General guidance Chapter Summary This chapter contains general guidelines on the scope, timing and publication of complaints information. Definition of complaint As stated in the CHR, a “complaint” is defined as “any expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to any one or more of its products, its services or the manner in it has dealt with any such expression of dissatisfaction where a response is either provided by or on behalf of that organisation at the point at which contact is made or a response is explicitly or implicitly required or expected to be provided thereafter”. We note that the above definition: does not pose any time-related restrictions in what is deemed as a “complaint”; for instance, even though an expression of dissatisfaction might be dealt with at the time of contact and is thereafter considered as and does not require “closed” any further communication between parties, it still needs to be registered as a “complaint”; includes not only products and services but also customer service standards, i.e. “the manner” in a complaint was handled; applies to all complaints received by a supplier that do related to their products, services or the manner in which they have dealt with a complaint, even if the complainant is not supplied by them; and does not apply to complaints related with products and services offered by other suppliers. In line with the CHR’s definition of complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction made at the point of contact, suppliers must record and categorise complaints on receipt and report them to us accordingly. For some indicative examples on what may constitute a in practice please refer to Table 1 in “complaint” Chapter 3 of this guidance. Who the guidance applies to
General guidance Chapter Summary This chapter contains general guidelines on the scope, timing and publication of complaints information. Definition of complaint As stated in the CHR, a “complaint” is defined as “any expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to any one or more of its products, its services or the manner in it has dealt with any such expression of dissatisfaction where a response is either provided by or on behalf of that organisation at the point at which contact is made or a response is explicitly or implicitly required or expected to be provided thereafter”. We note that the above definition: does not pose any time-related restrictions in what is deemed as a “complaint”; for instance, even though an expression of dissatisfaction might be dealt with at the time of contact and is thereafter considered as “closed” and does not require any further communication between parties, it still needs to be registered as a “complaint”; includes not only products and services but also customer service standards, i.e. “the manner” in a complaint was handled; applies to all complaints received by a supplier that do related to their products, services or the manner in which they have dealt with a complaint, even if the complainant is not supplied by them; and does not apply to complaints related with products and services offered by other suppliers. In line with the CHR’s definition of complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction made at the point of contact, suppliers must record and categorise complaints on receipt and report them to us accordingly. For some indicative examples on what may constitute a “complaint” in practice please refer to Table 1 in Chapter 3 of this guidance. Who the guidance applies to