Complaints Procedure

 

The Nature of a Complaint

These procedures cover any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether initially justifiable or not, made by or on behalf of a complainant about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial services activity by the Society. During our investigations, we will identify whether or not the complaint meets the definition set out by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Eligible Complainant

To be eligible to make a complaint about the Society you must be a member, applying to become a member, or have been a member of the Society. The complaint must be relevant to your transactions with the Society. One of the first steps we will take when receiving a complaint is to identify whether a complainant is eligible. If we decide that the complainant is not eligible then we will write to them and state our reasons for that decision. We will review any response by that complainant to see whether the correct decision has been made. After receiving further information, we will write to the complainant again saying whether or not they are eligible.

How to contact us to raise a complaint

You can contact us to complain in the following ways:

• Address: British Friendly, 45 Bromham Road, Bedford, MK40 2AA
• Telephone: 01234 358 344
• Email: complaints@britishfriendly.com
• Online:

The Procedure

Your complaint will be investigated by one of our staff who has sufficient experience to deal with the complaint and who preferably has not been involved in the matter which is the subject of the complaint. We will make sure that the person dealing with the complaint has the authority to settle your complaint or has access to somebody who can do so.

Time Limits

1. We will investigate all eligible complaints made against the Society or any of its approved persons in accordance with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.
2. We will send written acknowledgement of your complaint, setting out our understanding of the nature of the complaint, usually within 5 business days of receipt.
3. The complaint will be investigated by an independent person who is competent to conduct the investigation.
4. We will take all reasonable steps to finish our investigation as soon as possible.
5. If, after 4 weeks, we haven’t reached a conclusion we will write to you informing you why we haven’t been able to resolve the matter. We will also let you know when we will contact you again.
6. If we still haven’t resolved the matter after a further 4 weeks, we will write to you again with reasons for the delay and when our final response may be expected.

Your options if we’ve been unable to resolve your complaint in 8 weeks, or if you’re unhappy with our response

If we’ve been unable to resolve your complaint within 8 weeks of receiving it, or if you’re not happy with our response, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge, but you must do so within six months of the date of the 8 week letter or final response we send you. If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances. For more information, please visit .

Referring Complaints to other Firms

There may be situations where we have to refer your complaint to another firm. If, after our investigation, we find that the complaint should have been forwarded to another firm, or the responsibility is shared with another firm, we will forward the complaint to them. We will advise you of this in writing giving you the contact details for the other firm so that you can contact them directly.

Availability of our Complaints Procedure

You can also request a copy of our complaints procedure using the contact methods outlined above.