Complaints Procedure

Warners Group Publications Plc – Complaints Procedure

The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincs. PE10 9PH – Tel:+44 (0)1778 391000

The version was first published: 24 June 2021

This policy applies to all Warners Group Publications Plc websites, including but not limited to these brands:




Please note: We are not associated in any way to Bourne Leisure Group Limited or Warner Leisure Holidays

Introduction

If for any reason we have made a mistake or failed to deliver the standard of service you expect, please tell us. We will investigate the situation, and if we feel it is justified, set about putting it right as quickly as possible. Where appropriate we will also take steps to avoid similar mistakes being made in the future. During this process, we will always treat you with courtesy and respect and will expect the same in return.

Our complaints procedure is detailed below depending on the subject of your complaint:

If your complaint is about an order for a magazine subscription, membership, book or other product

The best course of action is to contact our subscriptions team who will assist with your complaint. You can do this by calling 01778 392498 or emailing subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk quoting your full name, subscriber or order number if known, magazine name and your telephone number or email address, if you would prefer us to contact you in this way.

Please note, our subscription team opening hours are 8.30am – 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm Saturday.

If your complaint is about an order for a show ticket or about an incident at a show

The best course of action is to contact our events team who will assist with your complaint. You can do this by calling 01778 391123 or emailing exhibit@warnersgroup.co.uk quoting your full name, order number if known, show name and your telephone number or email address, if you would prefer us to contact you in this way.

Please note, our events team opening hours are 9am–5pm Monday to Friday.

If your complaint is about an advertisement

If it is a third-party advertisement, by this we mean an advert that is not directly related to the branded website, your complaint should be made direct to the Advertising Standards Authority – www.asa.org.uk.

If your complaint is related to one of our own advertisements for our brands, please email us

If your complaint is about content on any of our web brands or in our paper products

In the first instance, we would encourage that you please approach the editorial team for the brand first. Contact us pages appear on all websites and contact panels in the front of all paper brands. This way an editor may be able to resolve and deal with your complaint more quickly.

Is your complaint covered by any of our policies?

Please do also check our company policies which cover our competition terms, contributor terms, cookie policy & consent options, privacy policy, terms and conditions and terms of sale, to ensure that your complaint is legitimate and is not covered by these policies.

None of these help with my issue, I still have a complaint

If the above options have not worked for you or do not fit with your type of complaint then please outline your concerns via email.

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days. Should you receive an out-of-office message, your complaint will be handled 5 working days after the return-to-work date indicated on the message. A senior member of staff will investigate the complaint and contact you within a maximum of 10 working days of receiving notification of the complaint with a response and any proposed course of action.

When making a complaint you are asked to please:

  • State that your complaint is a formal complaint
  • Submit your complaint through email to the complaints email address to ensure it reaches the correct personnel for a prompt response.
  • Give your full name and the contact details you would prefer us to use
  • Give details of the website, website page, magazine brand, event or another platform that relates to your complaint
  • Please also provide relevant links to the subject of your complaint
  • Give details of your connection with the website/magazine/event your complaint relates to eg. reader, subscriber, attendee, exhibitor, writer
  • Provide details of the issue that concerns you and why you feel it is necessary to register a formal complaint
  • Respond promptly to any request for further information
  • If you cannot provide any of the above information, we may be unable to consider your complaint

How we deal with complaints:

  • Please contact us as soon as possible after an incident or publication if you have a complaint, it is harder for us to investigate complaints if too much time has passed.
  • We will not investigate complaints that contain swearing and profanities or are abusive
  • We will consider content complaints from:
    • Individuals who have been directly affected by the matter in question
    • Representative groups complaining on behalf of individuals. We will need to know which group you feel has been affected, how you represent that group and how you believe the public interest would be served by our consideration of the complaint
    • A third-party looking to correct a published inaccuracy
    • Should we receive multiple complaints about the same issue we may not be able to respond to each individual complainant but will still handle the complaint in the same, effective manner.

Please be aware that complaints of taste or decency, impartiality and user-generated content will be noted but will not generally be actioned as a formal complaint.

We will not consider complaints that are hypothetical, abusive, offensive, trivial or without justification (for example an attempt to argue a point of view or to lobby).

We may be unable to consider your complaint if you are taking legal action.

As part of our confidentiality procedures, we do not publish any information which we may receive as part of a complaint. As the complainant, you are also not allowed to publish any information or correspondence which you receive from us.

We reserve the right to amend these procedures where necessary and complaints will be dealt with against the published policy on the date of receipt.