Policy on Unacceptable Actions by Customers

Customers may make what we consider unreasonable demands on us through the amount of information they seek, the nature and scale of service they expect or the number of approaches they make. What amounts to unreasonable demands will always depend on the circumstances surrounding the behaviour and the seriousness of the issues raised by the customer.

Examples of actions grouped under this heading include:

• Demanding responses within an unreasonable time-scale;
• Insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff;
• Continual phone calls or letters;
• Repeatedly changing the substance of the issue or complaint, or raising unrelated concerns: and;
• Continuing to raise the same issue in the hope of eliciting a different response from the council
• Focusing on a trivial matter to an extent which is out of proportion to its significance
• An unwillingness to accept documented evidence of services provided as being factual
• Persists in pursuing a complaint where the formal Complaints Handling Procedure has been followed, implemented and exhausted and refuses to progress the complaint to the next stage (see 3.4.5 below)
• Where a relative/carer/friend complains on behalf of someone who may not have a complaint themselves
• Insisting they have not had an adequate response in spite of a large volume of correspondence specifically answering their questions/concerns

We consider these demands as unacceptable and unreasonable if they start to impact substantially on the work of the department involved, such as taking up an excessive amount of staff time to the disadvantage of other customers, services or functions.