ISP complaint procedures changed

Anyone who has a complaint about their communications provider will only have to wait for eight weeks before taking the matter to a dispute resolution service from September.

At the moment, customers in dispute with their ISP or telephone company has to allow 12 weeks for the matter to be settled before approaching an arbitrator.

The change in regulations has been announced by industry watchdog Ofcom, which said that it receives "thousands of calls each week" from people who are dissatisfied with their providers.

Ofcom first announced the plans to shake up the way customer complaints were handled by ISPs back in July 2008.

Dispute resolution services such as Cisas and Otelo already exist to help customers who have legitimate complaints about broadband providers and telephone companies reach a fair solution.

Under the new rules, which come into effect on 1 September 2009, customers will be able to approach one of these services eight weeks after first logging the complaint with their ISP.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "The vast majority of consumers are happy with their telecoms services.

"For the minority who aren't, we want to ensure that customers get a fair and swift resolution to their disputes," he continued.

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