It’s been a while, but as my regular reader (hi mum!) will remember, we were encountering a little local difficulty with the company who were supplying us with card payment facilities. To avoid any embarrassment, I’ll simply refer to them as “SodOff” from here on. (If you’re that interested, you can read the extended correspondence here: https://wildandhomelessbooks.com/2017/01/04/sumup-jumping-through-hoops-while-beating-your-head-against-a-brick-wall/ ).
Anyway, having been invited by SodOff to register a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman, it was with a heavy heart that I proceeded to do so. Not because of any reluctance to complain, but the simple foreknowledge that if an organisation invites you to complain to their regulatory body, they must be reasonably confident of the likely outcome.
Even so, if the email I received from their director of Risk & Compliance was anything to go by, SodOff still appeared to think that my complaint was about their T&Cs, whereas it was almost entirely to do with the way in which their “support” team had dealt with my account.
I was however unsurprised when, as surely as night follows day, the Ombudsman’s report found that although “the level of customer service [SodOff] provided could have been better”, in terms of adherence to their T&Cs, SodOff had done nothing wrong. Which is a bit like saying that the celebration of the Passover in the Third Reich “could have been more enthusiastic”.
The Ombudsman went on to say that SodOff “admitted that their responses could’ve been better and [they] have agreed to apologise via email”. I suppose it was too much to hope for something with emojis and a dancing gif signature, but there we are.
I am relatively sanguine about all this because in the interim we have arranged for card payment services to be provided by another company (iZettle), who in distinct contrast to SodOff, were able to set up an account, verify my identity and get the whole thing rolling inside 48 hours.
What does still concern me (even if it doesn’t concern the Ombudsman) is that SodOff’s “support” team have (as can be seen from the correspondence) lied, dissembled, prevaricated and simply refused to answer relevent questions. Which is, I feel, hardly conduct becoming of a financial services provider.
Wild & Homeless Books 
I wonder is SodOff is in fact a Ryanair subsidiary? You appear to be describing an identical business model. If it provides any comfort at all I can tell you form a direct discussion with the wonderful Anne Nolan who heads up the Irish air authority that she has an immensely low opinion of how Ryanair behave. Ombudsman’s and authorities are not all bad…but sadly as you have experienced are manacled by the law of the Country that governs them.
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