An idea - any comments from mods and others?

[caro]

I don't think anyone doubted your intentions Jansus, but I know you will understand the concern about this. The idea certainly merits consideration, and has been brought to the attention of BankFodder. I have spoken to him today and he has a personal commitment, but hopes to be able to get online later in the day.

 

Please don't think the issue is being ignored, but I'm sure you'll understand that the logistics of a site such as this, which is run by volunteers, means we can't always respond as quickly as some might think we should.

 

We try our best so please bear with us.

[caro]

From a personal point of view, I only became aware of the issue yesterday, and understand that this post was in the Bear Garden, where it may not be seen by those who need to know about it. I have discovered since that it has been posted in many other forums, but the bank forums I tend to follow are very quiet these days for obvious reasons. Unfortunately doing this means that any discussion or ideas can be diluted, and if people are unaware of other threads on the issue they will miss out on parts, or indeed may duplicate effort working on something that's already been dealt with elsewhere

 

If a post goes unanswered for, say, 24 hours, or requires the attention of someone on the team more urgently, reporting it will ensure that it comes to the teams attention. That way it doesn't matter who is about, someone will be able to respond in some way if necessary. This can be done using the small triangle with the exclamation mark in each post.

 

I'm sure you'd agree that not every post needs a mods attention, and none of us are "experts" on everything.

 

Regarding definitions of hardship, I would suggest that if the FSA definition is not clear, or people still don't get their cases dealt with is this way, there is still the option of going to court who may agree with the customers definition as opposed to the banking industry. I'm not sure if you've seen the post in the Bank Templates Library covering ways of proving hardship. Alternatively if the FSA definition lacks clarity, there is no harm in trying other avenues IMO.

[caro]

I'm not convinced at the merit in this Rooster because as we know the bank forums are very quiet at the moment, and we always seem to have loads of stickys, which personally I find very annoying. BankFodder is aware of the issue as I say, so I suggest that we let him deal with it as he sees fit.

[caro]

Regrettably many people request mods attention when all they need is to look in the FAQ's. Ideas are welcome from everyone, and I'm more aware of your work in the bank forums Jansus, than the campaigning that I understand crfx is involved in.

 

It doesn't matter who offers ideas, they are taken on merit, rather than who posts them.

 

I have no intention of apologising for myself or anyone else taking some time out for a bit of fun in the bear garden in their own time. Mods are under no more of an obligation to answer posts than anyone else. We aren't answerable to anyone about how we spend any time we may choose to spend on the site.

 

Now you have succeeded in getting the attention you wanted for this project, I hope we can all move on having learnt from any possible mistakes in handling it in the first place, and concentrate on the issue in hand.

[caro]

Fair comment regarding Jansus, and also yourself crfx. I can only speak for myself by saying that I did not receive any messages about it, although I understand that one of the other mods had brought the matter to the attention of BankFodder. He has been attending to some matters of his own, which are not CAG related and has been off line lately.

 

I can't answer for others, but I try to answer my PM's, unless for example someone is being abusive or impolite, in which case I don't waste my time responding. I too get frustrated at the lack of an appropriate response at times, but so far things have generally worked out quite well on CAG with it being managed as it has. We are all still learning and I'm sure you appreciate we could never have anticipated how big it would become.

[caro]

I will raise the matter of collating information with AlanfromDerby for his views. My first thought is to deal with it in the same way as collection of T&C's if admin agree with going ahead with this, but Alan may have other suggestions. I do not know when he will be on site, so please bear with me if it takes longer to get back to you than you might hope.

[caro]

Excellent point Giz. Anyone would be hard pressed to argue with that.

 

BTW, I edited the post as comments are welcome from all, not just mods.

[caro]

It's official then. I'm poor if not bloomin' poverty stricken and destitute.

 

If someone has more than benefits coming in, like Goldlady, it might be worth calculating if the charges are more than the income that isn't benefits. In other words the charges start to eat into benefits.

[caro]

Er, not sure.

[caro]

Right, I get it.

[caro]

I think any bank would be hard pushed to justify not using the Government's standard if they can't come up with a definition of their own. Even if they did try to dispute it, I'd hope the FSA or FOS would set them straight.

[caro]

Just to let you know that CAG has taken up the suggestion of collating data.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/announcement.php?a=114

[caro]

LOL, great, although I have edited the link just in case anyone manages to miss it.