Level 2 complaints — information for TIO Members
Introduction
A Level 2 letter from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman
(TIO) gives you a final opportunity to informally resolve a complaint,
with help from a TIO Investigations Officer. The Investigations
Officer will discuss the complaint with you, help you to communicate
with your customer, and decide whether suggestions for resolving
the complaint are fair and reasonable.
Summary of key information
| 1 |
In the letter we send you, what you will read
is a summary of the complainant’s version of events
and how they would like their complaint to be resolved. It does
not contain the TIO’s opinion of the complaint, i.e. whether
it has merit or how it should be resolved. More
on Key Point 1 |
| 2 |
After you get the Level 2 letter and before you contact us,
we strongly encourage you to contact the customer to discuss
the complaint and work with them towards resolving it. More on Key Point 2 |
| 3 |
How you respond to us is important:
- Always call us to discuss the complaint and how you propose
resolving it, so we can ask questions, give you our view,
and ask you to send us evidence.
Timeframe: within 14 days of us sending you the Level
2 letter
| Avoid an upgrade to Level
3: if you just write to us without calling
to discuss the complaint with us beforehand, we may
upgrade the complaint to a formal Level 3 investigation
if we need additional information/evidence from you. |
- Next, confirm the discussion in an email, fax or letter.
Make sure you attach all of the information we asked for.
Deadline: 21 days after we send you the Level 2 letter
- After we assess your information and discuss your response
with the complainant, we may call you to ask for more information
or to discuss what we think a reasonable resolution might
be.
| Avoid an upgrade to Level
3: if a second discussion does not lead to
resolution, we will upgrade the complaint to a formal
Level 3 investigation to cover the cost of the extra
time it takes us to help resolve the complaint. |
More on Key Point 3 |
| 4 |
Please keep in mind that your suggestions about resolving
a complaint are only “proposed resolutions” as long
as the complaint is still open. The TIO has a responsibility
to you and the complainant to independently assess the complaint
and decide whether a proposed resolution is fair and reasonable.
Doing this is a fundamental role of an Ombudsman. More
on Key Point 4 |
Key information explained
| 1 |
The Level 2 letter
is NOT the TIO’s opinion of the complaint |
| |
What you read in the Level 2 letter is the complainant’s
view of the complaint and what they think will resolve
it.
We have summarised the complainant’s view. But we are
not saying their view is correct. It would not be fair of us
to form any opinion before you gave us your view of the complaint.
The only claims from the complainant that we accept, in good
faith, are that they still have a complaint and they cannot
resolve it with you.
Please note:
In the letter we might say that the
complaint could involve a particular law, telecommunications
industry Code of Practice and/or TIO Position Statement.
We mention this as a possibility only, on the basis
of the complainant’s claims.
But it is important for you to investigate
this possibility because:
- laws and telecommunications industry
Codes of Practice have rules about handling certain
situations, and
- the TIO’s Position Statements
are an essential guide to investigating and resolving
particular telecommunications complaints.
|
|
| 2 |
The benefits of calling the
complainant |
| |
Because the Level 2 letter only summarises the complainant’s
claims, it is useful to call them. Speaking directly with
the complainant can help you to understand their problem and
how they want it resolved.
Also, at this stage, you can use your troubleshooting experience
and communication skills to propose resolutions that may benefit
both you and the complainant.
Please note:
We always ask complainants to take your
calls and be prepared to work with you to resolve their
complaint. |
|
| 3 |
How you respond to us is important |
| |
The benefits of calling us are:
- You can explain your point of view to us directly. It
is often easier to explain complex business and technical
processes over the phone than in writing.
- You can consult us for our independent and informed assessment
of the complaint:
- we have experience comparing different information
and deciding whether law, telecommunications industry
Codes of Practice and/or TIO Position Statements apply
to the circumstances of a complaint.
- after talking with us, you might decide to propose
another resolution to the complaint.
- You can check which documents to send with your confirmation
email/fax/letter.
|
| |
When to call us
Please call us within 14 days of us sending you the Level
2 notification letter. This leaves plenty of time for discussion
and assessment before the 21-day deadline. |
| |
Prepare for your call to us
When you call us, you will already have:
- spoken to the complainant
- assessed all available information including relevant
law, telecommunications industry Codes of Practice and the
TIO’s Position Statements
- decided what you think about the complainant’s
claims
- decided how you propose to resolve the complaint, and
- collected evidence to send to us.
You will also be able to tell us if you and the complainant
both agree on a proposed resolution. |
| |
Why we may upgrade a complaint
You did not call us first
If you choose not to take the opportunity to discuss a complaint
informally and instead just write to us, you risk an upgrade
to Level 3.
When we assess your correspondence, we may decide that the
complaint is not resolved, either because:
- you have not given us enough information for us to decide
whether your response is fair and reasonable, or
- after taking into account all available information,
we decide that your proposal for resolving the complaint
is not fair and reasonable.
Because we will need to do extra work to ask for more information
or explain our reasons for our decision, we will upgrade the
complaint to Level 3 to cover the cost of this work.
You called but we decide the complaint is not yet resolved
Even if you do call us before you write, there will be times
when we decide the complaint is still not resolved.
We will call you then, to give you an opportunity to discuss
the complaint again.
But if we decide that the complaint is not resolved after
a second discussion, we will upgrade it to Level 3 to cover
the cost of continuing to investigate/discuss the issues.
|
| 4 |
The TIO decides when a complaint
is resolved |
| |
It is quite common for service providers and complainants
to “agree” on how to resolve a complaint before
the 21-day deadline for Level 2 complaints.
We encourage working towards a resolution, but when you contact
us it’s best to use the words “proposed resolution”
because a complainant:
- may change their mind after thinking about the issue,
or
- may not have had enough information, knowledge or skills
to decide if what they were agreeing to was fair and reasonable.
It is also possible for both you and/or the complainant to
forget to take something into account, e.g. a simple fact,
a telecommunications regulation or a legal principle.
This is why the TIO will always ultimately decide if a proposed
resolution is fair and reasonable.
After taking the standard Level 2 steps, we will upgrade
a complaint to Level 3 if we decide that a proposed resolution
is not fair and reasonable and the complainant says they want
to take their complaint further.
Please remember that a complaint is only resolved when we
write to you to say we have closed it.
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Document current at: 23 July 2007
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