The Approved Workshop Scheme Conciliation Service
I have had the misfortune to have to complain to the AWS Conciliation Service. After 4 months, I have no idea how my complaint is progressing as the AWS refuses to provide any updates. So I emailed the Club as a joint sponsor of this scheme to complain and
ask 3 questions. These were:-
1. Who oversees the performance of the AWS Conciliation Service - ie who can I complain to about their performance (or lack of it)?
2. What percentage of customer complaints has actually been upheld by the Conciliation Service?
3. How many workshops have been expelled from the scheme as a result of customer complaints?
Perhaps by coincidence, I received an email from the AWS Manager a couple of days later apologising for the lack of reply and assuring me that
there would be a response "in the very near future" - that was on 14th February. However, I have had no response to my email from the Caravan Club despite 2 reminders. Apart from the appalling lack of courtesy, it seems to me that the Club either doesn't know
the answers to my questions or doesn't want to tell me. Either way, it says very little for the value of this much vaunted but toothless scheme.
John M
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My wife and I . Have also just had to complain about a AWS member. From the correspondence with them, they are not interested in any complaint. From the start AWS have been acting in a way that is not independent as they are supposed to be. In fact informing us by email that even though we have made a formal complaint, it was dismissed and even before we have had a final reply from whom we are complaining about. Sent them a copy of correspondence AWS had sent to us. This then gives the AWS member no reason to resolve our complaint. In any type of disputes scheme they are supposed to be totally independent. AWS it seems from our experience are only interested in protecting their members.
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That sounds just like the NCC - a trade organisation there for the good of the trade rather than the customer. I suppose one has to decide where the club stands. Are they part of the trade or on the side of the customer. It’s not hard to work out in my opinion.
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John
I have highlighted your post to the Community Manager to see if she can get some action from the Club side.
Because we don't know the circumstances of your complaint it is very difficult to pass judgement but it is a shame that all concerned don't follow the mantra of keeping the customer informed, with either good or bad news!
David
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Hello GJBANGLER, I'm so sorry you have had concerns with this. I've spoken to our Technical Manager at the Club and he had advised that the Approved Workshop Scheme (AWS) complaints process has a number of possible stages:
1. Complain to the workshop directly – all AWS members have to have a complaints procedure which they follow and maintain records of; those records can be inspected as part of the Scheme’s monitoring of performance.
2. If the workshop fails to resolve a complaint to the owner’s satisfaction, the owner can raise a scheme complaint to the administrative team for the Scheme at the NCC. They will attempt to get an acceptable resolution.
3. If this still fails to achieve a solution which the complainant is happy with, the case can be referred for independent review by a third party investigator.
Stage 1 is a necessary stage before proceeding to stage 2.
Most complaints are resolved at the first stage – a small number need to go to stage 2. Hardly any ever need to escalate to stage 3. There’s a further element to this, which is that if a workshop fails to cooperate with a reasonable complaint, that can result in their suspension and ultimately their removal from the Scheme. Over many years, AWS has very occasionally had to use this sanction, but they’d much rather see workshops learn from upheld complaints and make improvements.
Details of the stage 2 and 3 process are one the AWS website here.
It’s also worth noting that the AWS is owned jointly by the two clubs and the NCC – it is not an NCC-only initiative, even though we task the NCC with running it on a day-to-day basis. However, its performance (including complaints handling) is overseen by a Policy Board which includes representatives from all three organisations.
We hope this information is helpful and you are able to resolve your complaint.
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Has no one noted the date of tge original post? 11 March 2014 😲😲
It might be better to get the community manager to raise the issue of these long ago posts reappearing and restarting. This isn't the first and I doubt the last!
Maybe someone could report my post to alert the community manager even if nothing else happens 😉
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Or started a new thread with the same wording in the title.
As I have mentioned before most of the older forum threads have been been delete except for the original post in the discussion. I am not quite sure why they have not been completely removed but perhaps doing so messes something up!
David
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