Plumbing Immediately Complaints Policy and Procedures

Contents

1.  
2. Purpose 

1.  
2. Review of Policy and Procedures

1.  
2. Responsibilities

1. • Management Body Responsibilities 
   • Complaints Manager Responsibilities 
   • Compliance Responsibilities
   • Engineer Responsibilities 

1.  
2. Definitions

1. • Definition of a complaint
   • Definition of eligible complainant

1.  
2. Policy
3. • Consumer Awareness
   • Timings
   • Complaints forwarding
   • Financial Ombudsman Service
   • Analysis 
     

    

4.  

5.  

6. The procedure 

7.  

8.  

9.  

10. Record keeping 

11.  

Purpose

This policy and procedures detail how Plumbing Immediately (the Company) will deal with complaints.

Review of Policy and Procedures

This policy and procedures will be reviewed regularly, at least once a year, and amended as considered necessary by the Company’s Management Body in the event of changing circumstances or regulations.

Responsibilities

Management Body Responsibilities

The Management Body of the Company are responsible for the implementation of the Complaints Policy and for monitoring compliance with it.

The Management Body have appointed a Complaints Manager.

Complaints Manager Responsibilities

The Complaints Manager is responsible for the investigation of complaints.

Compliance Responsibilities

The Compliance Function is responsible for analysing complaints and the complaints handling data to identify and address any risks or issues.

Engineer Responsibilities

All engineers are expected to refer any verbal or written complaints to the Complaints Department at the earliest opportunity and to cooperate fully with the Agent/Complaints Manager in its investigations.

Please note, however, that Engineers are not employed by Plumbing Immediately. We will refer all complaints to the Engineers.

This is to ensure the Engineer knows the nature of the complaint and so they can assess their liability.

Whilst we will investigate all complaints and seek to mediate between the Engineer and the consumer, we are not a party to any dispute or conflict in relation to the quality of the work or the way it is completed.

Definitions
Definition of a complaint

We consider a complaint as any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction from a client, whether

justified or not, that had a job carried out by us or had an Engineer sent by us.

Definition of eligible complainant

An eligible complainant is a consumer that has directly communicate with us or had an Engineer connected to them by us.

If in doubt whether a complainant is an eligible complainant or not, the Company will treat them as an eligible complainant.

Only eligible complainants can refer their complaints on to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Policy

Therefore, in the event you have a complaint about a service that was carried out, or behavior exhibited by an Engineer  to whom you were introduced by us, please get in touch with us using the email address you have received the Contractual Agreement and invoice from or you can use the details on the ‘Contact Us’ page on our website and your complaint will be redirected to the correct department.

It is the Company’s policy to treat all complainants the same, however, eligible complainants are legally defined and have additional rights in law that the Company must acknowledge and adhere to. The Company has elected to treat all complaints in the same way for simplicity. Occasionally the Company may not know if a complainant is ‘eligible’ in which case it will treat them as such and if it becomes necessary, the Financial Ombudsman Service will establish the status of the complainant, not the Company.

Clients and potential clients are able to submit complaints free of charge.

Complaints will be handled promptly, effectively and in an independent manner, obtaining additional information as necessary.

The Company will always communicate with clients and potential clients clearly in plain language that is easy to understand and will reply to the complaint without undue delay.

The Company will assess fairly, consistently and promptly:

• The subject matter of the complaint
• Whether the complaint should be upheld
• What remedial action or redress may be appropriate
• Whether another party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint

The Company will promptly mediate between the Engineer and the customer for any offer or remedial activity or redress accepted by the complainant. The Company will consider a complaint closed when it has issued a final response. We will do our best to investigate the work completed and will decide with the consumer and the engineer a suitable resolution.

Consumer Awareness

The Complaints Procedures are made available to clients and potential clients on request and when the Company is acknowledging a complaint. The procedures contain information about the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Timings

The Company has a maximum of 8 weeks to issue a final response to the complainant and it requires that this practice is followed (as a maximum timescale) for all complaints.

The final response will clearly set out:

• Whether the Company accepts or rejects the complaint
• The reasons for rejection, where applicable
• The intention to offer redress or remedial action, where applicable
• Details of redress to be offered and any compensation offered with a clear method of calculation.

Additionally, where the client is an eligible complainant, the Company will:

• Explain that where the complainant disagrees with the Company’s decision, they must refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months of the date of this letter or the right to use this service is lost, and the Company will consider a complaint closed when it has issued its final response.

Complaints forwarding

The Company may promptly forward the complaint in writing to another party if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the other party may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint. If a complaint is forwarded, the Company will inform the complainant promptly in a final response of why the complaint has been forwarded to another party and put the other party in contact with the complainant.

If the Company receives a forwarded complaint, the complaint will be treated as if the Company has received the complaint directly and the same time limits will apply from the date on which the Company has received the forwarded complaint.

Financial Ombudsman Service

The Company will co-operate fully with the Financial Ombudsman Service in resolving any complaints made against it and agrees to be bound by any awards made by the Ombudsman. The Company undertakes to pay promptly the fees levied by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Analysis

The Company will conduct root because analysis of any complaint received and record any appropriate actions taken. Complaints will be analysed for any reoccurring patterns and all lessons learnt will be incorporated into future training and development. The causes of complaints will be recorded in the Management Information and will be used with the prioritisation of dealing with the root causes.

The procedure

Refer any complaint verbal or written to the Agent that dealt with your job at the earliest opportunity. The Agent will liaise with the Complaints  Manager and they will then:

1. Make an initial assessment of the complaint, contacting the complainant for further information if required. This can be done via telephone, email or any other appropriate means of communication.
2. Urgent complaints relating to plumbing issues that require immediate attention will be prioritized and addressed swiftly.
3. If the complaint is not urgent the Company once receive a complaint will have to respond with a 14-business day investigation email to the customer straight away stating that the complaint has been received and is will be dealt with.
4. Investigate the complaint impartially obtaining additional information from the Company and/or the complainant as necessary.
5. Enter the complaint onto the Complaints Log and create a Complaint Record.
6. Assess fairly, consistently and promptly:
   1. The subject matter of the complaint
   2. Whether the complaint should be upheld
   3. What remedial action or redress (or both) may be appropriate
   4. If appropriate, whether it has reasonable grounds to be satisfied that another party/respondent may be solely or jointly responsible for the matter alleged in the complaint.
7. If appropriate, forward the complaint to the relevant party/respondent and advise the complainant in writing why the complaint has been forwarded to the other party and connect the complainant with the other party.
8. If the complaint is resolved, communicate the Company`s position on the complaint to the complainant and inform them about their options.
9. Comply promptly with any offer of remedial action or redress accepted by the complainant.
10. Conduct a root cause analysis in the case of any complaint and record with the appropriate action having been taken. Record any actions within the individual complaint record.
11. Liaise with senior management if any changes need to be made to the Company’s procedures based on the analysis.
12. Update the Complaints Log and Complaints Record with the final decision including details of the amount of any redress offered.

Record keeping

The Company will keep a record of each complaint received and the measures taken for its resolution, including any redress  offered, and retain that record for three years from the date the complaint was received.