service, steps should be taken to resolve that matter, and it should be treated as a complaint.

Complaints may be received directly from customers or third-party representatives. In the event of any complaint, the matter must be recorded, logged, and referred to the nominated complaints handler by the complaint handling process.

Any complaint from a third-party representative such as Trading Standards or the Citizens Advice Bureau should be immediately referred to the nominated complaints handler.

PUBLIC – COMPLAINTS HANDLING POLICY 

The following complaints procedure is made available to every customer upon request and will be published on any website owned and operated by our Firm:

At Ruby Holdings Limited T/A Debt Support Direct, we do everything we can to ensure our customers get the best possible service. However, sometimes we may not get things right the first time. If you are not completely happy with our service, we would like to hear about it so we can do something to make it right. You can tell us about your concerns by any of the following:

In writing:

Please address your letter to the Complaints Manager at:

Debt Support Direct
Ruby Holdings Limited
Suite 3, 2nd Floor
Didsbury House,
748 – 754 Wilmslow Road,
Manchester,
M20 2DW

By Telephone: Call us on 0161 549 9848. 10 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday.

By Email: contact@debtsupportdirect.co.uk 

PROCEDURE

We aim to handle your complaint reasonably, consistently, and quickly. To do this, it will help if you provide as much information as possible and detail how you would like us to resolve the problem. If we uphold your complaint, we will apologise and explain what happened. We will take the necessary steps to prevent the problem from re-occurring wherever possible.

We will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within five working days. We will provide you with our final response to your complaint within eight weeks.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or if a complaint is not resolved after eight weeks, you may refer the complaint to:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR

Tel:0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567

They are available between 8 am to 8 pm Monday to Friday and from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays.

Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Visit: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

COMPLAINTS INVESTIGATION 

Our director conducts our complaints handling.

Upon receiving the complaint, we will investigate the matter on the customer’s behalf. Our complaint calls are recorded to ensure the full details of the complaint are logged. If we cannot resolve the customer’s complaint by the end of the next working day following receipt, we will write to the customer (typically via email) within five working days of receipt and inform the customer of the timeframe for our final response.

We will review all necessary documentation and information to thoroughly investigate the complaint. Most of our customers’ concerns can be resolved quickly, but more detailed enquiries are occasionally needed. Sometimes, we may require customers to provide us with further information.

Once we have investigated their issues and concerns, we will provide a written response to confirm our findings and the proposed resolution. The Director dealing with the complaint will always be responsible for investigating complaints. Input will be sought from other employees where necessary.

We will retain a log of all complaints received and the outcome. A complaints file will be created for each complaint, referencing the record, containing all communication with complainants, the actions taken to investigate the complaint, the findings, and a copy of the final response to the complainant.

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

Upon completing the investigation of a complaint, the complaint handler dealing with that complaint shall conduct a root cause analysis to ascertain the cause and the risk of that cause reoccurring. The complaint handler shall produce that report where the reason is compliance system or operational processes during the next management meeting.

TREND ANALYSIS

Each month our Director shall create and analyse a report detailing the number of complaints received, the resolution or otherwise of those complaints, and sufficient analysis to enable the company to understand the causes of those complaints, including any trends that may exist.

COMPLAINTS REGISTER 

We will maintain a complaint register which will be the subject of periodic review. A lack of recorded complaints may indicate that staff do not recognise a complaint or have concerns that recording a complaint may reflect negatively upon themselves. Our management will make clear that complaints play a positive role in furthering us and may be seen as a valuable tool for future product or service development.

OMBUDSMAN

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is an independent service set up by parliament to intervene in disputes between customers and financial institutions when an agreement cannot be reached between them. It is a free service. As part of our complaint-handling service, we inform customers of their right to approach the FOS. The FOS request that a complaint must first be placed before the company they are unhappy with. The FOS will assist customers with that first approach.

We have up to eight weeks to deal with the complaint, after which, if the customer is still unhappy, they may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service, and we will provide details on how they can do so.

MONITORING 

Together with the Complaints Handling Process and Procedure, we will maintain adequate records of all complaints and those submitted through the ombudsman.

We will conduct a root cause and trend analysis to enable us to understand the causes of those complaints, including any trends that may exist.

We will conduct assessments to confirm staff understanding of the complaints policy and procedure. We require a level of knowledge of at least 70%. Any staff falling below this level will be required to undertake additional training.