The most effective ways to get results when complaining to a restaurant, a bank, or a telco without being labelled a ‘moaner’ or worse still, ignored

In Ireland, complaining effectively about shoddy goods and services is not our forte. Moaning about a business to Joe Duffy on Liveline is fine, as are arguments with strangers on the internet. But anything that involves a minor face-to-face confrontation? Not so much. Hell would freeze over before many an Irish diner would tell a waiter who asks, “and how was everything for you?” that their steak was as tough as old boots. Instead, we’d murmur “lovely”, silently vow never to darken that restaurant’s door again, and post a scathing review on Twitter or TripAdvisor afterwards.

“Many businesses recognise that we don’t like to complain and that we find it embarrassing and uncomfortable,” says Dermott Jewell, policy and council adviser to the Consumers’ Association of Ireland. “When you’re trying to be out enjoying yourself or improving your home, for instance, you don’t want to end up with in a standoff with someone. But if you’re going to raise a complaint, do it calmly – if you go in all guns blazing, you’ll see a wall go up.”

Before you make a complaint to any business, make sure you know your consumer rights – the website of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is a good place to start. Recent legislation strengthens your consumer protection even further and gives you more redress if you’re sold faulty goods or services. Under the Consumer Rights Bill 2022, which was signed into law this month, services such as construction, healthcare, hotel accommodation and gym contracts are subject to consumer rights law and the consumer watchdog has new enforcement powers.

Here’s how to make an effective complaint across a sample of sectors:

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At a restaurant

The most successful complaint at a restaurant is the one that is brought to staff attention there and then, says Fergus O’Halloran, managing director of The Twelve, a hotel in Barna that is home to the West restaurant and the Pins gastro-pub. Yet O’Halloran, spends “a lot of time” digging into complaints on TripAdvisor and Twitter, “finding out who person was and making conversation with them”.

“Most often the complaints are not even genuine,” he says. “But the worst thing as GM is to read a bad review, investigate it, and find that we weren’t given opportunity to fix it.”

The hospitality industry says it “thrives” on “constructive criticism” to improve its product. However, there are right and wrong ways to complain. Guests who don’t raise complaints “in a calm, considerate manner” could risk being labelled as self-entitled whingers.

“There are nice people and not so nice people out there,” O’Halloran says. “We don’t want the not-so-nice people. They’ll be barred.”

Losing your temper can also backfire spectacularly, as chat-show host and actor James Corden discovered last month when he found himself accused of bad behaviour by the owner of Balthazar restaurant in Manhattan. Corden was briefly barred from Balthazar after the owner claimed on social media that the actor was “extremely nasty” to staff on two separate occasions, including threatening a bad Yelp review.

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To a bank 

If you’ve been switching banks from Ulster Bank and KBC to a new one, you’ll be familiar with the frustration that comes with repeatedly being put on hold to the new provider’s customer care team only for the call to be disconnected. Indeed, almost a quarter of the complaints received by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) last year were about poor customer service.

If you have a direct contact at your new provider, try to speak to them in a branch. You may find that if you ring them, the call will be redirected to the customer care department. No matter how exasperated you feel, there’s no point directing your anger towards call centre staff. Instead, explain the problem and tell them what solution you want, the CCPC recommends. Take notes on their response. If that doesn’t work and your financial services provider is regulated by the Central Bank, then it must have a complaint handling system. When you’re making a formal complaint, do so in writing so that you have a record of your correspondence.

“Describe what happened, the sequence, any dates, any phonecalls you’ve made already or any previous emails,” says Gráinne Griffin, director of communications at the CCPC. “Be polite but firm, present yourself as a reasonable person, and stick to the facts and to your rights.”

The provider must acknowledge receipt of your complaint in writing within five working days, let you know within 20 days how your complaint is progressing, and decide on your complaint within 40 business days. If you’re not satisfied, you can make a formal complaint to the FSPO. It’s their role to resolve complaints about financial service providers and pension providers and it can direct a financial services business to compensate you if you’ve suffered a financial loss (though not in the case of a pension provider). 

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About a mobile phone, broadband or TV provider

Telecom companies have long been at the receiving end of public ire over their customer service, not least Eir. The arrival of the pandemic meant its customer service agents had to work from home, which increased the amount of time customers were on hold.

Customers are still enduring the legacy of this issue: some told The Sunday Independent that despite spending hours on the phone trying to cancel an Eir broadband contract in 2020 after being notified of a price increase, they continued to be billed for a service they don’t use. Earlier this month, Eir contacted these customers to say it had sold those outstanding amounts to debt collector Stubbs Gazette.

While Eir has been trying to improve, it still has the highest average complaint rate among four fixed lined broadband providers, according to Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) data for the third quarter. Eir had 14.5 complaints for every 100,000 broadband lines, compared to 11 for Sky, 7 for Virgin Media, and 8.1 for Vodafone.

If your service provider is planning to increase its prices, it must give you 30 days’ notice and you can withdraw from your contract without penalty. All operators are required to have a code of practice for handling complaints and to provide a free number for consumers to contact them, an email address or online complaint form, and an address. It’s best to make a complaint in writing and include any evidence. The company then has 10 working days to respond before ComReg can become involved on your behalf.

If all else fails, small claims works 

If you’ve made a complaint and a business still won’t remedy the matter, then consider using the small claims procedure – it’s a relatively cheap, quick and easy way to resolve a complaint without needing a solicitor.

The application fee is just €25 and you can lodge your claim online, on the courts.ie website. The claim is then handled by a district court clerk called the Small Claims Registrar, and the service is provided by your local district court office. If you’re taking a claim against a business, try to get its correct name and address from the Companies Registration Office website.

The registrar will inform the business that you are making a claim and the business must respond within 15 days. If they don’t, the district court automatically treats your claim as undisputed and will make an order in your favour for the amount claimed – all without you having to attend court.

However, you can only use the small claims procedure if your claim is worth €2,000 or less, or €5,000 if you’re making a claim against a business based elsewhere in the European Union. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission would like to see an increase in the domestic threshold for small claims.

“It’s out of step with the cost of living,” says Griffin. “For instance, there are plenty of laptops that cost more than €2,000. We would also be conscious of the number of complaints we get about second-hand cars and many of them wouldn’t be covered by the small claims procedure even if the limit went to €5,000.”