The reply was from an adjudicator. I thought of asking an Ombudsman but didn't think that the latter would go against the assessment of an adjudicator. As this has taken 2 years I fear the Ombudsman will uphold the adjudicator's decision just to get rid of me. DO I have to be liable for the penalties and interest and for the time it has taken Barclays to reply and for the Ombudsman to assess? One adjudicator asked Barclays back in Novemeber 2008 to take back our account to what it was at the time of the migration but Barclays did not reply. Thanks Ohan

Can anyone tell me if my account should have been frozen whilst I was in dispute with Barclays. Also the Financial Ombudsman Service thinks that it was all right to make us wait 16 months before they could properly assess the dispute. They are also saying that if the debt escalated it is because it was our fault for not finding any means to pay the shortfall. They will not akcnowledge that our attempts to pay were rejected because Barclays could not access the Woolwich accounts until January 2009. Ohan

Many thanks Suetonius but I need a quick resolution as my debt is escalating. It is now 2 years and my file is now about 2000 pages and don't wish to add more. Furthermore, my property is under threat of re-possession. I need an answer for: why should I pay this vast sum of money when it has taken 6 months for Barclays to reply and 16 months for the Ombudsman to make an assessment? Ohan

WE did write to Varley and one of the adjudicators did ask for our account to go back to what it was at the time of migration but no response was received from either with regards to the request. Ohan

Thanks for your message Suetonius When our mortage account and the current account migrated from Woolwich to Barclays In July 2007, the latter informed us about changes in the current acount but not the mortgage account. As there was a shortfall after the migration we went to our local Barclays branch in order to pay this shortfall. Even though we have a standing order, sometimes this is not enough when the interest rates fluctuate hence the shortfall. Staff said we couldn't because they could not find this account on their system. We wrote to Barclays head office in August 2007 about this and they said they would look into it. Following a letter dated 31 January 2008 which we received in February 2008, we followed their instructions and made several attempts to pay at a Barcalys branch but could not. Staff would say the same thing that the mortgage account number did not exist on their system. We even went to see the Mortgage Advisor of our local branch who said the same thing. On 14 January 2008 we referred the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) as we cannot afford solicitors also because we did not get an answer within 8 weeks. Barcalys was continuing to charge interset and penalties for non-payment with threats of re-possession. By that time the amount owed doubled. Unfortunately, it took 16 months for the FOS to assess the dispute. We were assigned 3 adjudicators who did not want to consider the issue of the delay in their assessment and said we were at fault as we had not paid the shortfall. Subsequently, we did pay the original shortfall of about £1000 by post but continued to dispute the amount which escalated due to the delay of both Barclays and FOS in dealing with the matter. On 24 February 2009 Iwe went to see the manager of our local branch. She explained that prior to January 2009 Barclays did not have a system whereby they could access the Woolwich accounts but she said they now had that facility to do it. She also said we were not the only ones to have had similar problems. We have since paid another shortfall but we are still disputing the arrears which by now it has gone up to about £10.000. The last adjudiator said he wrote to Barclays upholding our complaint but in a letter which we received in April 2009 he is saying that according to hid assessment Barclays have clarified the situation of both accounts and that we are at fault for not paying the arrears. There is no mention of the time scale. Ohan.

Should Barclays and the FOS have frozen our account (charges/interest) whilst they were trying to resolve the matter which has taken 2 yrs?

This is the bacground to my complaint against Barclays Bank. I would be grateful for any advice. July 2007-Letter from Woolwich informing that our mortgage will be transferred to Barclays and of changes to our 2 current accounts one of them being an overdraft facility. August 2007- We wrote to Barclays asking us to clarify some aspects of their letter which were not clear. No response. October 2007- We wrote to Barclays again requesting information with regards to our accounts as there was a shortfall to pay towards our mortgage whilst we were with the Woolwich. They said they will look into it and will reply within 8 weeks. When they did not reply within 8 weeks we began to have concerns because they were charging penalties and interest for non-payment. They were also taking the shortfall from the overdraft facility thus increasing the overdraft on a monthly basis. When the 8 weeks were over with no reply from Barclays, we received a letter from them saying we could complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) as it would take some time before they could reply to us. This we did in December 2007. January 2008- Barclays wrote explaining the situation of the 2 accounts and the mortgage account. In order to cover the arrears they said we could go to any Barclays Branch and make the payments. When we went to our local branch with the letter sent to us by Barclay, staff there said they could not take the payment because there was nothing on their system that said these accounts existed. This happened at least 3 times and every time we wrote to them they said staff should have been able to locate our accounts. On one occasion even though we had evidence that we had gone to see the mortgage advisor of our local bank, Barclays said no one had any record that we had been. Finally in February 2009 staff at our local branch confirmed that they could access our accounts. In the meantime, Barclays continued to run the accounts as they would have done normally without taking into account the dispute and the delay it had taken to resolve the situation. During January 2008 and February 2009, we visited The Citizens Advice Bureau, wrote to the Office of Fair Trading, the FAS and the Community Legal Services. They all said they could not advice us until we received a reply from the Financial Ombudsman Service which we finally did on 15 May 2009 this after nearly 18 months. Even though they had originally upheld our complaint, they are now saying that Barclays explained the situation of our accounts in January 2008 and that we should have paid the money owed at that time. They have not taken into account the time it has taken them to resolve this matter (6 months) and 18 months FOS has taken in order to investigate and reply. There were 3 adjudicators assigned to us during this period none of whom could understand the situation nor would they acknowledge that the arrears escalated due to this delay. We now owe Barclays around £10.000 which the FOS think is fair.