www.iva.co.uk

Hi

Declan has asked me to post the following statement

"There have been, over the past few weeks, a couple of queries about myself and whether or not I am still an active member of the forum. As you can appreciate, over the past few months, there has been a surge in the number of queries regarding VAT and PPI and in particular how they are affecting cases that are due to close. Given the sensitivity of these cases, it is perhaps better for our clients to work directly with our Customer Care team rather than me as often the more people that become involved in a case, the more confusion it can cause. It is because of this that I have decided to take a break from posting on the forum.

In terms of going forward and for the benefit of existing DFD customers, please continue to use the Customer Care contact details. We understand that it can take awhile to get through sometimes and we are working hard to improve this. We would also urge you to use the email service, where we will endeavor to respond to your query as soon as possible.

I have thoroughly enjoyed helping people through the forum which does a great job in highlighting issues and through the spirit of working together, many of those issues are resolved"

I look forward to him posting again in the very near future

Regards

Sorry to hear that he won't be posting - he was an excellent point of contact for DFD and he will be missed.

What a shame that DFD clients will no longer have direct representation on the forum, where Declan had previously been responsible for sorting out many of their queries which they had felt unable to address through usual channels. He will certainly be missed on the forum.

a great pity Declan is no longer able to contribute to the forum and my personal thanks to Declan for helping me in the past.

I would add however, that its my personal view that Declan has perhaps seen to have been to keen to help DFD clients and has been rained in by the powers above at DFD. the level of service they now consider acceptable is extremely poor and there appears to be a lack of communication and accurate information; that is if you are lucky enough to have your phone call answered and not cut off

PULL YOUR SOCKS UP DFD , the service level of 2012 is not a patch on what it used to be and we deserve better

What a shame.....DFD are a major IP and there representation on the forum was invaluable and gave comfort to many members.
Declan will certainly be missed from the forum I am sure.

What a sad post, however i respect how Declan has come to this conclusion, I would like to wish him well and hope that DFD do indeed improve on their customer relations as well as being able to talk directly to your IP when you wish to. x

What a shame - Declan has provided some valuable help and advice in the past. I can understand why he has made his decision. Hopefully he will return one day to help all the DFD customers still in IVAs.

This is a shame but I can understand his reasons. There have been problems with VAT and PPI and the large providers have obviously more cases to deal with than ourselves or Melanie but at times the criticism levelled has been borderline personal and a case of 'shooting the messenger'.

I too look forward to his return as he was and is a valuable contributor to the forum.

Its a real shame Declan will be taking a step back from the forum representing DFD, i know many of us with DFD found Declan so helpful and approachable with what ever issue reared its ugly head.

So personally i would like to say a huge thank you to Declan who can only be described as continually harassed and mithered by me [:D]

However what really concerns me now is only being able to access DFD via the customer care team who seem to still be playing the worlds longest game of hide and seek, many will be aware of mine and other ongoing issues with DFD about the VAT, PPI and poor communication issues that still months on seems to have no end. You would have thought are large company as DFD would relish the chance to have good representation on these boards to ensure the company maintains a good public image and speedy turnaround time in answering complaints, issues and general questions.

I just hope DFD in their recent correspondence with many keep to their pledge of ‘were improving our communication and customer care team to ensure our customers are happy’ promise…..because sadly so far its nothing but empty words!

Arty

I have only posted on here a few times but from reading many other posts i could see that Declan was a very well respected member of the forum who went out of his way to help individuals.
I myself am with DFD and am appalled by the level of service that they think is acceptable to customers. I personally would never recommend them.

To be perfectly honest when i entered into my IVA just over 5 years ago DFD weren't as they are today, they were easy to get hold of and any queries were answered very quickly, however one can only presume that as they have expanded unfortunately their workforce hasn't, I will miss Declan he certainly helped me when it was necessary and i'm sure that had he not have intervened on my behalf i would still be sleeping on a mattress that had definately seen better days! Maybe DFD are in the process of improving their customer services now, lets hope so. xxx

Lets hope he is not away too long and at some point in the future he will be able to return

hi arty & orchid5

I fully echo what you both say.

as I have previously posted, Declan was very helpfu; for me on several occasions.

However the Annual Report of Fairpoint Plc ( DFD parent co ) makes interesting reading and the terminology used will leave you under no illusion that we are purely cost/profit centres and no longer clients. Their abject lack of staff available to answer the phone and give meaningful case specific answers as opposed to generic answers read from a script, are proof in itself that as mentioned in the annual report, they need to see their IVA business generate more profit. Less staff = lower payroll costs = more profit = less client recommenadtions = future erosin of potential clients from an already shrinkimg IVA marketplace .

HO HO HO

To be honest 12 months they will start feeling the pinch then if their customer services decline much further as i'm sure with this forum now being so widely accessible and more people searching for answers before they enter into a debt solution, with all the bad press thus far will avoid DFD with an extremely large barge pole! I myself up until this year haven't had any problems with them but have to say that the last 6 months of my IVA have been the most stressful and it's not over yet as i'm now playing the waiting game for that all important Certificate, however being realistic i'm not going to start twitching until December!

I'm sure Declan will be back in the future, it's a shame but he has his reasons which I respect.

When you're ready Declan we'll still be here, all the best x