Gardeners Brockley Complaints Procedure

Gardeners Brockley is committed to providing reliable, high quality gardening and outdoor maintenance services. We recognise that occasionally things may not go as planned, and we welcome feedback so we can put things right and improve our service. This Complaints Procedure explains how you can raise a concern, how we will respond, and what you can expect from us at each stage.

Our Approach to Complaints

We treat every complaint as an opportunity to review our work and strengthen our standards. Whether your concern relates to a one‑off garden tidy up, a regular maintenance visit, planting work, or a larger project, we will take it seriously. Our aims are to resolve issues fairly, as quickly as possible, and to keep you informed throughout the process.

We will always handle your complaint in a professional, courteous and non‑confrontational manner. We will not charge you for the time spent investigating a complaint.

What Counts as a Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about our gardening services, customer service, communication, charges or conduct, whether justified or not. This includes, for example:

Concerns about the quality of lawn care, hedge cutting, planting, pruning or general garden maintenance. Issues about punctuality, manners, or behaviour of our gardeners while on your property. Disputes about what was agreed in the gardening schedule or quotation. Questions about invoices, pricing, or value for money. Worries about how we have handled your personal information or property while providing services.

If you are unsure whether your concern is a complaint, please raise it with us anyway. We will guide you through the most suitable way to proceed.

How to Make a Complaint

You can make a complaint in writing or verbally. Written complaints are usually easier to track and reference, but you are free to choose whichever method is most comfortable for you.

Please include the following information whenever possible to help us investigate efficiently:

Your full name and the address where the gardening service was carried out. The approximate dates and times of the work or interaction you are complaining about. A clear description of what went wrong or did not meet your expectations. The names of any staff you dealt with, if known. Copies of any relevant documents, such as quotes, job descriptions, or photographs of the garden. What you would like us to do to resolve the matter, for example a revisit, correction of work, clarification or refund.

If you make a verbal complaint, we may ask you some questions to make sure we fully understand the details and desired outcome.

Stage One: Informal Resolution

Whenever possible, we encourage you to raise your concern as soon as you notice a problem. Many gardening issues can be resolved quickly by discussing them with the gardener attending your property or with the person who arranged your booking.

At this stage we will:

Listen carefully to your explanation of what has happened. Ask questions where necessary to clarify the situation. Offer, where appropriate, to correct work, revisit the property or provide further explanation of the service. Aim to resolve the issue immediately or within a few working days, depending on the nature of the problem.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of this informal step, you may ask for your complaint to be handled under Stage Two, the formal complaints process.

Stage Two: Formal Complaint

If your complaint cannot be resolved informally or relates to more serious issues, we will handle it as a formal complaint.

When we receive your formal complaint, we will:

Acknowledge your complaint within a reasonable period, normally within five working days. Record the details of your complaint in our internal system. Allocate a person who was not directly involved in the original work, where possible, to review the matter.

We may contact you to request further information or to arrange a convenient time to inspect your garden. For example, we may need to see lawns, beds, hedges or planting that are the subject of your complaint.

We aim to provide a full written response within twenty working days of acknowledging your complaint. If the investigation is likely to take longer, we will let you know the reason for the delay and provide an updated timescale.

Our Investigation and Response

During our investigation we will consider:

The scope of the garden work we agreed with you before starting. Any notes, schedules, photos or job sheets relating to the visit. The condition of the garden before and after our service, as far as we can establish. Any factors beyond our control, such as weather conditions, access to your property or pre‑existing issues with plants or structures.

Once we have completed our investigation, we will respond to you explaining:

What we have found, including any factors that contributed to the problem. Whether we uphold your complaint in full, in part, or do not uphold it. Any steps we propose to put matters right. This may include remedial gardening work, an adjusted schedule, partial or full refund, or another practical solution. Any changes we will make to our processes or training to reduce the chance of similar issues occurring again.

If You Remain Dissatisfied

Our aim is always to reach a fair and reasonable outcome with you directly. If, after our formal response, you still believe your complaint has not been resolved appropriately, you may ask us to review the decision. In doing so, please set out why you disagree with our findings or proposed resolution, and provide any additional information you feel is relevant.

We will review the matter again, taking into account your comments, and confirm whether our original decision stands or needs to be revised. This will usually be our final position on the complaint.

Confidentiality and Data Protection

All complaints are handled in confidence. Information is only shared internally with team members who need it in order to investigate and respond. We keep records of complaints and outcomes to help us monitor performance, identify patterns and improve our gardening services.

Any personal data that you provide to us during the complaints process will be processed in line with our obligations under relevant data protection laws.

Learning from Complaints

Feedback from clients helps us maintain and improve the quality of our garden care and customer service. We regularly review complaints to identify any recurring issues, training needs or changes we should make to our working methods, equipment or communication. By doing so, we aim to provide a consistently dependable gardening service for homes and properties in our service area.

This Complaints Procedure is reviewed periodically to ensure it remains clear, fair and effective. We reserve the right to amend this procedure where necessary to comply with legal or regulatory requirements or to reflect changes in how we deliver our services.