Complaints Policy

Review date: 20 August 2027

1. Why this document is short

Localscript is one person. That has an obvious consequence for a complaints procedure, and it is better stated openly than dressed up:

There is no internal escalation. A complaint cannot be reviewed by someone more senior, because there is nobody more senior. A procedure with a Stage 1 handled by the director and a Stage 2 escalated to the same director is not an escalation, and I am not going to write one.

What I offer instead is a single honest internal stage with short, kept timescales, followed by genuinely external routes — set out in section 8 — which are independent of me in a way an internal second stage never is.

Owner: Montagu Franks, Director.

This policy sets out the procedure behind the commitments at clause 15 of the Terms and Conditions and section 10 of the Privacy Policy, and is the policy referred to at section 15 of the Data Protection and UK GDPR Policy.

2. Who this is for

Three different people might complain, and they are handled differently.

3. How to complain

Email monty@localscript.co.uk. Put "Complaint" in the subject line if you want it treated formally rather than as a conversation — but you do not have to, and I will treat anything that reads like a complaint as one.

You do not need to use a form, quote a clause, or phrase it in any particular way.

Tell me what happened, what you would like done about it, and how you would prefer to be contacted. If you would rather talk than write, say so and I will call you.

If you prefer not to raise it with me at all, you don't have to. The routes in sections 5, 6 and 8 are all available without complaining to me first.

4. What happens, and when

The 2-working-day acknowledgement is the commitment already made at clause 15.1 of the Terms and Conditions and section 10 of the Privacy Policy.

Who is dealing with it is always me. Saying so takes one line rather than a paragraph naming a role.

My reply will tell you: what I found, what I got wrong if I got something wrong, what I am doing about it, and what you can do next if my answer does not satisfy you. It will not tell you that my decision is final, because it is not mine to make final — see section 8.

5. Complaints about a transcript

Most complaints will be these, and most have a remedy already written into the Terms and Conditions. I would rather point you at the clause than invent a parallel process:

• Errors in a transcript — tell me within 14 days of delivery and I correct them free of charge (clause 8.3).
• Errors found later — if a transcript falls materially below the standard in clause 3, for example systematic speaker misattribution or identifying details missed in the anonymisation pass, I put it right whether or not 14 days have passed (clause 8.4).
• After the recording is deleted — I delete all copies 30 days after delivery, so correction against the audio is impossible beyond that. I credit the charge for that recording instead, or correct from a copy you supply (clause 8.4).
• Late delivery — tell me within 7 days that the delay made the transcript materially less useful and I reduce the charge to the next slower turnaround tier, or waive it entirely (clause 5.4).
• Unusable audio — I tell you before starting and do not charge (clause 8.5).

Raising any of these is not "making a complaint" in some adversarial sense. It is the service working.

6. Complaints from research participants

If you took part in an interview or focus group and your concern is about the recording or the transcript, I am not the right person to resolve it, and I am contractually forbidden from trying.

I am the processor. The researcher or institution who commissioned the transcription is the controller. They hold the consent, the ethics approval and the relationship with you; I hold a file and an instruction. Answering you directly would mean disclosing information about a person whose identity I cannot verify and whose connection to the study I do not know.

So: I acknowledge your message, forward it to the commissioning client with a copy within 48 hours, and tell you that I have done so and who it has gone to. This is clause 3.2(h) of my Data Processing Agreement. I then assist that client with whatever they need to answer you.

This is not a brush-off, and it does not leave you without a route. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office directly at any time — section 8.

7. If you did not want to be contacted

If I emailed you about Localscript and you had not contacted me, and you would rather I had not:

Reply and say so. I delete your details immediately and permanently and will not contact you again. Every email I send says this. There is no procedure to follow, no form, and no need to give a reason — and I will not ask for one.

If you would prefer certainty that it never happens again, ask me to add you to the suppression list and I will hold your email address for that sole purpose, indefinitely. This is section 3.4 of the Privacy Policy.

8. If my answer does not satisfy you

These routes are independent of me. None requires you to have complained to me first.

For anything about personal data — how a recording, transcript or your own contact details were handled — the Information Commissioner's Office:

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF 0303 123 1113 · ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

The ICO regulates data protection. It does not arbitrate transcript quality or billing.

If you are a client at an institution, your own procurement, finance or research governance team can raise a supplier complaint with me directly, and I will engage with it on their terms rather than mine.

For a contractual dispute, clause 15.2 of the Terms and Conditions commits us both to trying to resolve things directly and in good faith first. If that fails, I will agree to independent mediation and pay an equal share of the mediator's fee, up to the limit of my liability under clause 11.2 of the Terms and Conditions. Nothing in this policy or in the Terms and Conditions removes your right to take a matter to court.

Termination. Clause 5.1(a) of the Data Processing Agreement lets you terminate immediately for a material breach that is not remedied within 21 days of you identifying it in writing. That right stands whether or not you use this policy.

What does not exist. Being straight about this matters more than listing bodies:

• There is no ombudsman for research transcription.
• I am not a member of a trade association, so there is no membership body to escalate to and no accreditation to withdraw. Some competitors list one; check what powers it actually has before relying on it.
• These controls are not externally audited — Information Security Policy section 15.

The ICO route is the one that has real teeth, and it is genuinely independent.

9. How complaints are recorded

Every complaint is logged: what was raised, when, by whom, what I found, what I did, and what changed as a result. The log is reviewed annually for patterns — the same problem twice is a process failure, not bad luck.

Complaint records are kept for 6 years, in line with the limitation period applying to contractual claims and with the record-keeping schedule in section 5 of the Retention and Deletion Policy.

A complaint record contains no participant data, no recording and no transcript, and is subject to the same 30-day deletion rule for any client material it might otherwise reference.

A complaint that reveals a personal data breach is not handled under this policy alone. It also triggers the 24-hour client notification at clause 3.2(e) of the Data Processing Agreement and the incident procedure at section 12 of the Information Security Policy. Those timescales are shorter than the ones here and take precedence.

10. What I will not do

• I will not tell you a decision is final when a statutory route remains open.
• I will not require you to exhaust an internal procedure before going elsewhere.
• I will not describe an escalation that is the same person under a different heading.
• I will not treat a complaint as a reason to delay or degrade work in progress.

11. Review

Reviewed annually, and additionally after any complaint that reveals a gap in this procedure, and whenever the Terms and Conditions or the Data Processing Agreement change in a way affecting the remedies in section 5.