Dear David
I read with interest your post.
Sorry you have experienced this problem but albeit not the speediest way to do things, we always avoid in any type of situation where we wish to complain about a bank or credit card etc (not directly related to your situation) and the best thing is to write to the CEO of the company be recorded delivery post/signed for and we find we get results every time from that. CEO’s do not like complaints going into them directly.
I hope that this is helpful and the online forms are there to trap and you are quite right, they do not really give you the right to complain but obviously that is the intention.
Kindest regards
Yours sincerely
Ken
K Batty, FRICS
Ken Batty Charted Surveyors