Complaints Policy

  1. Definitions
    • In this Complaints Policy the following expressions have the following meanings:
“Appeal” means your request to escalate a Complaint from Level Two to Level Three if you are not satisfied with the outcome at Level Two;
“Appeal Handler” means an employee of Blue whale Media Ltd working at Director Level who will handle Level Three Complaints;
“Business Day” means, any day (other than Friday, Saturday or Sunday) on which the business is open for their full range of normal business.
“Complaint” means a complaint about services sold by Blue Whale Media Ltd, about our customer service, or about our employees.
[“Complaints Form”] means our standard complaints form, available from bluewhaletest.wpengine.com/complaints
“Complaints Policy” means this document;
“Complaints Procedure” means the internal complaints handling procedure of Blue Whale Media which is followed when handling a Complaint and is available within this document.
“Complaint Reference” means a unique code assigned to your Complaint that will be used to track your Complaint;
“External Resolution” means the referral of your Complaint to an external body or organisation for resolution if you are not satisfied with the outcome at Level Three;
“Level One” means the first stage in our complaints handling procedure under which your Complaint will be handled by a Level One Complaint Handler;
“Level One Complaint Handler” means an employee of Blue Whale Media Ltd working at Manager Level who will handle Level One Complaints;
“Level Two” means the second stage in our complaints handling procedure under which you may appeal the outcome of a Level One Complaint.  Your Complaint will be handled by Level Two Complaint Handler;
“Level Two Complaint Handler” means an employee of Blue Whale Media working at Managing Director who will handle Level Two Complaints;
“Level Three” means the third and final stage in our complaints handling procedure under which you may appeal the outcome of a Level Two Complaint.  Your Complaint will be handled by an Appeal Handler.

 

