Self-invested pension firm Hornbuckle has agreed to hand over around £1,200 to a financial adviser who threatened to go to court to recover close to £1,900 it claimed was outstanding from a bill to cover hourly fees for time wasted as a result of poor service.
In February 2014, Stuart Read, director at Sabre Financial Management, told the Sipp provider he would be “invoicing [them] for the time spent chasing errors and inefficiencies on your part”.
In September, FTAdviser reported Mr Read, who has four clients with Hornbuckle Sipps, had billed the provider for a “lenient” £3,740 and had said he was willing to take action in the small claims court to recover the remainder after it paid half of the sum.
Hornbuckle had stated in an email sent in August, seen by FTAdviser, that it would “hold over the balance until the end of the year, should our service proposition not improve”.
However, earlier this year the two parties settled the dispute after the firm agreed to pay around £1,200 following a ‘mediation’ service.
Mr Read said: “We had to prepare as though it was going to the full hearing and then we used the mediation service, which was quite good as it was quick and easy.
“It’s a telephone service and we both submit our arguments. Hornbuckle came to the table willing to settle and were authorised to give us a certain figure. It was paid first thing the next morning.”
Mr Read told FTAdviser he would urge all financial advisers, who have spent time chasing providers due to their poor service, to do the same.
“As an industry the service [from pension providers] remains abysmal. We should not have to wait 30 minutes on hold - it’s ridiculous. The industry really needs a shake-up.
“One problem is the pension freedoms - they are now inundated with requests. For us, it was worth pursuing [Hornbuckle] and we were perfectly happy with the figure offered to us as we had written off this cost.”
A spokesperson for Hornbuckle said the firm did not have anything to add to its previous statements on the issue.
Last year, Hornbuckle had said while it would not comment on individual cases in the press, but continuously aims to improve its service and regrets “cases where for whatever reason this is not achieved and will work with the parties involved to address the specific issues”.
In the wake of this and other legacy complaints, the firm has sought to overhaul its service and in particular last year launched a new property investment proposition, which in particular included a ‘fast track’ option for simple cases.
In October, the firm told FTAdviser it was preparing for a stream of legacy issues as it undertook a migration of data to a new digital platform, including hundreds of tax relief cases.
donia.o’loughlin@ft.com
Additional reporting by Ashley Wassall
