If you are not happy with the quality of service or product, it’s important to speak to the business directly. You can start the conversation with a manager or the business owner in person or by connecting with them online. Here are some tips you can use to communicate a complaint with a business effectively.
Complaint Format:
- Many businesses have more than one way you can contact them like: email, direct message on social media, or online live chat.
- In your first message, include your full name, email address, the date, and a phone number, if appropriate.
Complaint Content:
- Stick to the facts and be concise. Give a summary of what happened (in a timeline format, if appropriate) and note any verbal promises or guarantees made to you by the seller.
- Be constructive: state what you think a fair, realistic, and satisfactory resolution would look like.
- Tell the business when you expect a response back (give them a reasonable amount of time, such as one to two weeks).
Sharing your complaint with the business:
- Send your message in a way that allows you to track your conversation with the business. This can be done through email read receipts or screenshots of direct messages.
Reminders:
- Be polite, professional, and non-threatening.
- Be prepared to supply supporting documents (such as receipts, contracts, warranties and guarantees) if needed in the process of coming to a resolution. Always hold on to the originals!
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About Consumer Protection BC
We are responsible for regulating specific sectors and certain consumer transactions in British Columbia. If your concern is captured under the laws we enforce, we will use the tools at our disposal to assist you. If we can’t help you directly, we will be happy to provide you with as much information as possible. Depending on your concern, another organization may be the ones to speak to; other times, court or legal assistance may be the best option. Explore our website at www.consumerprotectionbc.ca.
require a read receipt via email is the most useless advice you can give. Most email clients by default are set not to send one. And most web based services don’t even allow you to request that option let alone send one. Should advise not using email or avoiding it.
Hi Brian, thanks for the feedback. How your email functions is definitely something to consider.
I was informed by my friend that she went to a a Fruiticana in Richmond British Columbia, Canada today. She was going to pick up 2 items for my family along with hers only to find out that…
ONE 4 L milk carton was priced at 15 dollars and the flour to make chapaatis was priced up to 25 dollars a bag when it is usually 14 dollars a bag.
Could you please look into this?It is very heartbreaking to think that a time such as our climate is at the moment that businesses would take advantage of fellow canadians!
Please let me know if you will be following up with this and how soon I will hear about this potential illegal price gauging.
Hi Charnjit, thank you for letting us know. The Competition Bureau is a federal organization that oversees this kind of issue. Here’s the link to their website. Please note that as of now, they are not taking phone calls but they are responding to email inquiries. They may take a little longer to respond but hopefully, they can get back to you on this.
quick comment
a local gym franchise follow all the covid19 protocols and as a customer = I appreciate that.
the thing that bugs me is that they kept their fees and marketing the same before covid19. The service got decrease, as well availability and access to the facility.
I am not complaining about the security measures, I am more about that all the members, should have a discount or a some sort of benefit.
interesting is you are late on the monthly payment. They call you right away to pay & charge u the gym improvement fees OR warning you for being late / no show during your reserve time (verbal, $, cancellation). that its a double standard and should be regulated. Please, I would like to put a written complain.
Hi, thank you for your comment. We don’t oversee what a business charges, the gym is allowed to set their fees and determine their own policies about attendance and payment reminders. I assume that you have already spoken to them about your concerns but if you haven’t, I would encourage you to do that.
Hello,
We had booked a swiss-air flight ticket in August from Mumbai to Vancouver using website mytrip.com. Initially, swiss-air postponed this ticket from January 4 to January 5 2022 and we accepted that but later they cancelled our ticket and gave us an option to fly on January 16th 2022, which was almost 12 days apart from my original flight date. This action by swiss-air and my-trip.com caused me and my husband major inconvenience.
1. My Canadian employer would not allow me extra 12 days from my originally approved leave.
2. Due to the fact that rebooking was super expensive and no reasonable option was offered by swiss-air, we had to rebook our flights to January 9th (chepaest and manageable option available).
3. Ultimately, since they cancelled our flight, which was not by our own choice, we had to rebook our tickets and they also charged us cancellation fees. Really?
4. Due to this rebooking, our total hours of journey increased from about 24 hours to 40 hours and we may need to worry about rt-pcr test at every stop-over. Due to I recently underwent a major surgery, I was not planning to travel to india this year but beacuse of the family reason, we need to travel and these additional hours of journey and number of rt-pcr tests are going to be extra hardships for us.
Swiss-air should have offered us better flight options within reasonable time period and lesser hardships. it could be through swiss-air, any airline within their alliance or any other flight. Instead of giving us reasonable options, agent only mentioned that system does not allow them and did not show them any flight availability within reasonable time. Being into airline business, these kind of issues must be very common for them so we dont believe that this answer is acceptable.
Hi Sarika, sorry to hear about your experience. Have you tried to complain to the airline company directly? I’m just wondering if you had an opportunity to approach them to see if they would refund you the cancellation fee or compensate for the difference you are paying for the new flights. If you haven’t already, it might be worth asking them first. If you don’t hear back from them or they are not able to offer anything, please take a look at this page of our website. You may qualify to go through our complaint handling system after you’ve tried to resolve the issue with the airline. I hope this information is helpful to you!
This is the craziest thing that has ever happened. I ordered two items from Just Fashion and was expecting them to come through Canada Post. I received a text on Saturday stating I had received a package. Please check my front door or mail room. What the person doesn’t know where they put it. I went up to the lobby where the mailbox is nothing, looked outside nothing. I called the number robotext. Called the company UniUni, it was indeed delivered. The second package came yesterday but did I get it absolutely not. Tracked it and got pictures of it with my name but no parcel. Just fashion is refunding me for the first but will not respond to me anymore. I started getting strange phone calls today as someone is using my number. I feel absolutely violated by this courier company and they just keep asking questions when they feel like getting around to it. I am not well and in the process of having tests and a procedure next week. They can’t treat people like this. I am absolutely dumbfounded by all of it and now freaked out that I am receiving phone calls one from a storage company. Please help me
Hi Barbara Anne, thank you for contacting Consumer Protection BC. We have a post that shares information on what to do when you don’t receive your online order. This page includes information on how to cancel your original order and receive a refund (through the seller or your credit card provider) so please have a read. If you have any further questions pleas feel free to reach out to us again!