  1. Purpose of this Complaints Policy
    • Blue Whale Media Ltd welcomes and encourages feedback of all kinds from our customers. If you have a Complaint about our services, our customer service, or about our employees, not only do we want to resolve it to your satisfaction but we also want to learn from it in order to improve our business and customer experience in the future.
    • It is our policy to resolve Complaints quickly and fairly, where possible without recourse to formal investigations or external bodies. In particular, the aims of this Complaints Policy are:
      • To provide a clear and fair procedure for any customers who wish to make a Complaint about Blue Whale Media Ltd our services, our customer service, or about our employees;
      • To ensure that everyone working for or with Blue Whale Media Ltd knows how to handle Complaints made by our customers;
      • To ensure that all Complaints are handled equally and in a fair and timely fashion;
      • To ensure that important information is gathered from Complaints and used in the future to avoid such a situation arising again.
  1. What this Complaints Policy Covers
    • This Complaints Policy applies to the provision of services by Blue Whale Media Ltd to our customer service and to our employees
    • For the purposes of this Complaints Policy, any reference to Blue Whale Media Ltd also includes our employees.
    • Complaints may relate to any of our activities and may include (but not be limited to):
      • The quality of customer service you have received from Blue Whale Media Ltd;
      • The behaviour and/or professional competence of our employees;
      • Delays, defects, poor workmanship or other problems associated with the provision of services by Blue Whale Media Ltd;
    • The following are not considered to be Complaints and should therefore be directed to the appropriate person:
      • General questions about our services;
      • Matters concerning contractual or other legal disputes;
      • Formal requests for the disclosure of information, for example, under the Data Protection Act;
  1. Making a Complaint
    • All Complaints, whether they concern our services, our customer service, or our employees, should be made in one of the following ways:
      • In writing, addressed to Stephanie Sweeney, Operation Director, Blue Whale Media Ltd, 832 Birchwood Blvd, Birchwood, Warrington, Cheshire, WA3 7QZ
      • Using our Complaints Form, following the instructions included with the form;
    • When making a Complaint, you will be required to provide the following information in as much detail as is reasonably possible:
      • Your name, address, telephone number and email address (We will contact you using your preferred contact method as your Complaint is handled);
      • If you are making a Complaint on behalf of someone else, that person’s name and contact details as well as your own;
      • If you are making a Complaint about a particular transaction, the invoice number, value & date of transaction.
      • If you making a Complaint about a particular employee of ours, the name and, where appropriate, position of that employee
      • Further details of your Complaint including, as appropriate, all times, dates, events, and people involved;
      • Details of any documents or other evidence you wish to rely on in support of your Complaint;
      • Details of what you would like Blue Whale Media Ltd to do to resolve your Complaint and to put things right. (Please note that whilst we will make every reasonable effort to accommodate such requests, we are not bound to take any action beyond that which we may be contractually or otherwise legally obliged to take.)
  1. How We Handle Your Complaint
    • Blue Whale Media Ltd operates a three-stage complaints handling procedure. Following our Complaints Procedure, our aim is to always resolve Complaints to your satisfaction at Level One without further recourse to Level Two or Level Three.  If you are not satisfied at the end of Level One, you may escalate your Complaint to Level Two.  If you are not satisfied at the end of Level Two your Complaint may be escalated to Level Three at which point it will be handled by Stephanie Sweeney, Operation Director If you are still not satisfied at the end of Level Three, Complaints may progress to External Resolution as detailed below.
    • Level One:
      • Upon receipt of your Complaint, the Operations Director identified above in Section 4.1 will log the Complaint in our complaints log and will acknowledge receipt of it in writing within 10 business days, giving you a Complaint Reference.
      • When we acknowledge receipt of your Complaint we will also provide details of your Level One Complaint Handler. This may be the Manager Of the Department to whom your original Complaint was directed (as above) or your Complaint may be referred to another appropriate member of our team.
      • If your Complaint relates to a specific employee, that person will be informed of your Complaint and given a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond. Any communication between you and the employee question should take place only via the Level One Complaint Handler and we respectfully ask that you do not contact the employee question directly concerning the Complaint while we are working to resolve it.
      • If we require any further information or evidence from you, the Level One Complaint Handler will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it. We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply any such information or evidence quickly in order to avoid delaying the complaints handling process.  If you are for any reason unable to provide such information or evidence we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it, however please be aware that we will not ask for further information or evidence unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your Complaint.
      • We aim to resolve Level One Complaints within 30 days, however in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible. If this is not possible for any reason you will be informed of the delay, the likely length of the delay and the reasons for it.
      • At the conclusion of the Level One complaints procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from that investigation, and any action taken as a result. You will also be reminded of your right to appeal our decision and escalate the complaint to Level Two.
    • Level Two:
      • If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint at Level One, you may request that the Complaint be escalated to Level Two within 60 days where your Complaint will be handled by Managing Director level members of our team.
      • Escalation requests, quoting your original Complaint Reference, should be directed to your Level One Complaint Handler who will forward the request to an appropriate Level Two Complaint Handler. Receipt of escalation requests will be acknowledged in writing within 14 business days. When we acknowledge receipt of your escalation request we will also provide details of your Level Two Complaint Handler.
      • If your Complaint relates to a specific employee, that person will be informed of your Level Two Complaint and given a further opportunity to respond. Any communication between you and the employee in question should take place only via the Level Two Complaint Handler and we respectfully ask that you do not contact the employee in question directly concerning the Complaint while we are working to resolve it.
      • If we require any further information or evidence from you, the Level Two Complaint Handler will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it. We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply any such information or evidence to us quickly in order to avoid delaying the complaints handling process.  If you are for any reason unable to provide such information or evidence we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it, however please be aware that we will not ask for further information or evidence unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your Complaint.
      • We aim to resolve Level Two Complaints within 120 days, however in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible. If this is not possible for any reason you will be informed of the delay, the likely length of the delay and the reasons for it.
      • At the conclusion of the Level Two complaints procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from that investigation, and any action taken as a result. You will also be reminded of your right to appeal our decision and escalate the complaint to Level Three.
    • Level Three:
      • If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint at Level Two, you may appeal the decision within 60 days, and have the Complaint escalated to Level Three where it will be handled by our Operations Director, Stephanie Sweeney.
  • Appeals, quoting your original Complaint Reference, should be directed to your Level Two Complaint Handler who will forward the request to an appropriate Appeal Handler. Receipt of Appeals will be acknowledged in writing with 14 business days.  When we acknowledge receipt of your Appeal we will also provide details of your Appeal Handler.
  • If your Complaint relates to a specific employee, that person will be informed of your Appeal and given a further opportunity to respond. Any communication between you and the employee in question should take place only via the Appeal Handler and we respectfully ask that you do not contact the employee in question directly concerning the Complaint while we are working to resolve it.
  • If we require any further information or evidence from you, the Appeal Handler will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it. We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply any such information or evidence to us quickly in order to avoid delaying the complaints handling process.  If you are for any reason unable to provide such information or evidence we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it, however please be aware that we will not ask for further information or evidence unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your Complaint.
  • We aim to resolve Level Three Complaints within 240 days, however in some cases, particularly if your Complaint is of a complex nature, this may not be possible. If this is not possible for any reason you will be informed of the delay, the likely length of the delay and the reasons for it.
  • At the conclusion of the Level Three procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from that investigation, and any action taken as a result. Our decision at this stage is final [, subject to your right to seek External Resolution of your Complaint].
  • External Resolution:
    • If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your Complaint at Level Three you may seek External Resolution of your Complaint via the appropriate UK Court.
  1. Confidentiality and Data Protection
    • All Complaints and information relating thereto are treated with the utmost confidence. Such information will only be shared with those employees agents of Blue Whale Media Ltd who need to know in order to handle your Complaint.
    • All personal information that we may collect (including, but not limited to, your name and address) will be collected, used and held in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and your rights under that Act.
  1. Policy Responsibility and Review
    • Overall responsibility for this Complaints Policy within Blue Whale Media Ltd and the implementation thereof lies with Stephanie Sweeney, Operations Director.
  • This Complaints Policy is regularly reviewed and updated as required.
  • This Complaints Policy was adopted on 05:01:2021.
  • This Complaints Policy was last reviewed on 05:01:2021.
Signed by: