Ombudsman Services: "Where have all the statistics gone, long time passing?" (438)

To the Business Secretary:
For Clarity - Attempt 438.

438) Ombudsman Services: "Where have all the statistics gone, long time passing?"

Dear Mr Javid,
It stands to reason that if you want to know how well you're performing you need to ask questions, gather evidence, collate the evidence statistically and then understand it and act upon it ,if or where, necessary.

As Ombudsman Services are in the business of resolving consumers' complaints, "fairly" and "independently" you would think it only reasonable that they took the time to ask us what, "our experience of the customer journey was." Smooth? Bumpy? Or just one long car crash?

But they no longer take the trouble to do so even though they told the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that they would.

Previously, DJS Research had reported;
"10.41: When Members were asked about satisfaction levels with the SOS satisfaction levels were low with just over half dissatisfied with accepting complaints when appropriate, training/guidance on compiling a case file, efficiency of handling the case file and speed of case resolution."

We complained to the Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, about just that. We were kept waiting 226 days for Monk and Partners to carry out the works to our home, they didn't. Monk and Partners had not compiled a case file or handled it efficiently, their agreement with us wasn't put in writing and that sloppiness could only work t the benefit of Monk and Partners.

The Ombudsman, Gillian Fleming, steadfastly maintained the fiction that we had waited almost a year before complaining when a letter we'd photocopied clearly indicated that this was not the case. She could not be budged and held onto the absurd notion that we'd sat around doing nothing for almost a year when the evidence placed in front of her clearly stated otherwise.

We asked Professor Dame Janet Finch, Chair of Ombudsman Services that when DJS Research's Member Survey had highlighted case files as being a key area where performance could be improved;
"Q 96: Would this (the requirement to maintain a proper case file) not help to improve performance? Or would RICS Members simply refuse to countenance such a proposal?"

The professor didn't reply.

Q. Mr Javid, if RICS surveyors like Mr Monk of Monk and Partners are incapable of doing something as basic as maintain a case file does this not also call into question their competency to carry out surveys to an acceptable and professional standard and should this failing not be the subject of a public inquiry?

Yors sincerely,
Steve Gilbert - The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign.