Complaints, compliments and suggestions

Exeter City Council is pleased to hear from our customers when we have done well but we also want to know when things go wrong.

If you are dissatisfied with our actions, lack of any actions, or the standard or service provided by us, let us know. This gives us the opportunity to put things right and review the way we do things in the future.

Our definition of a complaint

is when a customer is dissatisfied about:

• the standard of service received;
• our response to a request for service; or
• actions by the Council.

You can use our online form to Make a complaint, give us a compliment or leave some feedback.

What we do not include 

We do not include initial requests for a service or a report of a fault. We need to have the chance to provide the service or put something right once we are told there is a problem. If you want to report a fault or request a service use the buttons to the left hand side of this page.

We also do not include appeals such as:

• Planning   
• Parking  On street parking - enforcement and fines 
• Council Tax
• Housing
• Employment

These are dealt with by separate procedures and you will need to contact the relevant service direct.

All complaints about the behaviour of an individual councillor are now dealt with by the Council's Standards Committee. To make a complaint about a Member see the information contained in Council's Standards Committee pages.

If you are unhappy about the way we have dealt with a complaint about data protection or freedom of information, please contact the Information Commissioner.

Compliments, comments and suggestions

Compliments let us know when you are happy with our services. They help us to know what we are doing well and how we can improve other services. Comments and suggestions give us information on where we can improve services, save money, or provide information to you. These can be on any aspect of the service we provide.

If you would prefer not to make a formal complaint but just want to comment on something or give us some general or positive feedback please use one of our Have your say forms. Compliments, comments and suggestions are passed to the appropriate service area of staff member, and where requested we will acknowledge your feedback.

How to make a complaint

If you do want to make a complaint please use this link to our electronic form to Make a complaint, give us a compliment or leave some feedback.  You can also write, telephone or e-mail us using the contact details above or visit any City Council reception and speak to a member of staff.

You will need to supply your name and address so that we can reply to you. A telephone number is also helpful in case we need further information. You also need to give details of your complaint.

Once you have submitted your complaint we will send an acknowledgement within five working days. We aim to send a full response within 15 working days but some complaints take longer to investigate properly.  In these cases, we will tell you when you can expect a full reply.

One of our senior managers will carry out an investigation and provide a full written response (either by letter or email if requested). If we agree that your complaint is justified we will see if we need to make any changes to our procedures or systems.

If you let us know you are unhappy with the response you get from the first investigation we carry out, we can refer it to an independent senior manager who will review it.

If you are still unhappy with the response we give you after this second reply, you can refer your complaint to either the Local Government Ombudsman or if the matter is related to Housing management, to the Housing Ombudsman.  (For more information see www.exeter.gov.uk/housingombudsman.)

We not only want to make sure that where there are individual problems we put them right but also that if there are underlying problems we pick them up. We do this by looking closely at all the complaints to see if there are any recurring topics. In this way we can make sure that we continually improve the services we provide to you (see Complaint statistics).