Published on 12, July, 2020
Why do organizations have complaints procedures? All they ever do is fob you off with lies and excuses etc when you do complain - after telling you they were so sorry to hear about the way you were treated blah blah blah. Every time I've put in a complaint about anyone, it's always been rejected! Noone wants to know, including ombudsmans.
Social services won't even stamp and sign a form for me so that I can renew my bus pass! And even my complaint about that has been rejected! It could hardly be a clearer case that I've got a legitimate complaint. It was last year I first contacted them about it. My bus pass expired in January this year, and I've still not got a new one. All they need to do is sign and stamp a form to prove that I'm entitled to one! And they're refusing to do it! So I put in a complaint, which was rejected by the council; took it to the ombudsman, and they don't want to know either! They're claiming that the council's response to my complaint was perfectly reasonable!
If even that complaint isn't taken seriously, then there's no point in ever complaining about anything! There's no point in organizations having complaints procedures at all!
I absolutely feel you on this, I hate any sort of injustice or wrongdoings from a company/organisation, and want to hold them accountable. Like your experience, my complaints often get dismissed and some rubbish excuse given. It does make it feel pointless complaining! Companies/organisations will often do as much as they can to protect themselves.
The last time I took anything to the ombudsman was about a complaint about my stay in a mental health hospital, where I was given bed sheets with someone else’s blood on it! The trust responded to my complaint with their generic apology and said they changed the bed sheets as soon as they knew, and the ombudsmen said this was a reasonable reply to my complaint. I still felt injustice as I felt there was no accountability, or real explanation as to why it happened, or even reassurance that it won’t happen again! So that is a bad experience of when I’ve taken a complaint as far as the ombudsman.
another time was when I took Vodafone to the ombudsman who agreed Vodafone didn’t appropriately respond to my complaint and they had to pay me £250.
I know by now it sounds like all I do is complain and take stuff to the ombudsman lol, but I don’t, I just get very passionate when I’ve felt injustice.
I cant really advise you, just sympathise. What I do now if I complain is set out a reasonable list of expectations that I want as a result from my complaint, so it’s easier for them to know what sort of reply I want. I hope you managed to get everything sorted out with your bus pass in the end.