The Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps offers a conciliation service in respect of customer complaints against our members. Our role in this conciliation service is to attempt to bring about a mutually agreeable conclusion to any issues that may have arisen between you, the customer and one of our member sweeps.
There are comprehensive stages involved in our customer complaints policy and each stage is an important part of the process in achieving a successful outcome for all parties and so must be followed.
We must advise that we cannot become involved in any complaint if:
The first stage if you wish to make a complaint about one of our member sweeps is to contact that particular sweep/company in question and put your concerns, in writing, to them. This gives the member sweep an opportunity to resolve the matter with you. You will appreciate that the sweep may not be aware of any issue you may have and so once notified of this, they may be prepared to resolve the situation to your full satisfaction.
When putting your concerns in writing please be precise about the exact issues you have, when these occurred and what rectification you would like. This will aid our member in deciding how best to resolve the situation. The Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps are very proud of all our members and membership to the Guild is on a stringent basis. We are therefore, very confident that all our members would do their utmost to reach a fair and amicable resolution to any problems with you.
In the unlikely situation that you are still unsatisfied with how your complaint has been dealt with and you wish to take advantage of our conciliation service please proceed to stage two of the complaints procedure.
So that we can look into your complaint please provide to us the following information:
You can contact us in the following ways:
When your complaint is received by us, it will be formally acknowledged, usually by e-mail if you have supplied an e-mail address and then sent on to our member to request their response within 14 days. Upon receipt of our member sweep’s response we will then contact you again in an attempt to help resolve your complaint.
Our role is focussed on what can be done to move matters forward toward a mutually agreeable conclusion between you and the member sweep. We suggest practical action to both parties and usually a resolution can be arrived at by correspondence alone. We shall remain unbiased in this process. We do not pass judgement and cannot compel either party to take any suggestions we make. Our conciliation process is provided to help both parties reach their own successful conclusion to the issues at stake.
If after this stage of correspondence between the parties, you still remain unsatisfied with the outcome we can progress to stage three.
This is the final stage in the process. This stage involves a meeting between you, the member sweep and one of the Guild’s senior representatives. The most ideal venue for the meeting will be your home so that an inspection of the work can be taken.
Please note whilst this offer of a meeting is suggested, we cannot compel a member sweep to attend. There may be a variety of reasons why a member sweep would not wish to participate in a meeting such as they feel they have already been fair enough in the resolutions they have offered you to resolve the situation. If they cannot attend we will always try to find out their reasons why and provide these to you.
Similarly, if you are unwilling to attend a meeting or unwilling to allow an inspection of the work to take place, then we would not be able to take your complaint much further. Your full co-operation is required and so please bear this in mind when deciding to proceed to stage three of the complaints procedure or not.
In most cases the member sweep will be willing to attend. At the meeting an inspection of the work will be undertaken. The views of both parties will be heard and we will try to find a middle ground whereby all parties leave the meeting satisfied as to the course of action next to be taken.
After the meeting a written account of what has been agreed at the meeting will be provided to both parties.
In the vast majority of cases our comprehensive customer complaints policy will be sufficient to resolve your complaint satisfactorily. We are confident most complaints will be resolved in stages one and two. We along with our member sweeps value all customers and would not wish for you to be unhappy with the service you have received.
We along with our member sweeps shall attempt to resolve your complaint swiftly, fairly and satisfactorily so that you are confident in utilising our services time and time, again. In the circumstance that you are still unsatisfied with the outcome of this complaints procedure you will still be able to follow the available remedies under English law, if you so wish.
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Getting your fire up to temperature quickly reduces unnecessary pollution and it's also rather satisfying.
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Radio 4 presenter Steve Carver’s documentary on the run up to Christmas following a Cambridge Chimney Sweep! BBC Radio 4 Extra – Steve the Sweep
