Our complaints and escalation procedure for residential users and small businesses

We are committed to providing all customers excellent service but in the unlikely event that you feel a complaint must be raised, we have detailed the steps to be taken.

Nothing within this complaints procedure is intended to form any contract between Netservers and yourself. Our products and services referred to in this document may not always be available and may change from time to time. Our standard Terms and Conditions and charges apply to the product or services available. Nothing in this complaints procedure affects your legal rights.

It is our aim is to resolve any issue as quickly as possible, preferably during a phone call or email. However if we are unable to resolve your issue immediately we will investigate further and contact you with an update as soon as we can.

Ways to contact us with an issue

We may monitor or record online chats or calls made to or from our Support and Sales team. We do this for training purposes, to improve the quality of our customer support and to comply with Ofcom regulations.

Step 1 – Get in touch

You should firstly talk to us, you can do this by phone or letter. We would always recommend phone as these options are in real, or near real time and allow us to start investigating the matter right away.

Please ensure you have the information relevant to your complaint such as:

• description of the problem
• the service affected
• the date (and time if possible) the problem occurred
• when you first raised this to us including any dates you have called or raised the request in the portal
• what you would like us to do to put things right.

We endeavor to acknowledge your complaint within 1 working day and will aim to provide a resolution within 3 working days. In the event of more complex issues, we may require longer to do this and we will let you know if this is the case.

Step 2 – Escalate to a manager

If you are not satisfied with the proposed course of action please send a letter quoting your complaint reference number requesting that your complaint be referred to the Customer Services Manager. You will then receive a further written response within 10 working days.

This should be addressed to us as follows:

Attn: Complaints Manager
Netservers Ltd.
21 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA

Please include your name, address and your preference (phone/email/letter) how you would like us to reply.

Step 3 – Internet Service Providers Association

If after involvement from a manager your complaint remains unresolved, you may contact our managing director. Alternatively you can raise the complaint with the ISPA. The ISPA will review the complaint independently of us. For more information see https://www.ispa.org.uk/consumers/complaints/. The ISPA can be contacted by phone (020 3397 3304) or email (admin@ispa.org.uk)

Step 4 – Ombudsman Services Communications

If we have been unable to resolve your complaint within 12 weeks of raising this with us, or the situation has reached “Deadlock” and you have been issued with a deadlock letter from us (meaning there’s nothing more we can do to solve your complaint) and the ISPA have not upheld your complaint, then you can contact the Ombudsman Services Communications.

You must have followed the previous steps otherwise you will be referred back to us to allow us the opportunity to resolve any complaint.

The ombudsman are limited in what and who they can deal with. They cannot deal with:

• products or services that are not bought or rented from Netservers
• non-customers that fall outside of definition of a customer as per section 405 of The Communications Act 2003
• after the contract has finished where the complaint refers to issues arising after such time
• cable, duct and wiring inside your property
• the location of (Openreach) telegraph poles and mobile phone masts
• the content of internet sites, advertisements, calls, emails, SMS (texts) or any other type of message
• problems that are already being dealt with by the courts or other complaints procedures
• employment and staff issues at Netservers
• complaints that are considered to be malicious or unjustified
• commercial decisions made by Netservers about whether to provide a product or service, and the terms under which they maybe provided
• certain (large) businesses above a certain staff and financial thresholds; and
• disagreements between telecommunication companies.

The Ombudsman Services Communications will review the complaint independently of us. As part of resolving your complaint the Ombudsman Services Communications may ask us to issue an apology. They can also ask us to take remedial action and ask us to award compensation. Any decision the Ombudsman Services Communications makes will be binding on us but not you. This allows to you seek further advice where required.

This ombudsman can be contact as follows:

Limitations

Whilst we are very good at resolving issues when they occur, there may be third parties we are reliant upon. We will be honest when such issues occur and who is at fault. Sometimes there may be faults caused by major issues such as technical failure or natural disaster and we will aim to resolve these as quick as possible. A complaint cannot force us to provide a working service in a situation when this would be temporarily impossible, but we can always offer an apology and potentially compensation in certain circumstances. Likewise, it cannot force us to provide a service where we have deemed we cannot, or continue to do so and have provided notice as per the agreed terms and conditions.