Customer feedback - January to March 2006
| Compilation of informal complaints made by our customers during the period of January to March 2006. The complaint received is listed in the first column. Read across the row to find out our response and any additional measures taken. | |
| Informal complaint | Response and additional measures taken |
|---|---|
| A private applicant complained that a Trade Mark application fee had been taken twice from his credit card. There was also a delay in refunding him the duplicate payment. | We apologised that we had processed his application twice due to a clerical oversight, and that we had not refunded the overpayment as quickly as we should. Trade Marks New Applications have been asked to look out for 'Urgent' refund requests and to process them on the same day. |
| A Patent attorney e-mailed to complain about the unavailability of the Office's fax service on two successive weekends. On the second occasion he had been trying to fax us 13 Trade Mark applications from Saturday afternoon and the service was not available until around 13:00 on the Sunday. | We apologised for the poor service which was due to IT Network Services working on both weekends and not properly restoring the telecoms service on both occasions. IT have been reminded of the importance of the fax service to our customers and made aware of the need to maintain and restore a full service after any future weekend work. |
| A private applicant attempted to deliver a document for filing to Harmsworth House at 17.40. The guard was not visible despite waiting for between 10 and 15 minutes. He eventually posted the papers through the door. He contacted the Office expressing his dissatisfaction at the service provided. | A letter of apology was sent to the applicant explaining that the guard was taking his break whereas he should have waited for a member of the mobile security patrol team to relieve him. In addition, the battery in his pager was malfunctioning, and so failed to alert him that the door bell was ringing. Steps have now been taken to make the system more robust and to ensure that, if away from the Reception Desk, the guard is aware that there is a visitor. |