Thank you for taking the time to read about our campaign for a public inquiry into farcical ombudsmen. We sent the following email to the Leader of the House of Commons in the expectation of prompt and decisive action:
To the Leader of the House of Commons:Ombudsman Services / Case 510458: Part 3 - Issue 1 - Asking Questions. Attempt 7.
Attempt 7. "I think it is incumbent on all human beings to oppose injustice in every form." Hugh Masekela.
Dear Andrea Leadsom,
From the black-tied Members of the Presidents Club (the Telegraph's secretive titans of business), to the tongue-tied RICS Members of the Ombudsman Service: Property Club - injustice does indeed come in many forms.
There's the institutionalised political incorrectness and sleaze of sections of the business elite to the institutionalised injustice and farce of the private ADR elite via a host of dismal stopping-off places along the way.
It is a remarkable achievement that two female Financial Times scantily-covered undercover reporters should abruptly bring to an end 30 years of what one conservative mp has described as, "slimeball" behaviour at the Dorchester Hotel, by blowing the whistle in the most extraordinary of ways.
As a consequence, Mr Mellor and Mr Mendelsohn have both lost their jobs but Mr Zahawi appears to have kept his thanks to a fortunate early withdrawal. Even the subsequent sackings appear to carry with them an element of injustice.
It is surely farcical that the Minister for Children and Families, who days before attending the Presidents Club Annual Grope should call for improved education standards in Ipswich schools, then chose to attend such an event and subsequently not do the decent thing and resign when caught with his trousers down. (metaphorically speaking).
It calls into question the judgement of those who attend such black tie dinners.
DJS Research, through their Customer Satisfaction Reports, called into question the goings-on at Ombudsman Services:Property. All that happened was that they lost their contract. Events went on as before.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, would it take the efforts of two further undercover Financial Times' reporters working at Ombudsman Services:Property to expose the farcical goings-on before such similar decisive action is taken?
We wrote to the Ombudsman Services:Property Ombudsman to ask her about her interpretation of the company's terms of reference. We asked;"5. Ombudsman's Principle Aim:
The Ombudsman's Principle Aim is to receive complaints made by complainants in accordance with these Terms of Reference and to consider and where appropriate, investigate such complaints in order to encourage and/or facilitate the terms of their resolution, settlement and/or withdrawal."At no time have you sought to do this. I see that (the RICS Firm) after visiting our home uninvited for the xth time, regretted no longer being able to come with an independent surveyor. At no time prior to this was this course of action ever countenanced. Why not?
The RICS Firm agreed to carry out works to our home and then kept us waiting 226 days before we eventually were put into what they describe as a "Complaint Handling Procedure." At no time in this, "Complaints Handling Procedure" did they offer an independent re-inspection. Yet months later in a private message to their Ombudsman (but not sent/disclosed to us) such a course of action was discussed.
When we obtained this undisclosed information through a Data Protection Act request and learnt what was being said between our surveyor and his Ombudsman we asked the firm's Ombudsman to authorise an independent re-inspection of our home. She refused this request on the grounds that had she considered it necessary at the time then she would have ordered one. But she didn't.
This decision manages to combine:- not disclosing information when it is her duty as Ombudsman to do so,- not giving a reason for failing to disclose information,- not investigating why her fee-paying member hadn't made this offer during the 226 days he kept us waiting.- not making this offer when we had entered his Complaints Handling Procedure,And,- not accepting that there was clearly a problem with the original survey (otherwise why had the surveyor agreed to essential work to be carried out) which clearly needed to be independently verified through an independent re-inspection.
Q. Mrs Leadsom, how much longer must the consumer wait before decisive action is taken by government to protect them from farcical ombudsmen - or do they have to wait for two more Financial Times reporters to do the job for them?
Our favourite Hugh Masekela album is, "Waiting For The Rain."
It cheered us up when it came through our roof and down the walls and we waited and waited for our RICS Gold Standard surveyor to carry out his side of the bargain to put things right.
Something he spectacularly failed to do.
Yours sincerely,Steve Gilbert - Workstock Number - 510458.The Ombudsmans61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com and www.facebook.com - Ombudsmans Sixtyone-percent.
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