Responding to consumer delays
OBSI’s approach to handling investigation delays involving consumers
Every year, OBSI investigates and resolves thousands of complaints raised by financial services consumers. For each complaint we receive, we review the relevant documentation and work with the consumer and firm to investigate what happened. The cooperation of both parties is essential to our complaint-handling process and ensures that our recommendations are based on all the relevant information and that we comply with our timeliness standards. However, sometimes we experience delays in receiving full and complete information from the consumer which can slow down our investigation.
Below, we explain why these situations arise and our approach to handling them.
Situation # 1: We have not received the consumer’s signed consent letter.
Before we can begin to review a complaint, the consumer is required to sign a consent letter, giving us permission to access their personal information, and allowing the firm to share all relevant information about the complaint with us. If consumers do not sign our consent letter within a reasonable amount of time, we stop the case-opening process and inform the consumer that we have done so and that their time limits for opening a complaint will continue to apply.
Situation # 2: We are unable to reach the consumer for an interview.
During our investigation, we usually need to speak to the consumer and the firm to understand their position and what has happened. We may need to speak to them more than once as we complete our investigation. When we ask to speak to a consumer, we will suggest a date and time during regular business hours and do our best to accommodate the consumer’s schedule. If the consumer does not respond or is unavailable within a reasonable amount of time, we may complete our investigation without speaking to them. It is generally in the consumer’s interest to speak to us to ensure that we fully understand their perspective and that we have heard their response to the firm’s position.
Situation # 3: We do not get a response to our request for additional information.
When a consumer contacts us with a complaint, we ask them to provide us with all the relevant information that they have about their complaint so we can complete our investigation promptly. As we investigate the complaint, we sometimes request additional information to ensure we fully understand what happened. When we request additional documentation from the consumer during the investigation, we ask consumers to respond within a reasonable time frame. While most consumers respond quickly, when they don’t, it can cause delays in the investigation. When these delays become unreasonable, we will complete the investigation based on the information we have.
Situation # 4: The consumer is disrespectful to OBSI staff.
Sometimes investigation delays can be caused by the way a consumer chooses to communicate with OBSI’s staff. While all consumer complaints involve some degree of distress and inconvenience for the consumer and can involve heated emotions, consumers are expected to communicate with OBSI’s staff in a respectful manner throughout our process.
Respectful and constructive communications are important to ensure that consumers’ perspectives are fully understood and that our investigations can proceed in a timely and efficient way. When consumer communications become disrespectful, the focus of our work can shift from investigating the complaint to addressing the consumer behaviour and protecting our staff.
If a consumer’s communications become abusive, our staff are empowered to address the situation immediately with responses that can include:
- reminding the consumer of our respectful communications policy
- asking that the abusive behaviour stop
- disconnecting a phone call
- requiring a cooling-off period to give the consumer a chance to reflect before further communication
- discontinuing communication with the consumer
- closing the investigation
Conclusion
When consumers cooperate with our process, make themselves available for interviews and respond promptly to information requests, we avoid delays and are able to reach timely and fair resolutions based on all relevant information. This helps to ensure that we are able to provide fair, efficient and effective services to the thousands of Canadians who reach out to us every year for assistance.
Related resources
How the complaint process works
This is a step-by-step review of our complaint process from start to finish. We explain what is involved and what happens when we make a recommendation.
What to Expect document
This guide is designed to help consumers understand what we need from them and what they can expect from us before we start our investigation, during our investigation, and after we have reached a conclusion. It also includes information about what we can and cannot recommend.
Consumer consent letter
This letter is our first step in reviewing a consumer’s complaint. Before we can start our investigation, our Terms of Reference say we must obtain written consent from the consumer to request their personal information from the firm.