TO threaten Prudential with the papers if they don't get a bloody grip and stop lying to me and stol withholding MY money

[saltire]

I am going to the papers, I have had fecking well enough now.

Have started offical complaints procedure against Prudential with the Finacial Ombudsman. And they gave me a number of their complaints team which is based in Glasgow so no more "I'm sorry Mrs X I don't know what you mean"

whats happened?

Going to the ombudsman usually scares the shit out of them as they can get fined a huge amount.

Why are they withholding your money saltire?

Contact the FSA

www.fsa.gov.uk/

It's a very long story so I hope you have time. Back in Jluy we decided, after taking advice to surender our Endowment mortgage, use a lump sum to pay off part of the mortgage and have £1, 250 left over. We filled the forms in, Prudentail wanted ID from - photogrpahic ID (so tehy could compare it) and address and prooof of who I was, so we sent those off. Then the bank got in touch (the mortgage was attahced to the endowment) and said that because the mortgage was in arrears (from about 2 years ago) they couldn't let us surrender the policy to ourselves, but would get the money on our behalf, pay off the arrers and put thh remainder into account. We filled in forms, - that was a fiasco as well, they wanted loads of ID and signatures then said they didn't ahve our signatures, so we ahd to take even more id into branch.- and then they faxed them off to prudential. They were told to do this by someone at Prudential. I called 10 days ago and was told the cheque would be issued in 5 working days. it wasn't, i was told Try again in 48 hours, it still wasn't. Now during this time of me calling, no one said anything aobut any forms etc. I called today and said that I wanted to know if the cheque had been issued.
I was told "no it hasn't as the forms were faxed through to us and we cannot accept faxed forms". I said no the forms were also posted out, yes there was a faxed copy, faxed ont ehadvice of one of your colleagues, and then a hard copy was sent out as well via Royal Mail.
Reply "we cannot accept faxed copies". So I asked when teh cheque was bieng issued to lloyds " we cannot accept faxed copies, you will need to get on the phone to them and tellt ehm this, we will not issue the cheque until we recieve copies through the post".
I told her they were posted more than 10 days ago. I also told her that I wanted to speak to a manager "There is no point she will tell you exaclty the same thing" So I asked for the name and email/phone number of the person who ran their complaints departemnt "there is no point they will tell you the same thing".
Pru are also saying they wrote to us to tell us this, but we have no letter.
So after 4 months and endless form filling, hadnding over iD etc we ar eno further forward. I now need to go on hold for 50 mintutes to Lloyds TSB to finw out if they have had any communication from prudential.
I called Finaicial ombudsman in fit of despair and he said "yes you ahve gorunds for complaints"

You poor thing. Hope you get it sorted.

Thye also said that they couldn't pay the money to a third party, but Lloyds say that it happens a lot, and there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to pay the money to lloyds. Have also emailed the man at the Guardian

FO have sent me a form to fill in, and have also said that I can claim for the amount of money spent on the phone calls and claim for us having to pay interest on the mortgage that would have been less if they had paid out when they said they would. Have jsut phoned them in India to tell tehm, and guess what they said?

have you tried to google @prudential.com or something similar - might just be able to pick up a name or e-mail of the big boys/Head office/MD/ Manager, who might be able to get you the information ...

I used to work for a life assurance company....If you write / fax them something detailing your case (once again, I know!) and say that you have been 'financially disadvantaged' by the delays your case will be prioritised, and dealt with within a certain timeframe (days not weeks!). If you cc your letter to your local MP and/ or a financial journalist you should get a VERY quick response. HTH.

ooh, I never thought of contacting my MP!

What made me laugh though is when I told her I didn't like being lied to she said "no one is lying to you".
I said, well you are for a start as you ahve told me that no one would advise faxing through a form, yet I have the name of the person who advised TSB to do just that.

When i said that her colleagues needed retrained she said "no they don't" and I said "well obviously they do,las you ahve already pointed out to me that they gave the wrong info to me and TSB about faxing the forms through, so she needs retrained, you ahve already told me that Narvinder and Kashmira shouldn't have told me that the cheques would be issued when they said they would as "they don't know what they are tlaking about(her words, not mine), so if they don't know what they are tlaking about then why are they dealing with members of the pbulic, they should be gettign retrained"

Her reply was the standard "I don't understadn what you mean"

Those phone calls should (hopefully) have been recorded - maybe you could suggest that the staff review the advice that you had been given previously and honour what they told you?

