Mr S instructed a legal service provider to prepare wills for him and his wife, and to store those wills. That service provider closed and their work was transferred to another legal service provider.
The original service provider lost Mr S and his wife’s wills, so they needed to have new wills drafted. They also instructed the new service provider to prepare lasting power of attorney documents.
When Mr S received a bill from the service provider, he was surprised as the charges were more than he was expecting. He had understood that the replacement wills were to be prepared at no cost, and that the cost of preparing the lasting power of attorneys would be minimal.
When Mr S received a bill that was higher than he expected he raised a complaint with the service provider.
Mr S raised a number of complaints with the service provider (both before and after the service provider’s final response), including:
Poor communication;
Delay;
Costs; and
Poor complaints handling.
The service provider responded to Mr S’s concerns and in their final response set out their view that their service was reasonable.
Mr S did not agree and raised a number of issues with the service provider’s final response, and their approach to resolving his concerns.
As the service provider had not sought to address his concerns fully, Mr S brought his complaint to LeO, in particular citing one of the factors for escalation as the service provider’s failure to communicate with him during the complaints process.
Mr S escalated his complaint to LeO, and in line with usual processes, we made some initial enquiries of the service provider.
Before the matter could be reviewed further, Mr S got in touch and asked to withdraw his complaint on the basis that the service provider had now undertaken additional work and offered a satisfactory resolution.
The complaint was closed as withdrawn and no case fee was payable.
Service providers should ensure that all complaints are fully addressed, and where appropriate, relevant evidence set out and considered. A brief response with a defensive tone, or one that does not consider the full facts of the matter, is more likely to lead to consumer complaint escalation.
Complaint responses that are focused on resolution are more likely to be resolved without any referral to LeO.
