Ofcom announces plans to make ISP complaints procedure easier

Broadband and phone providers will be required to make dispute resolution services more available to customers as from next year if plans drawn up by communications regulator Ofcom get past the planning stage. In a bid to bring more transparency to the complaints process customers who do not get a satisfactory answer as a result of their complaint will be able to escalate matters much more easily than at present.

A new complaints procedure aimed at speeding up the process, and getting an issue dealt with, has been drawn up by Ofcom with a view to having it in place by next year. In plans outlined yesterday, it would mean that Internet Service Providers would be obliged to notify customers that complaints can be taken to a free resolution service.

In the last year alone, three million people didn't successfully resolve problems with their phone and broadband provider in the twelve-week period after making a complaint. According to Ofcom, a dispute resolution service would be a more efficient way of dealing with the logjam of complaints to ISP's. Currently, if the initial complaint is not successfully dealt with in an eight-week period it can be taken to two dispute resolution services, Otelo or Cisas, although the majority of customers are apparently unaware of this.

Ofcom expects to have the code of practice in place from January 22, 2011. The new guidelines would require ISP's to include information about the dispute resolution service on any paper bills sent to customers. They would also be obliged to write to customers with complaints within eight weeks, giving them the option of taking the matter further with the dispute resolution services mentioned above.

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