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Insurers fined for complaint tampering

FSA issues huge fines for Direct Line and Churchill after they are found to have doctored customer complaint files

Customer complaint forms have been tampered with

By Julie Sinclair

19th January 2012

Insurance firms Direct Line and Churchill have been fined £2.17m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for tampering with customer complaint files.

More than half of the 50 cases that were submitted for inspection by the FSA were doctored, according to the financial body, including forged staff signatures on seven documents.

The two insurers were asked to submit the paperwork in 2009, as part of the regulator’s drive to improve complaints handling. 

The BBC claims that staff were threatened with disciplinary action if there were shortcomings in their complaints procedures, before the tampering occurred. 

The FSA says the changes to the documents were “purely clerical” and “minor in nature”, but that the firms had still made a “serious breach of the rules”. 

The British taxpayer will effectively be footing the bill for the multi-million pound FSA fine, however, as it now owns the insurers’ parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Have you received poor customer service at the hands of Direct Line or Churchill? If so, tell us all about it below.

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2 Comments

What about us!!

£2.17 million to the exchequer??

What about a reduction in premiums for us drivers!!

By JuicyJules on 20 January, 2012, 2:29pm

Direct Line a cause for complaint?....no great surprise!!

No wonder they've had to doctor their files. I've stopped dealing with them for two reasons. Firstly, their customer service reps couldn't care less if you feel that their increases in premium costs seem really unfair and can't be bothered to try and keep you as a customer. Secondly, if you phone to tell them you're not renewing, by the time you speak to a service rep you've not only lost the will to live, you've spent a fortune being kept on hold. Plus, if you're not renewing you have to avoid opting for cancelling your policy. You're not, but they could charge you anyway. meaning even more money for them. The menu offered is quite unclear, but you can avoid being taken for more money if you're careful.

By n50pap on 22 January, 2012, 7:41pm

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