Making a Complaint

Last updated on November 23rd, 2022 at 11:02 am

What to do if you have a complaint

If you have any complaint about the services provided by AllClear, you should contact our Complaints Department either by:

• Mail: Redwing Court, AllClear House 1, Ashton Rd, Romford RM3 8QQ
• E-Mail: [email protected]  
• Phone: 01708 339102

Give as much information as possible about the nature of your complaint.

However, if you have a complaint in respect of a claim then please direct this to the insurer which can be found in your policy wording document under ‘Complaints Procedure.

What to expect from us when we deal with your complaint

A complaint may be made free of charge. We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days of it being received unless it can be resolved by the close of business on the third business day. If your complaint was made verbally, we will include, within that acknowledgement, a copy of our Complaints Handling procedure and our understanding as to the nature of your complaint. If we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks, we will write to you explaining the reasons why and indicate when we expect to resolve your complaint.

Handling your case

We will review all documentation available to us to carry out a thorough and objective investigation. In some instances, we may ask you for further information or to provide authority for us to contact third parties, such as Lenders.

We aim to resolve most cases promptly and fairly, with the minimum formality and within eight weeks from when they are referred to us and base our final decision on what we consider fair and reasonable in the circumstances of the case, setting out clearly the reasons for our decision.

We will keep in touch with you regularly while we are looking into your case. We will tell you how things are progressing and what you need to do next. You will always know the name of the person handling your case and you can contact them directly with any questions. We aim to resolve all our cases as quickly as possible, although in a few exceptional cases our investigations may take longer, particularly if we need to make wide-ranging enquiries. In some situations, we may ask you for further information to assist with our consideration of your case and your prompt attention to these matters would be gratefully appreciated.

If we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks from the date of receipt, we will write to inform you of the situation and explain the reason for the delay, providing a link to the FOS website if responding via email, or the leaflet if responding via post “Your Complaint and the Ombudsman”. We will also inform you when we expect to issue our final response letter and that you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are not satisfied with the progress of our investigation.

Taking your views into account, and reaching our decision

We will always take account of what you tell us, as well as that of the Agent who provided the service/policy you are complaining about. Our role is to clarify what has occurred based on the evidence presented to us. Evidence is the crucial factor, and it is the weight of evidence presented by one or other parties that will assist in our consideration of your case.

Complaints are appraised based on the law, the rules, and principles of the regulator for the financial services industry that were in force at the time the policy was sold. We also take into consideration such factors as your circumstances and requirements at that time. However, any changes in your circumstances since the policy was taken out, are deemed to be immaterial.

For your complaint to succeed you must generally demonstrate that the policy provided to you was unsuitable, or that there has been a breach of regulations as stated above. You must also have suffered an actual financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience because of any such inappropriate policy or service. If it is established that no such loss, material distress or inconvenience, has occurred we will not award a suitable compensation payment.

At the conclusion of an investigation, we will provide you with a final response letter and report, which clearly explains the outcome of the investigation and details of any settlement, which we may consider to be appropriate, or, alternatively, the reasons for declining to offer a settlement.

We will also enclose the leaflet “Your Complaint and the Ombudsman” and inform you that you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are not satisfied with the outcome of our investigation and that you must do so within six months of the date of issue of our final response letter notwithstanding that there may have been further correspondence between us. If you refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service after 6 months, they will not have our permission to consider your complaint.

What happens if you disagree with our conclusions?

If you disagree with the view we set out about your case, you should refer to us in the first instance, however, you will need to provide us with new evidence for us to reconsider your complaint. We will then consider your comments and advise you whether they alter our original conclusion. Should you still not consider the outcome of this investigation to be fair or reasonable you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The regulator for the financial services industry set up this organisation to provide customers with a free, independent service for resolving disputes with financial firms. Correspondence should be addressed to the Financial Ombudsman Service:

• By post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14  9SR.
• By phone: 020 7964 1000.
• Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Our contact with you

In all our contact with customers, we aim to treat them fairly and be polite and professional. To help with staff training we may monitor or record telephone calls.

If you are unhappy with the service, we have provided

Naturally, we hope you’ll be happy with the service we provide. However, we know that – as in any organisation – things can sometimes go wrong. If you are unhappy with the service we have provided – for example, if you think we have treated you rudely or unfairly, failed to explain things properly, or cause delays, then let us know. We take complaints about our service very seriously. If we get things wrong – it’s important that you tell us so we can try to put matters right. This also helps us to improve our service in the future.