One tap tells us whether they sorted it

Most complaints end quietly. The company pays up, fixes it, or says no, and nobody writes it down. That matters more than it sounds. Your trophy cabinet, the total you have won back and the figures on our company pages are all built out of outcomes people told us about.

What happens now

Two weeks after your complaint goes out, you get one email with one question: did they sort it? There are four answers and the first tap saves.

• Yes, they paid or fixed it. The case is marked as won.
• Partly. Some of it, not all, and you tell us how much came back.
• No, still waiting. Nothing is recorded and we check back later.
• No, they refused. We log it and show you where the case goes next.

If you are still waiting when your wait is up, which is six weeks for phone and broadband and eight for almost everything else, we ask once more and then stop. If the company replies to you before either of those, the question rides along in the email that tells you about the reply. The same question sits on your case and on your dashboard, so you can answer it wherever you happen to be.

A no is worth recording too

Answer “they refused” and the next screen names the free route out of it. Where an ombudsman covers the company, we name the scheme and when it can take your case. Where none does, we say so, and point at Citizens Advice and the small claims track instead. Where we cannot tell, we say that as well, because being told no scheme exists when one might is how people stop looking.

Nothing else to fill in

Asking used to mean a notification you had no reason to open and a form with up to six decisions in it. One tap is the whole thing now. After a win we ask how much you got back, and you can skip it. If it was a fix rather than money, say so and we record it that way.