Code of Practice on Complaint Handling and Dispute Resolution

MARSTON’S TELECOMS LIMITED is a company within the Marston’s Group of companies that delivers communications services to business customers and consumers. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure we deliver a high quality service, and that any problems are resolved promptly.

We make every effort to ensure that our customers are happy with the level of service, and the products and service they receive from us. However, despite our best efforts, sometimes things can go wrong. This information tells you how to make a complaint and what we will do to try and resolve it as quickly as possible.

This Code of Practice is published on our website at www.marstonstelecoms.com. Additional copies are available on request and free of charge. It is also available in large print.

Making a complaint
We take customer complaints very seriously and aim to resolve them quickly and efficiently. If you have a complaint about any part of our service, please contact our Customer Service Team using one of the following:

By phone: 0808 280 0000 option 2.

By email: telecoms@marstons.co.uk

By letter: Marston’s Telecoms Limited, Marstons House, Brewery Road, Wolverhampton WV1 4JT

If you telephone, our advisors will ask you about your complaint and seek to resolve the problem while you are on the line. During any discussions we will protect the privacy of the information that we hold on you. To do this we may have to ask you questions to confirm that we are speaking to the right person. We may also record telephone calls from time to time for the purposes of training and maintaining a high quality service.

If you make your complaint by email or in writing, we will acknowledge receipt within 5 working days of receiving your complaint. We will advise how and when we will next respond and provide you with a contact point for checking progress on the resolution of your complaint.

How we will handle your complaint
We will try to resolve your complaint quickly and efficiently, and to keep you informed at all times. We will contact you with our initial response within 10 working days and will keep you regularly updated thereafter.

We normally aim to resolve complaints within 20 working days but, depending on the nature of the complaint, this is not always possible. If you are not happy with progress in resolving your complaint you can ask the person to whom you are speaking to escalate the matter to their manager, and ultimately to the Managing Director of Marston’s Telecoms Limited. Equally, if the person to whom you are speaking is unable to manage your complaint, they will escalate the matter to their manager. If we cannot resolve the problem, we will write to you to say so.

We may take a number of different steps to investigate your complaint, including:

• Reviewing any previous calls and correspondence you may have made;
• Undertaking a physical inspection of equipment or the services we provide, where appropriate; and
Requesting further information or clarification from you regarding the circumstances leading to your complaint.

Following completion of our investigations, we will write to you with details of our findings and what we plan to do to put things right.

Alternative Dispute Resolution
If it has been more than 8 weeks from the date you first contacted us to complain you have the right to apply to contact the Ombudsman Services: Communications for alternative dispute resolution at PO Box 730, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 6WU Tel: 0330 440 1614 Website:
www.ombudsman-services.org. We will send you written notification of this right if your complaint is not resolved within 8 weeks.

The Ombudsman Services: Communications is an independent organisation which is approved by Ofcom to provide an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service. Ofcom-approved ADR services sort out disputes between communications providers and their consumer and small business customers. Their job is to investigate complaints fairly by listening to both sides of the story. They look at the facts given to them before recommending any action that may be needed to put things right.

Alternatively, if at any time you are not satisfied with the progress of your complaint you can ask us to agree an early referral to ADR (i.e. that we issue a deadlock letter). However, we may decline to do so if we believe we will shortly resolve your complaint and are taking active steps to do so, if we reasonably believe the complaint is vexatious, or if the subject matter of the complaint is outside the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman Services: Communications.

Records of your complaint
We will keep records of your complaint, including any correspondence, for a minimum period of 6 months.

Useful addresses

Ombudsman Services: Communications
PO Box 730, Warrington, Cheshire, WA4 6WU
Tel: 0330 440 1614

Ofcom
Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA.
Tel: 020 7981 3040 or 0300 123 3333 Email: contact@ofcom.org.uk

PhonepayPlus
Clove Building, 4 Maguire Street, London, SE1 2NQ.
Tel: 0800 500 212 or 020 7940 7474 Email info@phonepayplus.org.uk

Telephone Preference Service
DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SS
Tel: 0845 070 0707

Federation of Communication Services (FCS)
Burnhill Business Centre, Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT
Tel: 020 7186 5432 Email: fcs@fcs.org.uk