Code of Conduct
Resolver’s guide to wording a complaint, leaving feedback and reviewing a business or organisation
You can use Resolver to contact and comment on a business or organisation in a variety of ways, including:
- Making a complaint
- Sorting out a problem
- Providing feedback
- Leaving a review
We work with thousands of businesses and organisations to help get problems resolved simply and definitively. But the comments and complaints you make also helps the business learn more about things that might not be working – and when they’ve done well. That leads to better service for everyone in the long run.
Of course if you want to sort out a complaint effectively or get a business to listen to your feedback, good or bad, then how you word your comments matters.
Complaints, in particular, can be the source of much distress. But you stand the best chance of success by sticking to the facts. It’s important to let a business know how a problem has affected you personally but you’ll get the best results by following our policy on using our website.
A general guide on how to word your complaint – and what is in breach of our courtesy policy
The vast majority of the complaints, comments, feedback and reviews made through the Resolver website are perfectly acceptable. We’re proud of the fact that the people who use our site use it responsibly. However, it’s only fair that we spell out what is and what isn’t acceptable when using Resolver.
This is our policy on courtesy when making complaints or leaving comments.
Keep it clean
No matter how unhappy you are with a business, you should not swear when making a complaint, leaving feedback or a review of a business. This is in breach of our policy (we will find out) and businesses have the right to refuse to address a complaint or comment that contains offensive terms.
Tone matters too
People handling your complaint or trying to sort out problems are human beings too. Dealing with disputes all day long can be emotionally draining, so even a profanity-free complaint can feel threatening if it’s written as if you are shouting at the person reading it – or holding them responsible for the problem.
A good tip is to write down what you want to say, walk away from it, then come back and reread it a few hours later. Are you getting the points across that you want? Is it clear and concise? If your complaint is more about how upset you are than what’s gone wrong, it’s harder to sort the matter out.
Attachments
You can use Resolver to attach documents, pictures and other files to your complaint. Our courtesy policy applies to the attachments too so double check you haven’t included something that might be considered offensive.
Abuse, trolling and threats
One thing we won’t tolerate is using any of our channels to communicate or comment as a tool to abuse the business, troll it or campaign against it. If we feel you are misusing Resolver in this way, we reserve the right to close your complaint, delete your comments or reviews and block you from our site.
Threats of violence will not be tolerated under any circumstance and we – and the business – reserve the right to report comments of this nature to the police.
If anyone has been to ‘Facebook jail’ recently, you may be aware that using certain phrases in jest can get you a temporary ban. Language is subjective and what might be amusing to some people can read in a very different way to others. Best to read back what you’ve written before you send it and take out anything that might not be interpreted or understood correctly.
A note on the law
The rules around libel and harassment are rather complex and are constantly evolving. If you leave feedback on how your complaint went or use Resolver to review a business, then remember those comments may be visible to the public.
As such, you should take a moment to consider what you’ve written and how you’ve worded it. For example, there’s nothing wrong with saying that you’re unhappy with a business. But if you write about the business using offensive or aggressive language – or make statements that might come back to haunt you (libellous comments, threats, deliberate misinformation) then not only you in clear breach of our policy on courtesy, you could find yourself in hot water with the business or organisation.
Remember that our feedback options are designed to help businesses improve their services and understand more about what they are getting right and what needs to improve. Share your thoughts, good and bad – but be fair, calm and keep it simple.
Incentives for positive feedback
If you’re providing feedback or reviews, then you must not have received and incentive from the business to leave overly positive comments. There’s nothing wrong with a business asking you to leave them a review – they just can’t pay you for it, directly or indirectly.
Ratings
When rating how a business has performed, you might have a polarised view – meaning you might be minded to give them the highest or lowest score, based on how you’re feeling. To help us provide the best feedback to businesses, take a little longer to pick a score that’s reflective of what you actually experienced. That way firms can see if they’re improving over time.
Resolver’s staff
We’re very fond of our customer service team – and it goes without saying that we will not tolerate any abuse of them. Resolver doesn’t have a phone number because this keeps the costs down, which means we can keep Resolver free. But our team are here, they are real people not chatbots and they are here to help answer your questions and emails personally.
Sometimes we can’t help with some complaints – so please don’t shoot the messenger. Any abuse or threats of our staff will result in a lifetime ban from Resolver.