Complaints Policy and Procedures

 

1. Purpose

Segen is a leading renewables distributor, selling solar panels, storage systems, mountings and EV charges. The majority of Segen business is not regulated however, Segen have a credit broking department, Segen Limited t/a Segen Finance, which conducts regulated activity.

Segen is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and, as such, will act in accordance with the Complaints rules as defined in the FCA Handbook, which will take precedence over the requirements of this policy and procedures. This policy and procedures detail how Segen will deal with complaints that originate from Segen Finance products.

It will apply to all individuals involved with the development and sale of Segen Finance products. For the avoidance of doubt, this applies to all Directors of Segen who are ultimately responsible for Segen Finance and its governance.

It does not apply to the wider Segen business. Complaints within Segen will be governed by separate policy.

2. Review of Policy and Procedures

This policy and procedures will be reviewed regularly, at least once a year, and amended as considered necessary by the Segen Finance team in the event of changing circumstances or regulations.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 Segen Finance Team Responsibilities

The Segen Finance Team are responsible for the implementation of the Complaints Policy and for monitoring compliance with it. They have appointed a Complaints Manager, James Walker.

3.2 Complaints Manager Responsibilities

The Complaints Manager is responsible for the investigation of complaints and will utilise other Segen Finance team members if required.

3.3 Employee Responsibilities

All employees are expected to refer any verbal or written complaints to the Complaints Manager at the earliest opportunity and to cooperate fully with the Complaints Manager in its investigations. Employees undertake initial training and training on an annual basis to ensure their knowledge is up to date.

3.4 IAR Responsibilities

All IARs are expected to refer any verbal or written complaints to the Complaints Manager at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, within 3 working days of being notified of the complaint. The IARs are expected to cooperate fully in any investigation undertaken by Segen or the FCA.

4. Definitions

4.1 Definition of a complaint

The FCA defines a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction from or on behalf of a customer, whether justified or not, which includes an actual or potential financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.

The Financial Conduct Authority complaints rules apply to complaints:

• Made by, or on behalf of an eligible complainant
• Relating to regulated activity
• Involving an allegation that the complainant has suffered, or may suffer, financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience

4.2 Definition of eligible complainant

An eligible complainant is a complainant that is:

• A consumer (a person acting outside their trade, business or profession)
• A micro enterprise (enterprise which employs fewer than 10 people and has a turnover or balance sheets that does not exceed EUR 2,000,000)
• A charity with an annual income of less than £6,500,000
• A trustee of a trust which has a net asset value of less than £5,000,000
• A consumer buy-to-let consumer
• A small business (enterprise which has an annual turnover of less than £6.5 million and employs fewer than 50 people or has a balance sheet total of less than £5 million)
• A guarantor

Complainants that are professional customers or eligible counterparties that are acting outside of their trade or professions in relation to the activity to which the complaint relates are considered to be consumers and, as such, eligible complainants.

If in doubt whether a complainant is an eligible complainant or not, we will treat them as an eligible complainant.

Only eligible complainants can refer their complaints on to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

5. Policy

It is our policy to treat all complainants the same, however, eligible complainants are legally defined and have additional rights in law that we must acknowledge and adhere to. We have elected to treat all complaints in the same way for simplicity. Occasionally we may not know if a complainant is ‘eligible’ in which case we will treat them as such and if it becomes necessary, the Financial Ombudsman Service will establish the status of the complainant, not Segen.

It is our intention that:

• Segen Finance‘s customers and potential customers are able to submit complaints free of charge.
• Complaints will be handled promptly, effectively and in an independent manner, obtaining additional information as necessary.
• Segen will always communicate with customers and potential customers clearly in plain language that is easy to understand and will reply to the complaint without undue delay.

We will ensure that we assess fairly, consistently and promptly:

• The subject matter of the complaint
• Whether the complaint should be upheld
• What remedial action or redress may be appropriate
• Whether another party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint

We will promptly comply with any offer or remedial activity or redress accepted by the complainant. A complaint will be considered as closed when a final response has been issued.

Segen Finance will provide information about the Financial Ombudsman Service to eligible complainants on our website in a clear, comprehensible and easily accessible way.

