Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as Tesco Bank

Decision detail

Summary

Mr G complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service about Tesco Bank's service after being unable to reach their Financial Assist team on two occasions in January 2025. When he finally got through on 8 January, he was initially connected to customer services instead of the FA team, despite dialling the correct number. Tesco Bank explained they re-route calls to customer services during high call volumes unless accounts are flagged as in arrears. The ombudsman found that while Mr G's frustration was understandable, Tesco Bank acted fairly by identifying and resolving the routing issue within 5 minutes and transferring him to the correct team. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Mr G was frustrated by being routed to customer services instead of the FA team, Tesco Bank's call management practice was fair and reasonable. The ombudsman was satisfied that the issue was identified quickly (within 2 minutes) and Mr G was transferred to the correct team within 5 minutes. The ombudsman also found the customer services advisor acted appropriately by asking security questions and providing warnings about tone, as the advisor was unaware of Mr G's attempts to reach the FA team and was attempting to help by re-routing the call.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website