Review the rules on complaint escalation to Ombudsmen/ADR in all industries

19
signatures
closedDepartment for Business and TradeOpened 4 February 2025Closed 4 August 2025

Background

We think the review should consider whether businesses with "No resolution" offered to customers should pay a lumpsum for complaint escalation to the Ombudsman/ADR; and whether the time frame for businesses for complaint handling should be reduced to 4 weeks.

Additional details

The review should also consider and whether the rule of rejection of repeat complaints should be demolished. We feel some businesses take large advantage on the existence of Ombudsmen/ADR and do not properly deal with complaints, leaving customers in a disadvantageous position with a lot of distress. We think the timeframe for businesses’ complaint handling, which is usually 8 weeks, is also very unreasonable to wait for "no viable outcomes". Currently if a problem is a repeat issue, Ombudsmen/ADR would reject dealing with the complaint, which we think causes further distress to customers. With a lumpsum paid to the Ombudsman/ADR by businesses each time, we think they would think twice.

Where it’s popular

Constituencies with the most signatures on this petition.

Source: UK Government & Parliament Petitions service. Petition ID: 701763.