www.iva.co.uk

I wanted to post this as a "heads up" to everyone who has their IVA with Freeman Jones. A short while ago, I posted on here that every time I rang Freeman Jones, I was put on hold for anywhere between 30 and 55 minutes!! I had to make a number of calls to them to sort out our Full and Final offer and these calls were all made in the last month as there were a number of hurdles along the way that required me to have to constantly push to get things done.
I have just received my phone bill and the total for calls to Freeman Jones is £31.99!! I am appalled that this cost has been incurred especially as EVERYONE who contacts these sort of companies will be experiencing some sort of financial hardship!
I can't believe that they do not have a free phone number in place.

Please do not think that I am having a dig at Freeman Jones as a company because they were great on the whole, except for a few issues during the "full and final" process which I have mentioned on this forum before.
They where very helpful during the 12 months of our IVA and our completion certificate arrived just 10 days after the variation meeting. Everyone we spoke to was very helpful and reassuring during the difficult times. I just think that their telephone system needs addressing and I didn't want anyone else to be hit with a similar bill!
Jojo cox.
Xx

I would definitely send a copy of this bill to Freeman Jones and point out why this large bill was built up by putting people on hold for any length of time. They may address the way calls are dealt with and furthermore compensate for part cost of the calls maybe?

I'm not surprised you are shocked Jojocox

I agree that you should bring it to the attention of Freeman Jones, I am sure others must have had a similar experience.

Wasn't sure if they would as we have now received our completion certificate so all is done and dusted. I will certainly look into it. It's going to get paid, so wasn't after compensation, just didn't want it to happen to anyone else.
Maybe best to email them and ask them to call you! Although emails don't usually get replied to for a day or two and I needed to get through to someone there and then.
Jojo. X

That is appalling.

Thanks for letting people know. If I were with them I would be asking for an increase on my income and expenditure to cover calls to them.

I am sure that Sarah Jolly will be interested to read this on her return to work after the holidays. That is more than the cost of my home telephone calls for a whole year!

Dear jojocox,

Thank you for your post, I’m pleased you now have your Completion Certificate.

Our goal is to answer all calls within three rings. However, over the past few weeks we have been struggling to meet this target and, as you say, some clients have had to wait to get through. This isn’t acceptable to us, or to clients, and we are working hard to rectify this. We do fully expect call wait times will (once again) be a thing of the past in the coming weeks – please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you in the final stages of your IVA.

As you have now completed your IVA I know it’s unlikely you’ll need to contact us again but if you do it’s worth noting our email address and our contact numbers (including a local rate number) which are all in the contact us section of our website. Once you do get through to us we will always call you back on request which will also help reduce call costs. You can off course drop me an email at any time to Sarah.Jolly@FreemanJones.co.uk which I will pick immediately providing I’m in the office.

I wish you all the very best for the future.

Thank you
Sarah

No refund though?

Paul

It's all very well to say FJ will call back, but if you are being held in a queue for a long time you've already paid quite a bit!