As frustrating as this is for many players, we cannot give you any good answer to this question.The truth is that how long your complaint will take to manage will depend on a variety of factors including:
Which operator you are complaining about – Some operators we have a well-established dialogue with, others we have never spoken to. The nature of our existing relationship with the company will have a significant impact on how quickly we are likely to get a response. If we haven’t spoken to the operator before, you can take a good guess that it’s going to take us longer to get an answer.
Which operator you are complaining about! – Even when we have an established relationship with an operator, the policies at the operator’s end in terms of who is responsible for responding to complaint issues varies significantly from company to company. This means that some operators will regularly respond with full detailed responses within hours of our email and others will take several weeks.
Our system is specifically structured to treat both parties equally. Where we ask for information from either party we allow the party 3 weeks to respond before taking any action. That does not mean that 3 weeks will conclude our discussion. That is 3 weeks for each request. So if a response results in a further request, a further 3 week period will be allowed.
Who we have to talk to – Not all complaints are a discussion between us, you and the operator. From time to time we have to engage with regulators, software providers, other consumer protection agencies, financial institutions, legal firms etc. Where we have to do this, the process slows while we wait on the third parties involved in responding. Some of these third parties HAVE to respond. Others may choose to cooperate (most do) but will do so in their own time. But without exception our contacts will not be considered ‘high priority’ to these bodies. As such this slows the process down. Regulators and software providers especially – who are the most common 3rd party we need to contact – are commonly very slow to answer questions.
The nature of your complaint – What your complaint is about is likely to have a significant impact on how long it will take to manage. Some complaints are straightforward, others are complex and involved. Obviously the more complex your complaint is the longer it will take to discuss.
We need to give a clear warning on this point – Just because you consider your complaint to be straightforward does not mean we will. Often when we dig down into a complaint we will find issues that you may not be aware of. When that happens, we often end up talking to 3rd parties to get clarifications on rules and requirements to ensure that our understanding is correct. This goes back to the point above – the moment 3rd parties are involved in a conversation, everything slows down.