Word of Advice

7 May 2007

How to complain effectively about bad services

Have you ever been to the hairdressers only to walk out with the world’s worst hairdo? But what did you say when the hairdresser asked if you liked your new style after an hour of snipping? Did you pause for a second and say, “Yeah, erm, it’s great. Thanks.” And then spend the rest of the day wearing a hat and kicking yourself for not being a bit braver and saying something.

Complaining – it can be a bit awkward but it’s something we should be doing more of when things go wrong. Last time we looked at how to complain if you’ve been sold bad goods, this time we are taking a look at how to make a complaint about bad services.

Complain on the spot

If something is wrong with a service you’ve received, it’s best to complain straight away. Don’t sit there in silence, say what’s wrong. Most traders would prefer you’d do that to give them the opportunity to sort out the problem. It’s better for their public image if they can help you.

The Consumer Guarantees Act

The Consumer Guarantees Act applies to services as well as goods. This law says that services must be carried out with:

• Reasonable care and skill – recently the Ministry received a complaint where a restaurant had charged a person twice for a meal and wasn’t spotted until later on. It could be argued that the restaurant didn’t take ‘reasonable care and skill’ when preparing the bill. You should expect any work that you have done to be at least as good as ‘a competent person with average skills and experience in that type of work’.
• Fit for particular purpose – when you’ve told the service provider what you want done, and they accept the job, they have to make sure you get what was agreed. So if you wanted your house painted white you wouldn’t expect to go home and see it painted pink.
• Completed within a reasonable time – this only applies if you haven’t agreed with the service provider on a completion time or date. A ‘reasonable time’ is defined as the time it would take a competent person who works in that type of job to complete the task.
• Reasonable price – again, this only applies if you hadn’t agreed on a price beforehand. You don’t have to pay a price which is unreasonable (bearing in mind what other businesses charge for providing similar services) in the circumstances. But it’s always best to get a written quote before you get any work done.

How this can apply to you

If you receive a service which doesn’t meet the above guarantees you can assert your rights as given in the Consumer Guarantees Act. In general, if the problem is serious or can’t be fixed, you may be able to cancel the contract for the service and refuse to pay for the work done. Or you may be able to ask for compensation to reflect the lower value of the service you received.

If the problem can be fixed and is not serious, like a tailor has adjusted the length of your trousers too short, you must give the trader who did the job the opportunity to fix the problem at no cost to you. If they won’t fix it, fail to fix it, or take too long to fix it, you can get someone else to fix it and claim all reasonable associated costs from the trader or cancel the contract.

If you’ve suffered extra (consequential) financial loss because of a bad service you’ve received you may be able to claim compensation from the trader (providing the loss was reasonably foreseeable). For example, if you called a plumber to fix your pipes, but the repair was faulty and flooded your hallway carpet, the service provider would be responsible for the cleaning of the carpet. Or if the damage was more severe, the replacement cost of the carpet.

Complaining to the service provider

When you complain to a service provider you need to explain what you would like to happen, and when you want it completed by. For example, “I bought these shoes in for repair a few days ago, but the sole is coming away again.” Then give a date by which you want the repairs completed by.

Remain polite but firm; be aware of both your responsibilities and the service provider’s responsibilities to get things sorted.

Taking a complaint further

If you’ve had no luck with your complaint to the service provider you can consider taking your complaint to one of the following:

• Trader organisations – A lot of traders belong to organisations for their industry. Some of these will have a complaints handling service to sort out your complaint.
• Disputes Tribunals – A tribunal can hear claims about a breach of contract, the Consumers Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act.

Further information on making a complaint and the Consumer Guarantees Act is available on the Ministry’s website.