Quite frankly the FOS is a complete waste of time, space and money.
I had dealings with them over a case about eight years ago and then again a few years later when I was handling something for someone else.
They have a very interesting way of dealing with complaints. Basically if your complaint is strong and you provide supporting evidence then they will find reasons to ignore or disregard that evidence. When I questioned them directly on this they stated that they are a ‘dispute resolution service’ and not ‘a court of law’ and admitted that if my particular case went to court then the potential outcome would more than likely be quite different. I found that remarkable.
Even when I presented what appeared to be overwhelming evidence of a breach of T&Cs the FOS appeared reluctant to find in the clients favour. Instead they ducked and dived and came up with sentences like ‘even though the T&Cs have not been followed to the letter we cannot see that this has been to the detriment of the client.’ – In other words, despite the fact that in our opinion the client had lost out, and the relevant T&Cs had been ignored, somehow they managed to construct a reply that made out that the firm in question had acted reasonably. Again quite remarkable! Of course, had the T&Cs been followed then the complaint would never had arisen – this is the normal ‘test’ in any kind of case like this but that was lost on the FOS!
