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Create a Consumer Complaint Notice
What this document does
A consumer's written complaint to a seller or service provider about a defect in goods or a deficiency in service, setting out the purchase, what is wrong, what has already been tried, and what the consumer wants done. Note that the Consumer Protection Act 2019 does not require a notice before a complaint to a Consumer Commission — sending one is convention, and gives the other side a chance to put things right.
Notice
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Consumer Complaint Notice
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What else is in it — 5 clauses, 4 optional
- 01
Who the notice is from and to
The head of the notice: the place and date it bears, who it issues from, and everyone it is addressed to. Recipients are entered here rather than through the party picker — a notice is served on its recipients, not agreed with them, and the Sender is its only signatory.
- 02
Subject
The one line a recipient reads first, and the line the notice is later found by in a file. Written by the Sender rather than composed from the facts — those live on other clauses, and a clause cannot read another clause's data.
- 03
What was bought
The purchase the complaint arises from — what, when, from whom, for how much. The Act protects a consumer, and this is what establishes that the Sender is one.
- 04
What is wrong
The Sender's own account of the problem, framed as the Act frames it: a defect in goods, or a deficiency in service. Those are the Act's two categories and they are not interchangeable — a service problem described as a defect has been mischaracterised.
- 05
What is wanted, and by when
What the Sender is asking the Recipient to do, and how long they are allowing. The relief is the Sender's choice from what the Act contemplates; the period is the Sender's own, since the Act prescribes none for a notice it does not require.
After it is drafted
Getting it to the recipient
A notice takes effect when it reaches the person it names rather than when it is signed, so how it travels matters about as much as what it says. Registered post with acknowledgement due is the usual choice because it produces both a receipt and a card that comes back; courier and email do the same job where the agreement or the statute allows them. Whichever route it goes by, what it leaves behind is the part worth having.
Keeping the proof it was sent
The postal receipt, the acknowledgement card when it comes back, the courier's tracking printout, the delivery report on an email — whichever way it travelled, that record is what shows the notice went out and when. It tends to matter more later than the notice itself, because a recipient who says nothing reached them is answered by a receipt rather than by a copy of the letter. An envelope that comes back refused or unclaimed is worth keeping unopened for the same reason: refusing a notice is generally not treated as having escaped it.
Letting the period run
The period this notice gives runs from when it reaches the recipient, not from the date it carries — which is why the proof of sending matters for working out when it ends. Moving before it expires tends to undercut the notice, since the point of naming a period is to have given it. If a reply arrives, it is worth keeping with the proof of service: what the other side admits in writing can matter as much as what they refuse.
Taking it to a Consumer Commission
Where the seller does not put it right, a complaint is generally the next move rather than another letter — the Act requires no notice at all before one, so nothing is gained by writing again. Which Commission it goes to depends on what was paid for the goods or services, and the complaint carries its own limitation period running from when the problem arose rather than from this notice. A Commission can order repair, replacement, refund and compensation, so it is worth being clear which of those you are asking for before filing.
The separate route for an online purchase
Something bought on a marketplace has machinery of its own under the E-Commerce Rules: the platform is required to publish a grievance officer and to respond within fixed timeframes, and the National Consumer Helpline takes complaints against sellers and platforms alike. That route sits alongside a Commission complaint rather than replacing it, and it is usually the faster of the two to try first.