How to File a Consumer Complaint in the UK: Step-by-Step Guide

At a glance

• Your core rights for goods come from the Consumer Rights Act 2015: goods must be of satisfactory quality (s.9), fit for purpose, and match their description.
• 30-day short-term right to reject: if faulty goods are returned within 30 days of delivery, you are entitled to a full refund (Consumer Rights Act 2015, s.20 and s.22).
• Services must be performed with reasonable care and skill (s.49). If they are not, your primary remedy is a repeat performance or a price reduction.
• Online purchases attract a 14-day cooling-off period from the day after delivery under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 — no fault needed.
• Escalation ladder: trader → internal escalation → ADR/ombudsman → small claims court (for claims up to £10,000).
• Credit card protection: Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes the card provider jointly liable where the item costs more than £100 and not more than £30,000.
• Six-year backstop: in England and Wales, you generally have six years from the date of the breach to bring a court claim under the Limitation Act 1980 — though acting early gives you the strongest position.

This guide covers England and Wales. Some rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This guide provides general legal information, not legal advice. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change — check GOV.UK for the latest position.

What are your rights when goods or services go wrong?

Before you complain, you need to know what you are entitled to. The law sets out different frameworks for goods and services.

Rights for goods

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 implies three key terms into every consumer goods contract:

1. Satisfactory quality (s.9) — goods must meet the standard a reasonable person would consider satisfactory, taking into account their price, description, and any other relevant circumstances. Factors include appearance, safety, durability, and freedom from minor defects.
2. Fit for purpose (s.10) — goods must be fit for their usual purpose and, if you told the trader a particular purpose before buying, fit for that purpose too.
3. As described (s.11) — goods must match any description applied to them, whether on packaging, in an advert, or in conversation.

Remedies for faulty goods: the three-tier hierarchy

The Act creates a hierarchy of remedies depending on how long you have owned the goods:

Within 30 days of delivery — the short-term right to reject. Under s.20 and s.22, if the goods breach a statutory right, you can reject them and demand a full refund. The 30-day period begins the day after delivery (or, if later, the day after ownership passes or any required installation is completed). If you return the goods for repair or replacement during the 30-day window, the clock pauses while that process runs — when the goods come back, you have the remainder of the 30 days or 7 days (whichever is longer) to decide whether to keep them.

After 30 days, up to six months — repair or replacement first. Once the short-term right to reject expires, you must give the trader one opportunity to repair or replace the goods. Under s.23, the repair or replacement must be carried out within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you. During the first six months from delivery, a fault is presumed to have been present at the time of delivery unless the trader proves otherwise.

After six months — price reduction or final right to reject. Once you are beyond six months from delivery, the presumption flips: you must show the fault was present at the time of sale. If repair or replacement fails, is impossible, or the trader refuses, you can seek a price reduction or exercise the final right to reject. The refund may be reduced to reflect the use you have had of the goods.

Rights for services

Section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 implies a term into every consumer service contract that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill. The standard is flexible: what counts as reasonable depends on the type of service, industry norms, and any specific commitments made. Where no price was agreed, s.51 implies a term that you pay a reasonable price; where no time was agreed, s.52 implies a term of reasonable time for completion.

If a service falls short, your primary remedy is a repeat performance (s.55) — the trader redoes the work at no extra cost and within a reasonable time. If repeat performance is impossible, or the trader fails to complete it within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, you are entitled to a price reduction instead.

The 14-day online cooling-off right

If you bought goods online, by phone, or away from business premises, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you a 14-day right to cancel for any reason — no fault required. For goods, the 14 days runs from the day after you take physical delivery. You do not need to explain yourself. The trader must refund all payments, including standard delivery costs, within 14 days of receiving the goods back or receiving proof you have dispatched them.

Key exclusions. The cooling-off right does not apply to perishable goods (food, flowers), personalised or bespoke items made to your specification, sealed audio, video, or software once unsealed, and digital content already downloaded with your agreement. If the trader fails to inform you of your cancellation right, the cooling-off period extends — up to a maximum of 12 months and 14 days.

Step 1: Gather your evidence before doing anything else

The strength of your complaint depends almost entirely on your evidence. Before you contact anyone, pull together:

• Proof of purchase — receipt, order confirmation email, bank or card statement, or contract.
• The goods or photographs of them — close-up images of any defect, including the product label and batch/serial number if visible.
• All correspondence so far — emails, chat logs, letters, and a note of any phone calls (date, time, name of person spoken to, and summary of what was said).
• The trader's terms and conditions or any warranty — what was promised.
• Any independent evidence — a report from a repairer, a manufacturer's fault bulletin, a friend or family member who witnessed the problem.

Keep originals and make copies. Send copies to the trader, not originals.

