Summary

  • Communications Ombudsman is free for customers. Participating providers pay for every case reviewed, regardless of whose position the decision supports.
  • Complaints first raised from April 8, 2026 can reach this scheme after six unresolved weeks without a deadlock letter. An earlier letter permits earlier referral of an eligible case.

Winning the argument still leaves a bill. Communications Ombudsman charges participating telecoms providers for reviewing a case regardless of its outcome. That gives a complaint leaving the company's help desk a place on an external expense account.

The scheme's official FAQ explains the incentive plainly: providers that resolve more problems in-house pay less to the scheme. Customers use the service free. Even a company confident that its position will survive scrutiny has a review cost to consider.

For that pressure to work, the customer needs a usable exit. If access depended entirely on a document the provider supplied, the provider would retain control of the opening time. The deadlock-letter guide published on October 20 describes two ways through.

A final answer can start the next argument

A deadlock letter sets out the provider's final position on an unresolved complaint. The guide identifies three conditions: the provider has communicated its investigation's outcome, the customer has said they are unhappy with it, and the provider plans no further steps that would lead to a different outcome. Once all three apply, the letter must be sent straight away.

It must use plain English, stick to the complaint, explain free access to independent dispute resolution, identify the appropriate scheme and provide its contact details. It must arrive in a form the customer can keep. Marketing has other envelopes available.

For an eligible case, the letter allows a customer to approach Communications Ombudsman before the normal waiting period ends. The company's final answer becomes the starting document for somebody else's assessment.

The calendar supplies another key

Complaints first raised with the provider on or after April 8, 2026 have a six-week waiting period. If the problem remains unresolved, a customer can approach Communications Ombudsman after that period without a deadlock letter. Earlier complaints retain the old eight-week period. An appropriate letter received sooner allows earlier submission of an eligible case under either timetable.

The date of the initial complaint and the record of contact therefore have practical value outside the company's systems. Emails, bills and notes of telephone conversations can travel into the independent process. An internal closure code cannot stand in for that history.

Ofcom's July 2025 explanation focused on the people still waiting. Its evidence from the largest telecoms companies between January 2022 and 2024 showed 94% of complaints resolved within six weeks. Among consumers whose complaints remained open at that point, only about 19% obtained resolution or referral to ADR before the old eight-week threshold. That historical policy baseline questioned what two more weeks were buying for the stubborn remainder.

A cost beyond the closure counter

Communications Ombudsman handles disputes involving its participating providers operating in Britain, including eligible domestic customers and small businesses. Its small-business definition covers companies with ten people or fewer under the scheme's counting rules. Customers need to identify their provider's scheme; CISAS is the other Ofcom-approved mechanism. The funding arrangement described here belongs to Communications Ombudsman.

A genuine internal resolution can avoid an external review. An accepted unresolved case that proceeds to review generates a cost regardless of the winner. For a customer-service director, closed tickets and resolved problems consequently deserve different columns.

The review fee pays for examining the case. Remedies depend on the decision and the process that follows. Keeping those accounts distinct reveals another commercial value of good support: less work that somebody outside the company must do again.

Getting through the door still leaves implementation

The official process gives the provider 28 days to implement the remedy if the customer accepts the decision. Six weeks concerns entry; 28 days belongs after an accepted decision. Each stage has its own work to complete.

The missing evidence is a post-April cohort linking referrals to completed, accepted remedies; that would let readers track the waiting that remains. The existing design already separates the company's final position from access to independent scrutiny. The provider may win. The work of examining its case still lands on its bill.