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Complaints Policy

We regard a complaint as being:

‘Any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of, a person about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service, which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience’.

What will happen next?

If a complaint was raised over the phone by a customer to a member of staff, he or she will attempt to resolve it straight away. In the event this was not possible, customer complaint will be escalated to a Team Leader who in turn, and within three business days, will endeavor to resolve the complaint. If the complaint is resolved within this timeframe, a Summary Resolution Communication, with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) information, confirming that we consider the compliant resolved, will be sent. However, if the complaint cannot be solved within this timeframe the below process will be followed.

At this stage you will have been given the opportunity to outline your complaint in writing using our Customer Complaint Form sent with this document.

If you opted to make an oral complaint only and in the absence of the completed complaint form, a written summary of the complaint will be made by the Line Manager. This summary will then be passed to the Complaints Team. Please note that any written complaints received by the business will be handed directly to our complaints Team.

Acknowledging your Complaint

upon receipt of a complaint either an oral summary, written complaint or a completed Customer Complaint Form, the details will be passed to the Complaint Team which is responsible for ensuring that it is dealt with promptly and fairly.

A written acknowledgement letter will then be sent to you within five business days using your preferred means of communication (either email or hard copy letter).

We will also send a copy of this procedure to you and a Customer Complaint Form for you to complete should the complaint summary written by the Line Manager is deemed unclear, incomplete and further information is required from you.

To avoid any possible delay in the handling of the complaint and ensure key information of the complaint is not missed, we then encourage complainant to fill a Complaint Form or send us their complaint in writing.

If there is reasonable grounds and we are satisfied that another firm may be solely or jointly responsible for the allegation(s) made, we will promptly and securely forward the complaint, or the relevant part of it, to that firm. We will then write to you to confirm our actions and provide contact details of the firm concerned.

Investigating your Complaint

Your complaint will be investigated by somebody who is competent and as far as it is possible by an individual who is impartial.

Your complaint will be investigated diligently and will be assessed fairly, consistently and promptly. We may ask you to submit copies of documentation and may request further information from you to assist us with our investigation.  We will consider any documents and/or information you may provide in relation to your complaint.

We will ensure that a complainant is regularly kept informed of the complaint investigation progress by sending you an update within four weeks of receiving the complaint. This update will be either:

  1. (1) a final response; or
  2. (2) a holding response, which explains why the business is not yet able to resolve the complaint and indicates when we will make further contact and provide the final response (this will be within eight weeks of receipt of the complaint).

Any progress updates will include:

  • the reasons for any delay;
  • what further information / documents we require to resolve the complaint; and
  • when the customer may expect to receive a further update / our Final Response letter.

In the event of a delay beyond the eight weeks of receipt of the complaint we will ensure that you are kept informed of the investigation progress.

Any progress updates will then include:

  • the reasons for the delay;
  • what further information / documents we require to resolve your complaint; and
  • when you may expect to receive a further update / our Final Response letter.

We will work towards completing our investigation into your complaint within eight weeks of its receipt.

We will undertake a thorough investigation of your complaint which may on occasion take a little bit of time.

We will also provide you with details of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Resolving your Complaint

When our investigation into your complaint is finalised, we will issue our Final Response letter.  Considering the grounds of the complaint, our Final Response letter will be:

  • fair, clear and not misleading;
  • provide details of our investigation and decision; and
  • if relevant, include any offer of remedial action or the appropriate level of redress (or both).

For our records, GC Business Finance (GCBF) consider a complaint closed eight weeks after the date of the final response. If you are in anyway not satisfied with our decision, you will have the right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) within six months from the date of our Final Response letter, or you may lose that right.  Details of this right and an explanatory leaflet or electronic link to such will be provided.

The Financial Ombudsman Service Contact details are as followed:

Financial Ombudsman Service

Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange, London, E14 9SR

Telephones: 0800 023 4567

Website: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

Finally, whilst we would look for complaints to be addressed directly, we acknowledge that instead you, may wish to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Please note that if you have not engaged with us in the first instance, the Financial Ombudsman Service may refer the case back to GCBF for first resolution and final letter issue.

You can be assured that we treat all complaints very seriously and we will conduct a full review of the issue(s) raised.