5.1 Consumer Awareness

Segen has published Complaints Procedures on our website that includes contact details of our Complaints Manager. The procedures are made available to customers and potential customers on request and when we are acknowledging a complaint. The procedures contain information about the Financial Ombudsman Service.

5.2 Timings

Segen has a maximum of 8 weeks to issue a final response to the complainant and we require that this practice is followed (as a maximum timescale) for all complaints.

Complaints resolved by close of the third business day

If we satisfactorily resolve the complaint by close of business on the third business day following the receipt of the complaint then we will issue a written “Summary Resolution Communication” to the complainant, advising that we consider the complaint as resolved and inform the complainant, for eligible complainants, about their options for referring the complaint back to us or for onward referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service if they are dissatisfied.

In addition to sending a complainant a “Summary Resolution Communication”, we may also use other methods to communicate the information where:

• We consider that doing so may better meet the complainant’s needs; or
• The complainant and Segen have already been using another method to communicate about the complaint.

Complaints not settled within 3 business days

On receipt of a complaint, we will send the complainant a written acknowledgement providing confirmation that we have received the complaint and are dealing with it.

We will ensure that the complainant is kept informed of the progress of the measures being taken for resolution of the complaint and will write to complainants after four weeks if we have not reached a decision.

We will issue a final response to the complainant within 8 weeks and inform the complainant, for eligible complainants, about their options for onward referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Letter	Timing
Initial response letter	Promptly: by the next working day unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Holding letter	Optional until the eighth week. When the investigation has not involved a continuous dialogue, the complaints manager may issue a holding letter after four weeks if the complaint remains outstanding. The holding letter can be issued more frequently if necessary or desirable.
Final response	By end of the eighth week after the receipt of the complaint in all cases, but sooner whenever possible. If, exceptionally, a full response is not possible by this time we must send out a holding letter explaining why we have not been able to issue a decision within the above time frame and when we expect to be able to provide a decision. It should however be noted that it is a requirement that final responses are issued by the end of eight weeks after receipt of complaints.

The final response will clearly set out:

• Whether Segen Finance accepts or rejects the complaint
• The reasons for rejection, where applicable
• The intention to offer redress or remedial action, where applicable

Details of the redress to be offered and any compensation offered with a clear method of calculation.

Additionally, where the customer is an eligible complainant, we will:

• Explain that where the complainant disagrees with our decision they must refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of the date of this letter or the right to use this service is lost, and
• Enclose contact details for the Financial Ombudsman Service, including website details.

We will consider a complaint closed when we have issued our final response.

5.3 Complaints forwarding

Segen Finance will promptly forward the complaint in writing to another party if we have reasonable grounds to believe that the other party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint. If a complaint is forwarded, Segen Finance will inform the complainant promptly in a final response of why the complaint has been forwarded to another party and provide the complainant with the other party’s contact details.

If Segen Finance receives a forwarded complaint, the complaint will be treated as if we have received the complaint directly and the same time limits will apply from the date on which we received the forwarded complaint.

5.4 Complaints time barring

If Segen Finance receives a complaint which is outside the time limits for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service, we may reject the compliant without considering the merits but will explain this to the complainant in our final response.

Unless Segen Finance consents, the Financial Ombudsman Service will not consider a complaint if the complainant refers it to the Financial Ombudsman Service:

• More than six months after the respondent sent the complainant its final response
• More than six years after the event complained of
• More than three years from the date on which the complainant became aware that they had cause for complaint

5.5 Financial Ombudsman Service

Segen Finance will co-operate fully with the Financial Ombudsman Service in resolving any complaints made against us and agrees to be bound by any awards made by the Ombudsman. Segen Finance undertakes to pay promptly the fees levied by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

5.6 Analysis

Segen Finance will conduct root cause analysis of any complaint received and record any appropriate actions taken. Complaints will be analysed on a quarterly basis for any reoccurring patterns and all lessons learnt will be incorporated into future training and development. The causes of complaints will be recorded in our Management Information and will be used with the prioritisation of dealing with the root causes.

