Upheld: service failure, record keeping, complaint handling, DSAR compliance complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Miss T complained that Nationwide Building Society could not locate counter cheques on her account or confirm their status, and that the firm provided poor service in handling her complaint and Data Subject Access Request. Nationwide initially claimed it could not find the cheques, but after Miss T provided cheque numbers and dates from seven years of statements, the firm acknowledged it had received her letter but failed to route it to the correct department. The ombudsman upheld the complaint, finding Nationwide made mistakes in locating the cheques and handling the complaint, but determined that £150 compensation was fair and reasonable given that the cheques had mostly been processed and paid, and Miss T would have incurred similar inconvenience in obtaining the information regardless.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman upheld the complaint because Nationwide made mistakes in locating the cheques and failed to properly route Miss T's complaint letter to the correct department. However, the ombudsman determined that £150 compensation was fair and reasonable because: (1) the cheques had mostly been processed and paid, so Miss T suffered no financial loss; (2) Miss T would have needed to obtain statements and identify cheque numbers regardless; (3) Nationwide lacked sufficient initial information to locate the cheques; and (4) the compensation recognises the distress and inconvenience caused by the service failures without compensating for time spent bringing the complaint to the ombudsman.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website