If you’ve been researching our ADR process, you’ve likely come across the phrase ‘Participating Member’ dozens of times… And been left wondering:
What is a Participating Member, and why is it important?
Well, not to give you too many spoilers, but the concept of a Participating Member is actually essential to how CommsADR works – and to figuring out whether your complaint is eligible for our scheme.
Don’t worry… It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Let’s get into it!
By the way, if you have a non-regulated communications complaint…
If you’ve hit a wall with a communications provider, CommsADR offers a FREE, independent route to a resolution – approved by Ofcom to settle non-regulated disputes between providers and their customers across the UK, whether you’re an individual consumer or a business with more than 10 employees.
What does ‘Participating Member’ mean?
In short, at CommsADR, a Participating Member is a communications provider that has agreed to engage with our scheme and follow our Scheme Rules, which includes being legally bound by our decisions.
Allowing you to escalate your complaints about them with us, for free!
The concept of a Participating Member is particularly important for an ADR scheme like CommsADR, as we specialise in non-regulated communications complaints. Communications providers that operate non-regulated services are not necessarily legally required to participate in any Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme with regards to those services.
This means that our Participating Member communications providers have voluntarily chosen to become part of our scheme, recognising the benefits of amicable, hassle-free dispute resolution for your non-regulated communications complaints – out of court.
That’s also why we call them ‘Participating’ Members… They’ve agreed to partake in our process!
Not sure what a non-regulated complaint is? Please see our dedicated article on the topic:
> Regulated VS Non-Regulated Communications Complaints: What’s the Difference?
Why is the concept of a Participating Member important for consumers?
So, now you know what we mean when we say a communications provider is a Participating Member of CommsADR… But why should it matter to you, as a consumer?
Something important to note about CommsADR is that we can normally only accept complaints about communications providers that are Participating Members of our scheme – as these providers are the ones who have agreed to be bound by our decisions.
But don’t worry! With over 130 communications providers partaking in our scheme, we’ve likely got you covered.
Who are the Participating Members of CommsADR?
As aforementioned, CommsADR currently has over 130 Participating Members, spanning a diverse array of companies and organisations, such as:
> Cellcast
> Wifinity
… And more!
As much as we’d love to list them all for you here… That would take all day.
For a full comprehensive list, please see our handy Participating Member webpage, where you can search for the name of the communications provider you’re complaining about to see if they’re part of our scheme:
> Participating Members of CommsADR
What if my provider isn’t a Participating Member of CommsADR?
If you cannot find your provider on our published Participating Members list – don’t panic! That does not immediately mean you’ve hit a dead end.
If you can’t find the provider you’re complaining about on our list, you can still submit your complaint to us and have us check our records, or reach out to our Customer Support Team to verify whether or not we may still be able to process your complaint beforehand!
If your complaint is ineligible for CommsADR, we’ll simply point you in the right direction.
We’ll never penalise you for trying to use our services!
How do I get started?
Once you’ve double-checked whether or not your communications provider is a Participating Member of CommsADR, you can lodge your complaint with us for FREE in whichever way suits you – through our online portal, by post, or by phone:
> Start your complaint with CommsADR
> What to do before you come to us
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