It's the financially disadvantaged bit that they don't like, as well as the bad publicity, because it counts as a formal complaint rather than a general moan. Formal complaints have to be dealt with in a manner determined by the FSA, and you should be referred to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with how the Pru attempt to resolve your complaint. You should also be responded to by an individual case handler, who will give you their direct contact details to say you going round the houses like this again.

Save not say!

How have you got on Saltire?

AAAAARGH!

No constructive advice I'm afraid but want to share in your pain at dealing with a faceless bureaucratic machine. We are having ishoos with NatWest (again) atm.

Ok well here's an update.

The FO have started a complaint against Pru on my behalf. They are also claiming for phone calls, as I have had to do all the ringing around, because Pru have never once contacted me. Anyway, yesterday I spoke to them again and said I was starting complaint proceedings against them with the FO. She started going on again about how the faxed copies couldn't be accpeted. I said "so why ahs it atekn you 10 days to decide this, and why didn't you call me, or Lloyds to tell them this". She put me on hold and came back and this is what she said, no joke
"well Mrs X, we did accpet faxed copies, up until today whenh teh rules changed and we don't accpet them any more, that's why we cannot accept these forms".
ARRGGHHHH
"So if you accepted faxed copies up until today, why did you not accept these ones which arrived 10 days ago".
No answer. They really haven't got a bloody clue, they are all nicey becasue thats how their Indian bosses tell them to be, but in reality they don't know what they are on about. They told me that they ahve resent all teh forms for us to sign again!
I also called Lloyds yesterday and they said that they ahd definately posted the letters of as well as faxing them, and gave me the name of the person they spoke to, the date and time. Pru are still saying that they haven't recieved them.
Then lloyds called me up and said "Mrs X, we don't usually do this, but we have written a letter of dislcamier to prudential telling them we no interest in your Endowment and to give you the money. What you are having to put up with is unacceptable, and since they obvously won't accpet our forms and letter this is perhaps the easiest way, if they issue the cheque to yourselves".

However, I'm not holding my breath as Pru will put another obstacle in the way. No doubt they will want the forms re sent.
I actually think that they don't ahve the money, I'm beginning to belive that they don't ahve it becasue they are in financail trouble

Are you talking to the call centres in India?
If so, are you aware that as soon as the call is answered you can politely insist that you are put through to someone in the UK?
The trouble with 99% of foreign call centres is that the employees are not empowered to actually do anything other than put notes on the system. They cannot take any action at all, including releasing your money.
BT are exactly the same, i only found this out after going to the ombudsman about them.

newspirits - yes they are in India or somewhere similar. I ahve asked for someone in the UK and the response was "there's no point they will tell you exactly the same thing"

Have just said to tehm "can you put me through to someone in teh UK please", and they said "er, em I'm trying to put you through" followed by "well our superviser wants to speak to you but we are having technical difficulties and he can't speak right now".

So I said "well I know your Head office is in Stirling and I would like to sepak to soemone there please"

How bloody annoying for you Saltire.

I live overseas and am with Pru for my endowment, so can't call an O845 number...this is the UK number I found on their website- try that.
0207 334 9000

You need to go to a branch and not leave until they sort this out - do they have branches?

Feck using the phone this is direct action time - are there any other mumsnetters out there that could go too and make this a big problem for the Pru?

Well someone form teh Pru (from teh indian call centre) called Andrew is supposed to be looking into it for me.
I explained my whole case (again) to him.
I otld him that it was always us who were having to call Prudential to find out what was going on, they have never contacted us since the forms were sent back in Sepptember, apart from 3 letters to ask why the DD had been stopped!I told him that every time I called I was gien conflicting and wrong advice, that I ahd started an officla complaint with the FO, that I was concerned that they couldn't pay up becasue of the creit crunch, that I had spent the best part of 12 hours ont eh hpone to them and lloyds over the past 3 weeks,etc etc
If any of you live in Stirling and want to go round and protest , then feel free

fingers crossed for you saltire

Thanks - you might yet see me in teh papers "Financial Institution won't give me what is rightfully mine"

When i spoke to them alst week, all the staff were called thing ssuch as Naveed, Kashmira,one said her name was something which sounded like Sutravatee. Today though, they are all called Andrew, Joanne, Lucy and Bill!