Complaints Procedure

At Forward Motor Finance Ltd, our aim is to provide unbeatable service for our customers across the UK.

We hope you have no need to complain but if you have a complaint, you should let us know by writing to us at:
Forward Motor Finance Ltd
Unit 128, Louis Pearlman Centre
94 Goulton Street
Hull
HU3 4DL

Alternatively, you can phone us on 01482 425300 or you can send an email to complaints@forwardmotorfinance.co.uk

Our Procedures

Any complaint verbal or written we will refer to our complaints manager at the earliest opportunity or to a member of the senior management if the complaints manager is unavailable. We will also:

  • Acknowledge the complaint in writing promptly
  • Give details in our acknowledgement letter of the Financial Ombudsman Service
  • Make contact to seek clarification on any points where necessary
  • Fully investigate the complaint
  • Keep you informed of our progress
  • Discuss with you our findings and proposed response

You will receive contact from us advising on progress if we cannot respond immediately. We will let you have our final response as soon as possible and not later than eight weeks.

Definition of a complaint

The FCA defines a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction from or on behalf of a client, whether justified or not, which includes an actual or potential financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.

The Financial Conduct Authority complaints rules apply to complaints:

  • Made by, or on behalf of an eligible complainant;
  • Relating to regulated activity;
  • Involving an allegation that the complainant has suffered, or may suffer, financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience;

Eligible Complainants

It is the firm’s policy to treat all complainants the same, however, eligible complainants are legally defined and have additional rights in law that we must acknowledge and adhere to.

Timescales for dealing with your complaint.

If you send us your complaint in writing, we will write to you within five working days to let you know we have received it. If you inform us of your complaint by telephone or in person, we will write to you within five business days of you telling us. We will confirm in this letter the details of your complaint and ask that you write back to confirm to us that these details are correct.

If we cannot resolve your complaint within four weeks of receipt, we will write to update you about our investigation and to tell you when we will write to you informing you of our decision.

If we are unable to reach a decision sooner, we will contact you no later than eight weeks from the date we first received your complaint. We will then tell you what our final decision is or, if we have not been able to reach a resolution within this time, we will give you details of the Financial Ombudsman Service which you can contact about your complaint.

Complaints Settled within 3 Business Days

Complaints that can be settled to your satisfaction within 3 business days can be recorded and communicated differently.

Where we consider a complaint to be resolved to your satisfaction under this section, we will promptly send you a ‘Summary Resolution Communication’, being a written communication from us which:
(1)Refers to the fact that you have made a complaint and informs you that we now consider the complaint to have been resolved to your satisfaction;
(2)We will tell you that if you subsequently decide that you are dissatisfied with the resolution of the complaint you may be able to refer the complaint back to us for further consideration or alternatively refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service;
(3)Indicates whether or not we consent to waive the relevant time limits, (where we have discretion in such matters)
(4)Provide the website address of the Financial Ombudsman Service; and
(5)Refer to the availability of further information on the website of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

In addition to sending you a Summary Resolution Communication, we may also use other methods to communicate the information where:
(1)We consider that doing so may better meet your needs; or
(2)We have already been using another method to communicate about the complaint.

How we will deal with your complaint

When we write to advise you, we have received your complaint, we will tell you in that letter the name and job title of the person who is dealing with your complaint. If you have any queries while we are dealing with your complaint, you should contact the person named in that letter.

We will deal with your complaint as quickly as we can. If we must make a lot of enquiries to investigate your complaint, it may take us longer to reach a decision. It is possible that as part of our investigations we may need to ask you for more information.

While we investigate your complaint we will keep you informed and you will not have to wait any longer than eight weeks to hear the outcome of our review.

We will only use the personal details you give us (when you make your complaint, or later on) to help us deal with your complaint as set out in this complaints handling procedure. The way we use your personal details will comply fully with the Data Protection Act 1998. For more details about how we use your personal details, please see our Privacy Policy.

How we will reach our decision

When investigating your complaint, we will always take account of what you tell us. We will reach our final decision based on the outcome of our investigations and what you have told us.

We will assess complaints according to the law and the principles and guidance produced by our regulators – the Financial Conduct Authority.

Informing you about a decision

If we cannot reach a decision within eight weeks of receiving your complaint, we will write to you to explain the outcome of our investigation and what we propose to do about it. If we decide your complaint is unfounded, our letter will explain why.

What if you are not happy with our final decision

If you disagree with our decision, you should contact us in the first instance.

Financial Ombudsman Service

Alternatively, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service with your comments.

You can also contact the Financial Ombudsman Service if you have not received a response from us within eight weeks from the date of your complaint.

We will fully co-operate with the Ombudsman in resolving any complaints made against us.

You can call the Financial Ombudsman Service on 0800 023 4567. They are available from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Or you can visit their website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain

If we do change our decision, our letter will tell you what our revised decision is and how and why we reached it.