To the Leader of the House of Commons / Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy / Chair of Ombudsman Services / CEO and Chief Ombudsman of Ombudsman Services and Chair of the Ombudsman Association.
For Clarity - Attempt 706
706. Ombudsman Services - (3) Sharper Teeth: The Consumer Need for Ombudsman Reform. Farcical Regulation Leads To Farcical ADR.
Dear Mrs Leadsom, Mr Clark, Lord Tim Clement Jones and The Rev Shand Smith,
One thing ombudsmen cannot be accused of is shyness as they've enterprisingly colonised the consumer landscape in what they euphemistically like to call, "civil justice."
Ombudsmen tell us they have, "superb business models" are "fully independent" and are somehow miraculously, "Good For Business" and, "Good For Consumers" both at the same time.
Martin Lewis' Report for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Consumer Protection - Sharper Teeth: The Consumer Need For Ombudsman Reform - has burst that bubble for once and for all. It's now official - ombudsmen schemes are a, "farce" with a vast majority of consumers hugely dissatisfied with their respective, "customer journeys."
("MSE tells MPs of need for urgent reform to ombudsman, "farce." Callum Mason www.moneysaving expert.com)
Q. The Rev Shand Smith, when we attempted to point this out to you in our complaint why did you not respond to it?
Q. Mr Clark, we've attempted 706 times (+ 500 Attempts at Being More Specific) to point this out to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (now rebranded as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). Why did no-one respond to our complaint that the Ombudsman Services:Property ombudsman arrived at decisions in an illogical manner?
Q. Lord Tim Clement Jones, does Martin Lewis' Report - Sharper Teeth: The Consumer Need For Ombudsman Reform now explain why so many consumers are so dissatisfied with what you call your, "best efforts?"
Q. Mrs Leadsom, just as Money Savings Expert says ombudsmen are a farce aren't The RICS' woefully inept attempts at regulation not also a farce?
The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign believes that certain ombudsmen - like certain regulators eg The RICS with its cachet of having a Royal Charter - were never on the Gold Standard in the first place.
According to Martin Lewis, the majority of consumers have discovered, all too late, that the well-trumpeted, "cachet" of ombudsmen schemes is in reality, "a flat capsule enclosing a dose of unpleasant-tasting medicine."
His first recommendation that all ombudsmen need a statutory basis as a foundation and that,
"Ombudsmen should have statutory powers to ensure that firms are co-operative with processes and compliant with decisions that have real legal teeth" (page 5) is one thing but;
a) what about the mediocre (or worse) performance of those ombudsmen who already have such power?
and
b) who will, "ombuds" the ombudsmen and regulate the regulators - surely not The Ombudsman Association and what have the Privy Council been doing regarding The RICS failure to enforce its own Rules and Regulations?
(please our first recommendation in the previous blog)
Only the Financial Ombudsman Services ombudsman emerges with any credit. The rest of the ombudsman landscape is described by Money Savings Expert as being a, "farce."
In, The Ombudsman Enterprise and Administrative Justice, Trevor Buck, Richard Kirkham and Brian Thompson say,
"There have always been some who have not accepted the notion that a body, largely without enforcement powers, can effectively promote justice"
and,
"The entire ombudsman enterprise is a distraction from where real reform should be introduced in the administrative justice system - the courts and law."
(page 5)
An up-dated version based on our tweets to @MartinSLewis and @GMB can be found at: www.facebook.com Ombudsmans61percent Campaign
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