Complaints Procedure

You can complain in whatever way suits you. That can be verbally — by telephone or in person — or in writing, by post, email or text message.

By phone on 0191 380 4680, by email to enquiries@q-finance.co.uk, or by post to Suite 2, Alexander House, Durham, County Durham, DH7 8XL.

It helps if you can tell us your name and contact details, any agreement or reference number, what has gone wrong, and what you would like us to do about it.

In the first instance your complaint is handled by the manager responsible for your account, in consultation with the Chief Executive.

Our procedure follows the FCA's complaint-handling rules (DISP). On receiving your complaint we will investigate it competently, diligently and impartially, and assess it fairly, consistently and promptly — the subject matter, whether it should be upheld, and what remedial action or redress may be appropriate.

We will explain our assessment, our decision and any offer of redress in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading, and act promptly on any offer you accept.

Redress does not always mean money. Depending on what has happened, it may simply be an apology, or a change to how we do something.

We aim to resolve complaints within three business days of receiving them. Where we do, we will send you a summary resolution communication confirming that we consider the matter resolved, and explaining that you can still refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you disagree.

• ✓ Not resolved within three business days — we acknowledge your complaint in writing within five business days, tell you the name and job title of the person handling it, and send you a copy of this procedure.
• ✓ Investigation — carried out by the Chief Executive or a Director of the company.
• ✓ After four weeks — if we have not resolved it, we send a holding response explaining why, and when we will next be in touch.
• ✓ Within eight weeks — we issue our final response.

Our final response sets out our final view, deals directly with the issues you have raised, and either accepts your complaint and offers appropriate redress with a clear explanation of how we arrived at it, rejects it and gives our reasons, or does some of both. It will enclose the Financial Ombudsman Service leaflet.

You then have eight weeks to respond to our final response, after which we consider the complaint closed.

If we have not resolved your complaint within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with our final response, you may be able to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The service is free to consumers.

The Financial Ombudsman Service can be contacted at financial-ombudsman.org.uk, where you will also find further information about what it does. Referring a complaint to the Ombudsman does not affect your legal rights.

If your complaint reaches us outside the time limits for referral to the Ombudsman, we may reject it without considering its merits. If we do, we will explain that to you in a final response letter.

Q-Finance is a credit broker, not a lender. Where your complaint concerns the conduct of the lender or the agreement itself, it may need to be directed to them. If you are unsure, contact us and we will point you to the right place.

We keep a record of every complaint for three years from the date we receive it, and report complaint numbers to the FCA twice a year.