Martin Lewis has issued a warning over a big change which could affect phone or broadband customers in the UK. The BBC and ITV star has said he is “pleased to hear” the shake up could take hold after intervention from the regulator.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Martin said: “Pleased to hear @Ofcom is consulting on reducing the time it takes to escalate issues to an Ombudsman from 8 to 6 weeks. This is something MSE recommended in our ‘Ombudsman Sharper teeth’ report. Great to see a move.
“Hope others follow suit.” Ofcom explained: “We’ve set out plans to cut the time customers have to wait before they can escalate phone or broadband complaints to alternative dispute resolution services.”
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Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes are independent bodies that carry out impartial assessments of unresolved complaints between a customer and their communications provider. This process is designed to help ensure fair and effective complaints handling, and empowers consumers in their relationship with their provider.
Under current rules, providers must inform consumers of their right to access ADR if a complaint has not been resolved to their satisfaction after eight weeks or, before then, if the complaint reaches deadlock. Between January 2022 and 2024, a significant majority (79%) of complaints received by the main providers were resolved in less than a week, with 94% within six weeks.
Among the remaining 700,000 complainants, a relatively small proportion (around 19%) were able to get their issue resolved or were referred to ADR by the end of the current 8-week deadline. The regulator said: “While not a condition of re-approval, we are recommending that both schemes introduce an improved review process to monitor the quality of decision letters to ensure they remain at a high standard.
“Under our proposals, we also propose to adjust some of the schemes’ KPIs to more accurately reflect their performance levels, incentivise continuous improvement and enhance our oversight. We are inviting feedback on these proposals which must be submitted by 12 March 2025, and expect to publish our final decision in Summer 2025.”