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Business clients
When complaining what can you claim for?
There are a number of factors that affect what to expect after you have raised a complaint.
If you have an issue or complaint, it's not an automatic route to compensation. It depends on the business, the service you have taken and the severity of the issue.
Why not raise your complaint free via Resolver now?
Can I claim for my wasted time?
If your service provider has made a mistake, you can at least expect it to put it right.
You are justified to claim for your time and call costs this but it will also depend on the company's policy and the severity of the incident. If there is any money owed, you can claim this back along with any interest, which at the moment is likely to be next to nothing. A court would rarely include the cost of your time in any compensation and therefore this is the approach taken by most companies.
While the issue and experience may be frustrating for you, you will not always receive compensation, so be reasonable in your approach.
Can you claim for liability from loss of service?
Companies are not liable for any costs you incur from the service not being available. For example, if your cable service is not working and you rent a DVD you could not claim for this. The company will offer service credits for the loss of service but often the service will need to unavailable for a period of time before you can claim.
Most compensation will be limited to the costs of the service that you have not had available, as the service providers' contracts have been created to reduce their liability and not to compensate you for the poor experience.
Keeping records
A well-kept case file will help you with any claim as details of what happened are well documented, allowing anyone looking at the case to understand the issue. The same is true for explaining the issue precisely and being clear on what you want.
Think about the language you are using and focus on what happened (preferably without emotion) and what you want to achieve.
If you cannot resolve then is there an Ombudsman?
If you cannot resolve your issue and your case needs to be escalated to the Ombudsman, Resolver knows when you can do this, to which one and will send your case file to the Ombudsman for you for free.