• Introduction
• Official ISP Complaint Handlers and Procedures
• Unofficial ISP Complaint Handlers and Legal Counsel
• Common ISP Complaints and Advice
• Helpful ISP Complaint Tips

1. Trading Standards
2. The Office of Fair Trading
3. Consumer Direct
4. Citizens Advice Bureau
5. The Small Claims Court
6. Consumer Help Websites

1. Trading Standards.

This not-for-profit professional membership association was setup to help protect and advise on consumer rights. It deals with a huge range of issues from rogue tradesmen to under age knife sales and was used a lot against bad ISPs prior to the inception of Ofcom’s official ADR complaints handler schemes, which is a better type of organisation to use.

Trading Standards is most likely to be of use when your complaint relates to having purchased a service where some or all aspects have not been delivered (mis-sold) or perhaps even seriously misrepresented (remember, broadband is a “best efforts” service, so issues such as poor speeds are not really valid for this organisation).

Trading Standards Website
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

2. The Office of Fair Trading

The OFT is the UK's consumer and competition authority, which focuses more on larger scale problems than individual complaints and seeks to ensure a level playing field for various markets. It has the power to make businesses comply with competition and consumer laws and to improve trading practices via self-regulation. Generally the OFT is best used as an information source.

The Office of Fair Trading Website
http://www.oft.gov.uk

3. Consumer Direct

Consumer Direct is connected to both Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, though it does not handle individual complaints. Instead this is a good place for gaining free and practical advice about your legal rights with respect to problematic consumer services, from extended warranties to broadband ISPs.

The Consumer Direct Website
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk

4. Citizens Advice Bureau

Much like Consumer Direct (above), the Citizens Advice Bureau is setup to help people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free, independent and confidential advice, and by influencing policymakers. This is a good way of gaining free legal advice about consumer issues and ideally both organisations should be consulted before pursuing any kind of court action. This is not a requirement, it just helps.

The Citizens Advice Bureau
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk

5. The Small Claims Court

The most serious ISP disputes usually concern a mix of money and contractual obligations. These often involve smaller amounts of cash and thus make big court cases pointless. Instead, provided you have clear reason and evidence to prove your case, then a request for compensation can be made via the Small Claims Court site above. You can also start a small claim via any court in England or Wales.

Typically such action, which will be handled by your local county court system, should only be taken as a LAST RESORT and after the OFFICIAL ADR SCHEME has proven itself to be ineffective. Most cases will be fairly simple, though very complicated cases or those seeking to claim several thousand pounds might be referred to a higher and potentially more costly authority.

Naturally there is a small fee for the small claims court, which is calculated based on the amount you are claiming, including interest. The fee (£25 or more) is not charged for those on income support, State Pension Guarantee Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Working Tax Credit with no element of the Child Tax Credit or if you have a tiny income.

Remember – seek advice from no. 3 and 4 above before proceeding with court action, but do not be afraid to do so if you feel it is necessary. Very few ISPs would defend themselves (costs more to defend than it does to settle), especially if – as in most cases – you are clearly in the right and can prove it.

Small Claims Court Website (England)
http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

Small Claims Court Website (Scotland)
http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/sheriff/small_claims/index.asp

Small Claims Advice Website
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/claims/index.htm

6. Consumer Help Websites (add links below).

This refers to websites like ours – ISPreview.co.uk, which can help to publicise problems that ISP users might be experiencing. In order to do this we require that readers inform us of their problems because most of the time we can only cover widespread issues, but we won’t know that they’re widespread unless people tell us about them – catch 22.

Readers can either choose to email the editor (Mark Jackson) via our ‘Contact’ page or post a message on our forum. Typically the ‘ISP Complaints Forum’ requires registration to post, although we do have a general ‘Unregistered Visitor ISP Questions & Answers’ section for those that do not wish to become members of the site.

Similarly ISPreview is so called because we run a ‘Reader ISP Reviews’ system which, once registered via our forum, will allow you to post and rate your ISP. Informing others about your experiences, be they positive or negative, is a very powerful tool indeed. Help us to help you.