Complaints Procedure

Please find the 'Complaint/Guarantee Claims' Form at the bottom of the page...

ECA Complaints Management Procedure

1.0 Customer care

1.1 Customers who directly engage ECA Members will understand that they are using a business that operates to relevant and applicable UK technical standards, industry good practice, and a standard of workmanship that is in line with good practice in the electrotechnical trade,

1.2 As part of the qualifying criteria for ECA membership, businesses that deal with consumers should have procedures in place that give consideration to customer complaints with the aim of resolving disputes wherever possible.

As a general rule, complaints should always be addressed to the business which has direct contractual responsibility for the work carried out. This may be the builder/main-contractor, who has subsequently engaged with an ECA Member to carry out the electrotechnical works on their behalf. In which case it is the builder/main contractor's responsibility to resolve your complaint.

Should complaints remain unresolved after you have exhausted the ECA Member's complaints process, they can then be submitted to the ECA’s Complaints Management Procedure.

1.3 ECA carries out quick, user-friendly and effective procedures for dealing with complaints, including a resolution process that attempts to arrange a solution acceptable to both parties. However, it is subject to the complainant providing clear, unambiguous evidence of their complaint. ECA’s Complaints Management Procedure satisfies this obligation and is set out below.

2.0 Complaints against an ECA Member

2.1 Complaints about ECA Members must be made in writing to:

ECA Complaints Administrator

Membership Department

ECA Court

24-26 South Park​

TN13 1DU

Tel: 020 7313 4800

Email: membership@eca.co.uk

An ECA complaints record form is attached – additional copies can be downloaded from the Complaints section of the ECA website, www.eca.co.uk

2.2 Upon receipt of a written complaint about an ECA Member, with supporting documentation and evidence, the complaints administrator will contact the business to verify that their own complaints procedure has been exhausted by you. Where the business has no knowledge of the complaint, the complainant will be referred back to the original business. ECA's complaints management procedure will only apply where the contractors’ own complaints procedure has failed to satisfy the requirements of the customer.

2.3 All complaints must be in writing and be accompanied by supporting evidence of the complaint. Complaints will be reviewed by an ECA complaints administrator to determine the nature of the complaint and the course of action appropriate. The complaint will be acknowledged, to both the complainant and involved ECA Member, wherever practicable, within a maximum of five working days. The acknowledgment will include an outline of the proposed course of action.

3.0 How disputes will be determined

3.1 The nature of the complaint will determine the course of action taken by ECA, and for the purposes of this procedure complaints are classified under two headings – ‘workmanship’ or ‘contractual’.

Workmanship

3.2 In a case of complaints about the workmanship of an ECA Member, an inspection on demand facility will be offered to the complainant. This is a technical inspection of the work to assess compliance with ‘relevant standards’. As a matter of policy the involved ECA Member will be in attendance at the inspection to identify both the work they directly responsible for, and any related considerations.

3.3 A formal inspection report will be provided to all parties and used as the basis for all related remedial work. The ECA Member should always be given the opportunity to correct any non-conformances, and this will be at no extra-cost to the complainant.

3.4 If, following such an inspection, the ECA Member fails to put right any work which does not meet the ‘relevant standards’ of the ECA’s Guarantee of Work may subject to its terms and conditions, provide a remedy for consumers to have defective work put right by a separate ECA Member.