6. The procedure

Any complaint, verbal or written, should be referred to the Complaints Manager at the earliest opportunity.

The Complaints Manager will then,

1. Make an initial assessment of the complaint, contacting the complainant for further information if required. This can be done via telephone, email or any other appropriate means of communication.
2. If there is sufficient information and the complaint can be resolved within 3 business days, then proceed to step 9.
3. If the complaint cannot be resolved within 3 business days, send out an initial response letter to the complainant using the Initial Response Letter Template, adding the details known about the complaint by the next working day, stating that the complaint has been received and is being dealt with.
4. Investigate the complaint impartially obtaining additional information from our records/staff and/or the complainant as necessary.
5. Enter the complaint onto the Complaints Log and create a Complaint Record.
6. Assess fairly, consistently and promptly:
7. The subject matter of the complaint
8. Whether the complaint should be upheld
9. What remedial action or redress (or both) may be appropriate
10. If appropriate, whether it has reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another party/respondent may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint.
11. If appropriate, forward the complaint to the relevant party/respondent and advise the complainant in writing why the complaint has been forwarded to the other party and provide the other party’s contact details.
12. If the complaint is unresolved after four weeks, send out a holding letter advising an expected resolution date.
13. If the complaint is resolved, communicate Segen Finance’s position on the complaint to the complainant and inform them about their options, including that they may be able to refer the complaint to an alternative dispute resolution entity (Financial Ombudsman Service for eligible complainants) or that the complainant may be able to take civil action, using the Final Response Letter template. If the complaint was resolved within 3 days, use the Summary Resolution Communication instead.
14. In the final response letter, clearly set out whether Segen accepts or rejects the complaint, the reasons for rejecting any complaint or where we accept the complaint, and intend to offer redress or remedial action, details of the redress to be offered, any compensation offered and a clear method of calculation.
15. In the final response letter to eligible complainants, enclose a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service’s contact details, which includes the website address of the Financial Ombudsman Service and inform the complainant that if they are still dissatisfied with our response, the complaint may now be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
16. Comply promptly with any offer of remedial action or redress accepted by the complainant.
17. Conduct a root cause analysis in the case of any complaint and record with the appropriate action having been taken. Record any actions within the individual complaint record.
18. Liaise with senior management if any changes need to be made to Segen Finance’s procedures based on the analysis.
19. Update the Complaints Log and Complaints Record with the final decision including details of the amount of any redress offered.

7. Record keeping

Segen Finance will keep a record of each complaint received and the measures taken for its resolution, including any redress offered, and retain that record for three years from the date the complaint was received.

8. Complaints reporting

Through our Segen Finance’s REGDATA reports, we will provide the FCA with a complete report concerning complaints from eligible complainants. Complaints that have been forwarded in their entirety to another party will not be included in the report.

9. Breaches of the Complaints Policy and Procedure

Any breaches of the Complaints Policy and Procedures will be recorded on our breach log in conjunction with our Regulatory Breach policy.

10. Annex 1

Financial Ombudsman Service

Address: The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR
Tel: 0800 023 4567 (free for most people ringing from a fixed line) or 0300 123 9123
(cheaper for those calling using a mobile) or 44 20 7964 0500 (if calling from abroad)
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Definition of a complaint

We must include details of the Financial Ombudsman Service in the final response if dealing with an eligible complainant and a regulated activity, we will:

• Explain that the complainant must refer the matter to the ombudsman within six months of the date of this letter or the right to use this service is lost
• Indicate whether or not we consent to waive the relevant time limits.

Closing a complaint

We will consider a complaint closed when we have made our final response to you. This does not prevent you from exercising any rights you may have to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Financial Ombudsman Service

We will co-operate fully with the Financial Ombudsman Service in resolving any complaints made against us and agree to be bound by any awards made by the Ombudsman. Segen Finance undertakes to pay promptly any fees levied by the Ombudsman.

Contact:

The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR

Tel: 0800 023 4567 (free for most people ringing from a fixed line) or 0300 123 9123
(cheaper for those calling using a mobile) or 020 7964 0500 (if calling from abroad)
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk