Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Mr W, who has disabilities affecting impulse control and vocal communication, requested that Nationwide help safeguard a large credit received into his account via webchat. Nationwide refused to assist via webchat and directed him to Relay UK instead. Mr W subsequently called Nationwide and was offered multiple options including savings accounts with access restrictions, withdrawal blocks, and payment redirection, but the call ended abruptly. The ombudsman found that Nationwide's signposting to Relay UK's text-based service constituted a reasonable adjustment, and that Nationwide made genuine attempts to offer practical solutions during the telephone call without acting unfairly.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Nationwide could not process the request via webchat due to system limitations, it provided a reasonable alternative adjustment by signposting to Relay UK, which offers text-based communication with similar features to webchat. The ombudsman also determined that Nationwide made genuine attempts to offer practical solutions during the telephone call, including savings accounts with access restrictions, withdrawal blocks, and payment redirection options. The ombudsman concluded that Nationwide could not have implemented any solutions without Mr W's explicit agreement, and that completely restricting access to the account would have been unreasonable as it would prevent Mr W from accessing his money when genuinely needed.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website