Fair. Independent. Accessible.
We’re approved by Ofcom to provide Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services for non-regulated disputes between communications providers and their customers across the UK – whether you’re an individual consumer or a business with 10 or more employees.
Our service is completely free for consumers, and once you accept our decision, the Participating Member provider is bound by it.
We can only deal with a complaint if it is currently unresolved, concerns a non-regulated matter, and is about a provider that is a Participating Member of CommsADR. It must also relate to an issue covered by our Scheme Rules.
Complaints we can deal with include, but are not limited to:
STEP 1
You submit your complaint, with all your supporting information and evidence, via any of the following:
1) Our online complaints portal
2) Post (using a paper form)
3) Telephone
… and we check whether it is something we can deal with under our Scheme Rules.
STEP 2
If your complaint is in scope for CommsADR it gets registered.
You’ll then receive log-in details for our online portal where your claim will be managed.
If we can’t accept your complaint, we’ll tell you why in writing, within 3 weeks.
STEP 3
The Participating Member is given 28 days to provide a response. They may:
Their response is then posted in the Online Portal.
If the Participating Member raises a scope objection, this is considered first, and the response period is paused while we do so.
STEP 4
If the Participating Member chooses to provide a defence:
You get 1 opportunity to comment on their response;
You get a 14-day window to do this.
The Participating Member is then given a single opportunity to provide any final comment in reply.
STEP 5
We confirm that we have all information and evidence from both parties and declare a Complete Complaint File.
From this point, no further information or evidence is accepted from either party, to ensure fairness to both.
STEP 6
A specialist Adjudicator produces a final written decision within 60 days of establishing the Complete Complaint File (Step 5).
This time-frame is extended only for highly complex cases, where we will tell both parties the expected timescale.
After our Decision:
The Final Decision is only legally binding on the Participating Member if you accept it. You get 14 days to either accept or reject it.
CommsADR is administered and managed by Consumer Dispute Resolution Limited, an independent Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, and is approved by Ofcom under the Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
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