Upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Uinsure Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr and Mrs J complained to Uinsure Limited about poor service following discussions about their insurance renewal premiums. The complaints included a missed callback, misunderstanding of their discount request, failure to apply a discount to both policies, discrepancies in cover, and the unfair termination of a phone call. Uinsure acknowledged errors and offered compensation, but Mr and Mrs J rejected the response and escalated to the FOS. The ombudsman upheld the complaint, finding that Uinsure's service fell short of expected standards through repeated communication failures and inadequate complaint handling, and directed Uinsure to pay £300 compensation for distress and inconvenience.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Uinsure failed to provide adequate service across multiple areas: it did not call back as promised, misunderstood the customers' request regarding premiums, failed to apply agreed discounts to both policies, did not add confirmed cover elements, and inadequately responded to the complaint. The termination of the call, while Uinsure claimed it was due to the conversation becoming unproductive, was not justified by the available evidence and compounded the customers' feelings of being disrespected. The ombudsman determined that £300 compensation was fair and reasonable for the repeated small errors that caused frustration and required reasonable effort to resolve, consistent with FOS compensation guidelines.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website