The Treasury might be hoping to ease the Financial Ombudsman Service’s workload but there has been no slowdown in perplexing cases. In this week’s column, Samuel Norman tells the tale of Revolut and a sleep-starved customer.   

Is there an inappropriate time for a push notification? 

There is, according to one bank customer. Revolut found itself forced to cough up compensation earlier this year after a customer complained the bank woke him up.

In a curious case, the customer – referred to in an ombudsman decision as Mr A – remonstrated that two notifications on two separate days made him arise from his slumber in the early hours of the morning.

When alerted to the complaint the $75bn fintech juggernaut offered the begrudged customer a £25 compensation payment. 

“Revolut explained how Mr A could manage his notifications, including how to opt-out of marketing communication,” the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) decision reads.

“But it said its regulatory requirements meant some of its communications didn’t have timeframes.”

Sleep-starved Revolut customer gets compensation… in wrong account

However, Revolut would go on to run into another roadblock, when the digital bank paid compensation into Mr A’s business account, instead of his personal account – where the notifications had been made.

Mr A informed the FOS a family member had been unwell at the time of the notifications and when the notifications activated his phone, he had worried something had gone wrong. 

The FOS decision adds that as a result of being woken up Mr A was “unable to get back to sleep and so he had a bad day at work the following day.” 

An investigator at the service found Revolut was not wrong to send the notifications at the time and believed the amount of compensation offered was adequate.

But Mr A, not satisfied, escalated to ombudsman-level, which reviews the law from scratch, and hands down a final, definitive verdict. James Akehurst, the nominated ombudsman on the case, agreed with the outcome of the investigator.

“I realise Mr A will be disappointed with this as he believes Revolut should pay more compensation,” he wrote. 

Revolut was left with an order to correct the compensation paid with a redirect of the £25 payment – and maybe some deeper reflections on its push notification timetable.

A spokesperson for Revolut said: “Unfortunately, we are unable to comment on individual cases subject to an ongoing Financial Ombudsman Service Review. 

“We give our customers the option to easily opt out of marketing communications, including push notifications, directly within the Revolut app at any time.”