Complaint handling

As with customer service, complaint handling issues are usually secondary aspects of a complaint. For example, a complaint about disputed usage charges may also raise concerns around the service provider failing to action a refund which was promised, or failing to call the consumer after promising to do so within a specified timeframe.

Complaint handling complaint issues increased by 130%. The main areas of concern were claims by consumers about:

• providers failing to action undertakings; for example, failing to send out copies of bills despite promising to do so several times. This category formed more than half of the complaint handling complaint issues
• providers not informing the consumer of the outcome of their complaint even where the consumer attempted to follow-up with the provider
• providers refusing to escalate complaints within their own organisations even where consumers advised that they remained unhappy or dissatisfied
• providers failing to inform consumers of external avenues of redress, including the TIO, in circumstances where consumers told their providers that their complaints remained unresolved
• consumers not receiving any acknowledgement from their service providers that their written complaints had been received and would be actioned.

Complaint handling issues by category

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