At STAR, we aim to provide a fair, clear and impartial dispute resolution service.
We understand that people may sometimes be unhappy with the service they receive from STAR. This policy explains how to complain about STAR's handling of its ADR service.
This policy is about complaints concerning STAR's service. It is not a way to appeal against the outcome of an ADR complaint or to reopen a dispute because one party disagrees with the result.
What this policy covers
You can complain under this policy if you are unhappy with the way STAR has handled its ADR service.
This may include complaints about:
- delays in handling your complaint
- poor communication
- failure to explain the process clearly
- failure to follow our published procedure
- failure to consider a reasonable adjustment request properly
- administrative mistakes
- staff behaviour
- concerns about impartiality or conflicts of interest
- how your information has been handled during the ADR process
What this policy does not cover
This policy does not cover:
- a complaint about a STAR member
- a complaint about a ticket purchase, event, refund or other consumer dispute
- disagreement with the outcome of an ADR complaint
- a request to reopen a closed ADR complaint without new and relevant information
- a request for STAR to give legal advice
- a request for STAR to act for one side in a dispute
- a complaint that is being dealt with under another STAR procedure
If your complaint is really about a STAR member or a ticketing dispute, we will explain how that can be raised under STAR's ADR procedure, where appropriate.
Disagreement with an ADR outcome
STAR's ADR outcomes are not legally binding. This means that either party may choose not to accept the outcome.
However, this complaints policy cannot be used simply because one party disagrees with the outcome, the reasoning or the recommendation made through STAR's ADR process.
We may consider whether there has been a service failure in the way the complaint was handled. We will not use this policy to substitute a different ADR outcome.
How to complain
Please tell us:
- your name
- your contact details
- the reference number for your ADR complaint, if you have one
- what you are unhappy about
- what you think STAR should have done differently
- what you would like us to do to put things right
You can complain by email or post.
Email: info@star.org.uk
Post: STAR, Blake House, 18 Blake Street, York YO1 8QG
If you need help to make a complaint, or need a reasonable adjustment, please tell us. We will consider what support we can reasonably provide.
When to complain
Please raise your complaint as soon as possible.
We would usually expect complaints about STAR's service to be made within three months of the issue complained about.
We may decide not to consider a complaint made later than this unless there is a good reason for the delay.
What happens when we receive your complaint
We will acknowledge your complaint and consider who should deal with it.
Where possible, the complaint will be reviewed by someone who was not directly involved in the issue complained about.
We may ask you for more information if we need it to understand your complaint.
What we will consider
When reviewing your complaint, we may consider:
- STAR's published ADR procedure
- the information held on the case file
- correspondence with the parties
- any relevant deadlines
- whether STAR communicated clearly
- whether STAR acted fairly and impartially
- whether any reasonable adjustment request was handled properly
- whether any administrative mistake affected the handling of the case
How long it will take
We will aim to respond to your complaint within 20 working days of receiving it.
If the complaint is complex or we need more time, we will tell you and explain when we expect to respond.
Possible outcomes
If we uphold your complaint, we may take action such as:
- apologising
- correcting an administrative error
- providing a clearer explanation
- reviewing the way we communicated with you
- reconsidering a procedural step, if appropriate
- taking steps to avoid the same issue happening again
We will not change the outcome of an ADR complaint simply because a service complaint has been made.
If we do not uphold your complaint
If we do not uphold your complaint, we will explain why.
We will also explain whether there is anything further STAR can do.
Once we have given our final response, we may not continue to correspond about the same complaint unless new and relevant information is provided.
Concerns about STAR as an ADR provider
STAR is responsible for handling complaints about its own service.
If, after receiving STAR's final response, you still have concerns about the way STAR operates as an ADR provider, we can provide information about the relevant ADR oversight or accreditation body.
That body does not act as an appeal body for individual ADR outcomes, but it may consider concerns about an ADR provider's compliance with its obligations.
Confidentiality and data protection
We will handle complaints about our service confidentially and in line with data protection law.
We may need to review information from the ADR case file in order to consider the complaint properly. This may include correspondence, evidence, personal details and information about the way the ADR complaint was handled.
We will only use personal information where this is necessary to handle the complaint, improve our service, meet legal obligations or protect STAR's position.
More information about how STAR collects, uses and protects personal information is set out in STAR's Privacy Notice.
Unreasonable behaviour
We will consider complaints fairly, even where someone is upset or frustrated.
However, we may manage contact under STAR's Unreasonable behaviour policy if correspondence becomes abusive, threatening, excessive or obstructive.
Related policies
This policy should be read alongside STAR's:
If someone needs help or a reasonable adjustment to make a complaint about STAR's ADR service, we will consider this under our Accessibility and reasonable adjustments policy.
If correspondence about a service complaint becomes abusive, threatening, excessive or obstructive, we may manage contact under our Unreasonable behaviour policy.
Learning from complaints
We will keep a record of complaints about STAR's ADR service.
Where appropriate, we will use complaints to improve our procedures, communications, staff training and the way we provide our ADR service.
