Not upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Sunlife Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr C complained that Sunlife Limited continued sending him marketing material despite his explicit request for no marketing contact on his 2015 life assurance application. Although Sunlife apologised and promised to stop within 12 weeks, Mr C continued receiving marketing letters and leaflets, leading him to send invoices totalling £120. The ombudsman found that while Sunlife's failure to mark Mr C's records was a breach, the firm's subsequent remedial actions—updating records to prevent future personalised marketing and providing a Royal Mail opt-out form for unaddressed mail—constituted a fair resolution. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman acknowledged Mr C's frustration but found that Sunlife's failure to implement the marker, while a breach, had been remedied by updating records and providing compensation. The letters included with the annual statement were deemed informational rather than marketing. The unaddressed letters were general postcode-targeted campaigns not containing personal details. The investigator's provision of a Royal Mail opt-out form and Sunlife's updated records preventing future personalised marketing constituted a fair resolution.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website