Step 2: Raise the complaint directly with the trader

Most disputes are best resolved at source. Traders generally prefer to fix problems rather than let them escalate, and going to an ombudsman or court is time-consuming for both sides.

Put it in writing. Send your complaint by email so you have a timestamped record. A clear, factual email is more effective than an angry one. Structure it as:

1. What you bought, from whom, on what date, and for how much.
2. What went wrong and when you first noticed it.
3. What you have already done (returned it, reported the fault verbally, and so on).
4. What you want — a full refund, a replacement, a repair, or a price reduction — and why you are entitled to it, citing the Consumer Rights Act 2015 where relevant.
5. A deadline for response — 14 days is reasonable and widely recognised.

Reference the law. A complaint that mentions "short-term right to reject under the Consumer Rights Act 2015" signals you know your rights and are serious. It also establishes the legal basis in writing, which matters if the dispute escalates.

Keep notes of phone calls. If you speak to anyone on the phone, note the date and time, the name of the person, and a summary of what was said. Follow up in writing if any agreement is made verbally.

Step 3: Escalate internally if the first response is unsatisfactory

If the frontline response is unhelpful, do not accept it as final. Ask for the complaint to be escalated to a supervisor, complaints manager, or customer services director. Request a copy of the company's formal complaints procedure — traders in regulated sectors are legally required to have one.

The final response or deadlock letter. In many regulated sectors (financial services, energy, communications, property), traders are required to issue a final response letter once they have reached the limit of their internal process, or to acknowledge a deadlock after eight weeks. This letter is your trigger for escalating to an ombudsman. Keep it — you will need it.

Even outside regulated sectors, sending a formal letter headed "Formal Complaint" and giving the trader a fixed deadline (typically 14 to 28 days) puts you in a stronger position if you later go to ADR or court.

Step 4: Use alternative dispute resolution or an ombudsman

If direct contact stalls, independent dispute resolution is often the next step — and in many sectors it is free to consumers.

Ombudsman schemes by sector

| Sector | Scheme | |--------|--------| | Financial services (banking, insurance, loans, credit cards) | Financial Ombudsman Service | | Energy (gas, electricity) | Energy Ombudsman | | Communications (broadband, mobile, pay-TV) | Communications Ombudsman or CISAS | | Property (estate agents, letting agents) | The Property Ombudsman or RICS | | Legal services | Legal Ombudsman | | Furniture and home improvements | Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman |

For sectors without a statutory ombudsman, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 introduced a compulsory accreditation scheme for providers of alternative dispute resolution in consumer contract disputes, overseen by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Those provisions came into force on 6 April 2026, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026. From that date, a business offering ADR for general consumer disputes must generally be accredited, giving consumers greater assurance that a scheme meets minimum standards of independence and competence.

How to refer a complaint to an ombudsman

1. Exhaust the trader's internal complaints process (or wait eight weeks for a response).
2. Receive the trader's final response or deadlock letter.
3. Submit your complaint to the relevant ombudsman within their time limit (typically 6 months from the final response, though this varies by scheme — check the individual scheme's rules).
4. Provide all your evidence: correspondence, receipts, photos, and the trader's final response.

The ombudsman investigates and, if it upholds your complaint, issues a decision. That decision is binding on the trader if you choose to accept it. If you do not accept it, you retain the right to go to court — you do not give up that option by using ADR.

If no statutory ombudsman covers the trader

Many sectors are not covered by a statutory scheme. In these cases, the trader may be a member of a voluntary, accredited ADR scheme — they are required to tell you which scheme they belong to, if any. If they are not a member of any ADR scheme, your options are Citizens Advice, Trading Standards, or court.

Step 5: Consider paying by credit card or claiming via chargeback

If you have not yet paid, paying by credit card for goods or services costing more than £100 gives you significant extra protection.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Under s.75, your credit card provider is jointly liable with the trader for any breach of contract or misrepresentation where the cash price of the item is more than £100 and not more than £30,000. This means that if the trader goes bust, refuses to engage, or delivers something materially different from what was described, you can claim a full refund from the card provider instead. The claim is against the card provider, not the trader — you do not need to have taken legal action against the trader first. This protection applies even if you paid only part of the price on the credit card. It applies to credit cards, not debit cards — see our guide on the Consumer Credit Act for how credit protections work more broadly.

For purchases above £30,000 and up to £60,260 arranged under a linked, lender-facilitated credit agreement (for example, retailer-arranged finance), section 75A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may provide a narrower, secondary form of protection — you generally need to try the trader first. Take advice if this applies to you.

