FOS spent £3,500 for stand at Gadget Show
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FOS stand: Show cash criticised by IFAs
Advisers have slammed the Financial Ombudsman Service for spending over £3,000 on an exhibit at The Gadget Show Live, saying the event is “irrelevant” and a waste of industry funds.
This year’s Gadget Show Live event, which was held at the NEC in Birmingham last week, is described by organisers as the UK’s biggest consumer electronics event.
The FOS paid £3,467 to attend the event this year and confirmed it has paid for a stand at the event for the last three years as part of its work to raise awareness about the ombudsman service.
The FOS says it has a total budget for external events of £50,000 for 2011/12.
Philip J Milton & Company managing director Philip Milton, who attended the event, says: “It is totally inappropriate for the FOS to be taking space at The Gadget Show Live. The FOS is unrelated to anything you would find at that event.” The FOS says its work to raise awareness of the service picks up on findings by Lord Hunt’s 2008 independent review, which said a key part of the FOS’s role is to be open and accessible to all consumers.
An FOS spokeswoman says: “The Gadget Show Live is one of the largest events in Europe and a key place to raise awareness with people who might not be aware of where to turn if they have a problem.”
Yellowtail Financial Planning managing director Dennis Hall says: “The industry, which pays for the FOS, is being squeezed and the FOS seems to treat its funding as a bottomless pit.”
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Readers' comments (25)
Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 3:01 pm
£3,500 is incredibly cheap for an event of this size.
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basil | 20 Apr 2011 3:17 pm
Guess if it was a toss-up between a stand at the WI annual jamboree or the Gadget Show, I know which one I would have chosen - especially if I could get it on expenses........(or in the case of FOS, get someone to else to fund a few days out of the office to play with the latest toys)
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Laura Evans | 20 Apr 2011 3:22 pm
I attended this event last Thursday and remember walking past the FOS stand wondering why they were there. Glad i'm not the only one.
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Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 3:23 pm
I wonder if they will be there for the ETO Show on the 26th/27th June as well........haha
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Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 3:28 pm
£3467 is the cost of the stand - now add salaries, hotel bills, dinners and lunches, wine and water (!), travel, and whatever else goes into the pot and my guess is £10,000 will be nearer the mark. But my daughter spends money as easily because she also gets it from me on demand. And a pathetic attempt to 'justify' just adds to the insults that The FOS throws at the hands that feed it every day of the week. Expect nothing less when the trough is full.
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Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 3:31 pm
I went by the stand 3 times on the Wednesday and no one was even there.
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Mr Old Fashioned | 20 Apr 2011 3:34 pm
Indeed!
I'll give them a gadget of their own which they can stuff right up their ........... (rest of message indecipherable)
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Iain | 20 Apr 2011 3:56 pm
Were they giving out prizes for the best complaint ?
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Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 4:06 pm
To suggest being "one of the largest events in Europe" is ridiculous - it implies that a large number of visitors from mainland Europe attend who couldn't care less about the FOS.
They'd be better off touring County Shows (for example) as their visitors would almost all be eligible claimants. E3 in LA, or the Indy 500 are amongst the World's largest events but simply being largest doesn't provide any justification for a FOS stand. Also I can't imagine the FOS stand excited any visitors who went there to see tech, and couldn't care less about the FOS or want to waste tech-playing time talking to them!
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Anonymous | 20 Apr 2011 4:27 pm
Nice little jolly for them.
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