Customer Issues in Financial Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Customer Issues in Financial Services - Essay Example The next aspect, pricing, depends on who has the upper hand, whether the buyers or the sellers. If the goods are freely available and competitively priced, definitely, it is the buyers who have the upper hand, but if there are shortage of goods and its suppliers, with high demand, definitely it would be the sellers who would call the shots. The aspect of penalties arises due to non-fulfilment of contract, or breach of trust on the part of the concerned parties. This could be due to external or internal factors, but which nevertheless influence the performance, or non-performance of the contract, to such an extent that Courts award penalties to be paid to the aggrieved parties. Under UK Contract Act, there is a commitment on either side to deliver, and breach of this delivery could give rise to penalties. However, it is to be borne in mind that Courts assess the penalties based upon actual losses sustained by the aggrieved parties, and not on contingent, or assumed profits. Thus, it would be well within the powers of the Court to allow for actual losses sustained by aggrieved parties, but not future loss of profits. Coming next to the aspect of exclusions, it is often seen that... Thus, the fine print in contracts is sought to absolve parties of their commitments and responsibilities under covenant bindings. Again, the main areas that need to be covered would be in terms of customer satisfaction, complaint handling and how to handle disputes. The main aspect with regard to customer servicing would be in the event when things go wrong between the sellers and buyers. In the present context of retail trade in UK, it is seen that the standard of client servicing has deteriorated over the years, leading to greater proportion of complaints, litigation, etc. It is quite possible that sellers may try to absolve themselves of blame by citing negligence or lack of product knowledge or care in usage by buyers. It is seldom that vendors would accept responsibility for defective goods or lowered quality, or timeliness of services. Therefore, it becomes necessary "To protect consumers from being misled or pressured by a supplier's promotional activities (for example, most countries place restrictions on investment advertisements)." (McKiernan and Cha 2008). This writer believes that this statement could have limited application in the real commercial world of financial services. This is because financial services organizations need to comply with statutory norms, not only in terms of their performance but also in terms of financial reporting. It is now necessary to consider certain decided case laws in UK to understand the impact of contract laws. The first would be the case of Hedley Byrne & Company Ltd v. Heller & Partners Ltd (1964). In this case, the applicant, Hedley Byrne brought action against a bank that vouched for the financial soundness of a client company, albeit with a disclaimer that the