Chargeback for debit card and credit card payments

If Section 75 does not apply — for example, because the purchase was under £100 or you paid by debit card — chargeback may be available. Chargeback is a scheme operated by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, and others) that allows your bank to request the reversal of a payment. It is not a statutory right, and success is not guaranteed, but it is worth pursuing where the trader has failed to deliver or has gone out of business. Contact your bank or card provider and ask to make a chargeback claim, in writing, as soon as you realise there is a problem — card network rules typically require a claim to be made within a matter of months of the transaction (or, for undelivered goods, from the expected delivery date), and the exact window depends on the card scheme and reason for the dispute.

Step 6: Report to Citizens Advice and Trading Standards

If you have suffered a serious breach, or you believe the trader is acting unlawfully against other consumers, you can report it to Trading Standards. Citizens Advice runs the national consumer service that receives these reports on Trading Standards' behalf.

How to report. Call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133 (free, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) or use the online form available on weekends. Citizens Advice assesses each report and refers cases to Trading Standards where a criminal offence may have been committed.

What Trading Standards will and will not do. Trading Standards can investigate, prosecute, and ultimately stop a trader from operating. They can impose civil penalties and seek court orders. What they cannot do is recover your money for you — that remains a matter for civil proceedings. However, their involvement may put sufficient pressure on a trader to prompt a settlement.

Your report still counts even if Trading Standards do not contact you. Details of your complaint remain on their intelligence database and can contribute to a pattern that triggers enforcement action.

Step 7: Send a letter before claim and consider court

If every other step has failed, you can bring a claim in the County Court. For most consumer disputes, the claim will be allocated to the small claims track, which handles claims up to £10,000 under CPR Part 27. The small claims track is designed to be accessible without a solicitor, proceedings are informal, and legal costs are rarely awarded even if you win.

Send a letter before claim first

Before issuing court proceedings, the Pre-Action Practice Direction requires you to give the other party a fair opportunity to settle. A letter before claim should:

• Identify the parties.
• Set out the facts of the dispute concisely.
• State what you are claiming and why.
• Give the trader a reasonable deadline to respond (typically 14 days for straightforward consumer claims).
• Warn that you intend to issue court proceedings if the matter is not resolved.

Courts take non-compliance with pre-action steps seriously when deciding costs — even in small claims. Send the letter before claim by email and post, and keep copies of both.

Making the claim online

You can issue a money claim through Money Claim Online (MCOL) or through GOV.UK's newer online money claims service, which currently handles claims up to £10,000 against a single defendant with a UK address. You will need:

• The trader's full legal name and registered address.
• A clear, concise statement of what happened and what you are claiming.
• Payment of the court fee (based on the value of your claim — check GOV.UK civil court fees for current amounts).

If the trader does not respond within 14 days, you can ask the court to enter judgment in default. If they do respond and defend the claim, the court will list the matter for a hearing.

The six-year backstop

Under the Limitation Act 1980, you generally have six years from the date of breach to bring a civil claim in England and Wales. This is the outer limit for contract claims — so even if a trader refuses to engage today, you retain the ability to issue proceedings within that period. However, evidence becomes harder to gather over time, and courts do take delays into account. Do not use the six-year window as a reason to wait.

If the trader has gone out of business

Recovery becomes harder if the trader has entered insolvency, but other routes may help:

• Section 75 (credit card, purchase price over £100) — claim against the card provider, not the trader.
• Chargeback — contact your bank or card provider regardless of payment method.
• ATOL protection — if the trader was an ATOL-licensed travel agent or tour operator and sold you a package holiday, you may be able to reclaim through the Civil Aviation Authority.
• Insurance-backed guarantees — some traders in the home improvement sector provide guarantees backed by an insurer. Check whether the trader's guarantee survives insolvency.
• Insolvency proceedings — you can register as an unsecured creditor in the trader's insolvency. Recovery is not guaranteed and often partial, but it preserves your position.

Summary: the consumer complaint escalation ladder

| Step | What to do | When to move on | |------|-----------|-----------------| | 1 | Gather evidence | Before any contact | | 2 | Complain to the trader in writing, citing the Consumer Rights Act 2015 | After 14 days with no satisfactory response | | 3 | Escalate internally; request a formal complaints procedure | After a further 14 days, or on receiving a final response | | 4 | Refer to the relevant ombudsman or ADR provider | Once you have a final response or have waited 8 weeks | | 5 | Claim via Section 75 or chargeback if you paid by card | At any stage — does not prevent other routes | | 6 | Report to Citizens Advice / Trading Standards | If there is a pattern of misconduct or criminal breach | | 7 | Send a letter before claim, then issue in the County Court | As a last resort when all other routes are exhausted |

This guide provides general information about consumer complaint procedures in England and Wales. It is not legal advice on your specific circumstances and should not be relied upon as such. Laws and procedures change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the current position before acting.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.