Make a Complaint

Introduction

At Specialist Motor Finance, customer satisfaction is important to us, and we are committed to providing you high standards of service. Even with the best of intentions, we understand that there may be occasions where things can go wrong and we did not deliver the standard of service expected.

If for any reason you are not entirely satisfied with any aspect of our service, we would like to know about it so that so we can put things right and make improvements to enhance the services we offer.

The following procedure explains how we deal with complaints, our commitments to you and what action to take if you think your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction.

How to Make a Complaint

If you have a complaint, please contact us in one of the following ways:

By Phone: 01244 200746

By Email: CustomerCare@SMFMotor.com

By Post: Specialist Motor Finance, International House Kingsfield Court, Chester CH4 9RF

By SMF Portal: Complaints can be submitted through the “Complaints” section on our Customer Portal

What We Need to Know

To help us investigate and resolve your complaint as quickly as possible, please provide the following information when you a raising a complaint:

Your name and contact details

Your account or agreement number

A clear description of your concern or complaint

What you would like us to do to resolve the issue

Copies of any relevant documents and correspondence to support your complaint

Our Complaints Process

Forwarded Complaints: Where we are not the party at fault for the complaint raised, we will inform you of this in writing as a final response and forward the complaint, or relevant part of it, to the party best able to deal with it

Summary resolution Procedure: Sometimes it will be possible for us to resolve a complaint informally. Where we can do this within three working days of the complaint being received and our response and resolution is accepted, then we will issue a ‘Summary Resolution Communication’ (SRC) in writing

Acknowledgement: All complaints not resolved informally by the close of the third working day, are to be acknowledged promptly and in writing within five working days from the date of the complaint

Investigation: We will investigate all complaints competently, diligently, and impartially. We will be fair and consistent in our approach and consider all relevant factors (including seeking additional information from the customer, other departments within SMF, or our third-party partners)

Case Communication: We will keep you reasonably informed of the progress with our complaint investigation.

Resolution Times: We aim to resolve all complaints in a timely manner. If we are unable to provide a resolution within eight weeks, we will inform you of this in writing. This communication will explain the reasons for the delay, outline when we expect to reach a decision, and include information about your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

Resolution Outcome: Once our investigation is complete, we will notify you of the outcome and provide a final response in writing. This response will detail the findings of our investigation, explain how we reached our decision, and outline any actions we have taken. If your complaint is upheld, we may offer appropriate redress or compensation. If it is not upheld, our final response will include a clear explanation of our decision and the reasons behind it.

If You Are Not Satisfied: If you are not satisfied with our proposed resolution, or if we are unable to issue a final response within eight weeks of receiving your complaint, you have the right to escalate the matter by referring it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

By Phone: 0800 023 4567

By Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Referral Time Limits: If we receive a complaint that falls outside the time limits for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), we will reject the complaint and provide a written explanation outlining the reasons. For reference, the FOS time limits are:

If we receive a complaint that falls outside the time limits for referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), we will reject the complaint and provide a written explanation outlining the reasons. For reference, the FOS time limits are:

More than six months after the date we issued our final response or summary resolution communication

More than six years after the event being complained about

More than three years from the date you became aware (or could reasonably have been expected to become aware) that there was cause for complaint

Record keeping: To effectively investigate your complaint, we need to collect and store certain personal information in line with our internal data retention policy.

For more details on how and why we use your personal data (also referred to as personal information) when you enter into a finance agreement with us, please refer to our Customer Privacy Notice available on our website: https://www.smfmotor.com/privacy-notice/.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about our complaints handling procedure, please contact us at 01244 200746.

Customer Care Team
Specialist Motor Finance Ltd
International House
Kingsfield Court
Chester Business Park
Chester
Cheshire
CH4 9RF