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How to complain

Raise a dispute

Raise a Dispute

1.
is a member of our scheme.
2.
Have you complained to the business?
3.
You may now proceed with your complaint:
3.

Before we can consider your complaint, you must try and resolve your complaint with the business directly. You may be asked to provide evidence of this by stating the date that you first complained to the business or providing us with a ‘deadlock’ or other letter/correspondence that confirms you have exhausted their internal complaints process.

This organisation is not part of the Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman scheme, however, they are a member of the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman.

You can click here to visit the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman and continue raising your dispute.

COMPANY NAME is not registered with The Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman. Unfortunately, our dispute resolution service is only available to consumers who have contracted with businesses registered with The Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman. However, COMPANY NAME may be part of a trade association eligible for our dispute resolution service. Please check if the business is part of a trade association and select this from the list above instead of the business name.

If the business is not registered, we may be able to offer an independent inspection if your dispute is in relation to goods or installation, for further information, please click here.

Once we receive the complaint from a consumer we will provide a reference number which will be used in all contact with us. This will look something like Q12345.

We will assess the complaint to establish whether it is something that we can look into. If we can take the complaint further, we will continue to investigate to try to resolve the complaint.

If the complaint is not something we can look into, we will let you know why. We will also let you know who may be able to help you further.

If the complaint is taken further, we will contact the business to request a formal response to the complaint. This should be provided within two weeks.

The case will be assigned to an individual Ombudsman for further investigation. The Ombudsman assigned will contact both parties to introduce themselves and to inform both parties of the next steps.

We will assess the application and the business’s response, weighing up the evidence provided, taking into consideration the rights and obligations set out in law and what is fair, reasonable and practical. We may close your case at this stage if we feel that we cannot uphold it in your favour based on the information available to us or a lack of evidence, letting you know the reasons why.

If needed, we may request further information or evidence to help support your claim.

The first stage of resolving the complaint is conciliation which means that we will try and encourage the parties to reach an agreement. At this stage, we will be in touch with both parties to see if we can bring the parties closer together.

If an agreement is reached, we will close the case.

If an agreement is not reached, we will move to the second stage which is adjudication. This is where the Ombudsman will make an independent decision on the case outcome, based on the evidence and information provided.

Once the final decision is made, the case is closed.

The final decision will be binding on the service provider if you accept it within a reasonable time.

If you do not want to accept it, you do not have to and you remain free to pursue your complaint through another organisation, for example, by taking legal action through the courts.

Contact

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