Complaints Procedure — Gardener Holborn

Purpose: This complaints procedure explains how Gardener Holborn and associated garden maintenance teams manage, investigate and resolve formal complaints. It is intended as a clear, fair and proportionate legal-style statement of our approach to concerns about gardening services in Holborn and neighbouring areas. The aim is to treat every complaint seriously, to record it accurately, and to respond in a timely manner so that outcomes protect safety, property and trust.

Scope: This policy applies to contract work, ad-hoc visits and ongoing garden maintenance provided by our Holborn gardening company and any subcontractors engaged to perform planting, pruning, landscaping, pest control or garden maintenance in Holborn. Complaints may relate to workmanship, scheduling, site cleanliness, accidental damage, safety incidents or compliance with agreed instructions. Routine queries or informal service comments should be differentiated from formal complaints that require an investigative response.

How to make a complaint: To begin a formal complaint, customers should provide a concise description of the issue, the date(s) of the incident, the location where the work occurred and any supporting information such as photographs or invoices. Useful information typically includes:

• the specific service or visit in question;
• who attended, if known;
• the desired outcome (repair, refund, rework, explanation).

Where evidence is available, please include it with your initial statement. We accept written complaints and will acknowledge them even if they were first raised verbally, and we will record all relevant details.

We aim to acknowledge a formal complaint promptly and to explain the next steps. Typically acknowledgement will be within three working days, and an initial review completed within ten working days, subject to the complexity of the matters raised. Where the complaint concerns urgent safety or environmental risk, we will prioritise immediate action. The acknowledgement will confirm the complaint reference, outline the investigation plan and identify who will manage the complaint in our team.

The investigation process is impartial and proportionate. It may involve an inspection of the site, review of records, interviews with staff or partner contractors, and assessment of any photographic or written evidence. We will assess whether work met agreed specifications, whether instructions were followed, whether health and safety procedures were complied with, and whether any remedial work is required. Confidentiality is respected: investigative details are shared only with those who need the information to resolve the matter.

Conflicts of interest will be managed openly. If the complaint involves an employee or subcontractor, alternative investigators will be appointed where necessary. Records of the investigation, findings and any remedial actions are retained in accordance with our document retention policy and applicable legal requirements for business records.

Possible outcomes depend on the findings and may include one or more of the following remedies:

• revisiting the site to rectify workmanship;
• partial or full credit for unsatisfactory work;
• a safety remediation plan where hazards are identified;
• a written explanation and commitment to procedural change.

Outcomes are documented and communicated clearly. When remedial work is required, we will provide an estimated timetable for completion and will track progress until the matter is closed.

Where a complainant remains dissatisfied with the outcome, the complaint may be escalated through our internal review process. An escalation will be reviewed by senior management who were not involved in the original decision. If further independent review is appropriate we will outline the available external options, such as industry arbitration or an independent adjudicator, and explain how to request that review in writing.

Record keeping and continuous improvement: All formal complaints are logged, monitored for trends and used to inform quality control and training. We aim to learn from each complaint to reduce recurrences and to improve service delivery. Complaints will be retained for the period required by law or business policy, and summaries may be used in anonymised form to support risk assessments and staff training. Our objective is not only to resolve the individual case, but to strengthen the overall reliability of our gardening services.