Financial Complaints

Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited and its subsidiaries: Farmlands Finance Ltd, Farmlands Real Estate Ltd and Farmlands Fuel Ltd (collectively referred to as the 'Farmlands Group' in this document), are required (pursuant to the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008) to have an internal complaints process for handling complaints relating to their financial services and to publicise its availability.

Farmlands Group internal complaints policy and process

 
Receiving a complaint or query

• The Farmlands Group will accept complaints made via phone, mail or our online email system.
  Email: complaintsmanager@farmlands.co.nz
  Phone: 0800 200 600
  Post: Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited, Complaints Manager, Private Bag 1968, Dunedin 9054
• All complaints will be directed to the Farmlands Group's Complaints Manager.
• All complaints made relating to a specific representative of the Farmlands Group will be kept confidential by the Complaints Manager.
• When a complaint is made and a resolution is requested, you will be provided with a complaint reference code. Please write this code down as it will be used as a reference in all correspondence regarding this complaint.
• If your complaint/query relates to an issue or mistake with your Account this will be followed up by the appropriate representative of the Farmlands Group for urgent processing.
• We will formally acknowledge receipt of your complaint or query within 24 hours of receipt.

Investigating a complaint or query

• Upon receipt of your complaint or query a representative of the Farmlands Group will contact you after reviewing any relevant information. Depending on the nature of the complaint, this may take up to a maximum of five working days.
• In most circumstances we aim to provide you with a satisfactory resolution to your complaint/query within 24 hours of receipt.
• We will endeavour to keep you informed throughout any investigations that may be required, and provide likely time frames wherever possible.

Resolving a complaint or query

• In all situations we will attempt to contact you by phone to inform you of our suggested resolution for your complaint or query.
• If your situation warrants a written response, or we have been unsuccessful in contacting you by phone, we will respond to you via post and/or email to inform you of our suggested resolution.
• We will consider that the resolution provided meets your full satisfaction if we have not received a response within five working days.

Unresolved complaints

• In the first instance, if a resolution provided does not meet your full satisfaction please contact us immediately referencing your complaint reference code.
• If the situation arises where the Farmlands Group is unable to provide a satisfactory resolution to your complaint a written Deadlock Notice will be posted to you.
• Upon receipt of the written Deadlock Notice you may approach Financial Dispute Resolution (within three months of the date the Deadlock Notice or Decision Notice was issued). Financial Dispute Resolution is the Farmlands Group's dispute resolution scheme and is a free service provided to customers of the Farmlands Group for instances where an agreed solution to a complaint cannot be gained between the Complainant and the Farmlands Group. Financial Dispute Resolution will review your complaint and suggest a resolution to which we will comply with. Please visit www.fdr.org.nz/ for more information.