In January and February of this year the ombudsman upheld four complaints against Cofunds in relation to the replatforming issues which had plagued the company in May last year and continued for months.
In one case upheld in February a client complained she had not been able to access her account since it transferred to the new platform and where she and her husband had previously been able to access both of their accounts with a joint email address, they were now unable to do so.
The ombudsman heard the client's husband had made "numerous, lengthy calls" in an attempt to resolve the issue but Cofunds rejected their complaint on the grounds the changes had been made for security reasons.
But Cofunds accepted the replatforming process had "thrown up some technical challenges" which resulted in customers waiting an unusually long time for queries to be dealt with and offered the client £50 compensation in recognition of the cost and trouble caused.
The ombudsman found the company should have told the client in advance about the change and requested it pay an additional £100.
The ombudsman said: "Even if it did [tell the client in advance], I believe it had a responsibility when bringing about a significant change in clients’ online access to their accounts to ensure it had systems and staffing in place to assist any clients who suddenly found they were locked out of their accounts - even if this was not its fault.
"From what I have read, Cofunds admits it did not have sufficient support in place to provide prompt and helpful advice to clients who could no longer access their accounts."
In another case upheld in January a client complained she could only access one of her two Isa accounts on Cofunds' site in June 2018, and when her husband made six calls to the company he was unable to resolve the matter.
The client alleged her husband was put in queues and Cofunds "hung up on him and promised emails that never arrived".
The client's adviser also contacted Cofunds to ask her accounts be held together, but not merged, so she could view them both under one log in.
In August 2018 Cofunds told the client she should be able to log in and view both accounts, but she was still unable to do so.
Despite Cofunds apologising to the client in September last year and offering £100 in compensation, the problem persisted.
The ombudsman agreed the issue had prevented the client from accessing her accounts for "some months" and she had therefore been unable to "monitor her investments in the way she wanted to".
The ombudsman said: "Over this period, Cofunds haven’t responded as quickly as they should have to the client's requests and complaints. And they’ve told her the problems would be resolved when they haven’t been."
But whilst the ombudsman upheld the principle of the client's complaint, it found the compensation Cofunds had eventually offered her - now at a total of £275 - was sufficient.
In a case upheld in February a client complained she had been unable to log into the Cofunds platform from May 2018 and Aegon had not completed a transfer request which had been placed at the time.
When the client was eventually able to log back into her account she found her open positions had been closed and her funds were being held in cash.
The ombudsman heard how Aegon accepted the shares had been sold in error, offering to reinstate the client's positions and pay £500 in compensation.
When the client approached the Fos, claiming the offer of compensation did not reflect the "trouble and upset" caused by the problems, the ombudsman said he understood why the client felt the relationship between the two parties had broken down and the client had "lost trust" in the service offered by Aegon.
He also acknowledged Aegon had accepted the problems which affected the client's ability to log into her account.
Whilst acknowledging the situation had been "incredibly frustrating" for the client, the ombudsman found the £500 compensation offered by Aegon was "fair and reasonable" and decided it need not take any further action on the matter.
In all four complaints brought so far the ombudsman largely agreed with the level of compensation Cofunds had offered to clients.
The ombudsman clarified it was not its role to "punish businesses" and explained that instead it considers whether the action taken by businesses to rectify an issue was "fair and reasonable".
rachel.addison@ft.com
