The Languaging Lab rarely receives complaints about its staff. Upon joining The Languaging Lab, each staff member formally agrees to abide by our Code of Professional Conduct, we are confident that our linguists and staff members conduct business properly and with integrity.

We would encourage anyone working with us to communicate clearly, calmly, and rationally if a difficulty has arisen. It may be that a discussion between the two parties will resolve the issue without the need for a formal complaint.

In the rare event that we receive a formal complaint about one of our staff members, we investigate it thoroughly and even-handedly.

Our complaints and appeals procedures are briefly explained below.

How to make a complaint

When you (the complainant) contact us, please give us full details and include information about the part of The Languaging Lab you felt provided a dissatisfactory service. Please also provide us with the following details:-

  • the area of The Languaging Lab to which your complaint refers;
  • information on whether it is an original complaint or a follow-up to a reply you were not satisfied with;
  • a clear description of the complaint and what you would like us to do to sort things out; and
  • your full name, email address, postal address, and contact number.

When submitting a complaint you are required to provide evidence to support your allegation. If evidence cannot be provided then the complaint may not be referred further.

If you are considering making a complaint to The Languaging Lab, please note that we are able to investigate a complaint only if it shows good grounds, setting out the specific and substantive cause of dissatisfaction with the work or professional behaviour of our staff.

Any complaint about the language work done by The Languaging Lab shall be submitted to us within 5 calendar days from the date the work was delivered.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, please email info@thelanguaginglab.com.

What happens afterwards

We aim to respond in writing within 20 working days of it being lodged. If it is not possible to give you a full reply within this time (for example, if your complaint requires more detailed investigation), we will tell you within 15 working days when you can expect a full response.

Complaints made after 5pm (GMT+8) are to be considered as having been received the following day.

We will acknowledge where things could have been done better, and tell you what will be done to avoid the same thing happening again. Equally, if we do not uphold your complaint, we will let you know why.

Anonymity

The Languaging Lab will not investigate anonymous complaints. The complainant must be prepared to be identified. Likewise, The Languaging Lab will not investigate vexatious complaints or complaints based on hearsay; evidence must be provided in a clear and concise manner when the complaint is submitted.

Confidentiality

All information supplied to The Languaging Lab will be treated in the strictest confidence, but it will be shared with all personnel relevant to the enquiry (and any subsequent investigation), including the staff member (the complainee) about whom you are making a complaint. All parties included in the process are expected to treat all information and communications as confidential and to not disclose any aspect of the allegation to any other person.

Appeals

If you believe your complaint has not been dealt with properly, you may appeal within 10 calendar days from the date the decision was given. Appeals made after 5pm (GMT+8) are to be considered as having been received the following day.

You must explain what part of the decision you are appealing against, and why; you can also submit further evidence. You should start by contacting us again and asking for your complaint to be passed on to a more senior member of staff.

We will review all the evidence and the previous decision, and aim to respond to an appeal in writing within 30 working days of it being lodged. If it is not possible to give you a full reply within this time, we will tell you within 20 working days when you can expect a full response.

If you remain unsatisfied, you can also contact the Consumer Council in Hong Kong in order to seek help to resolve your case (with pursuable grounds) and help negotiate on your behalf by way of conciliation.

Unreasonable behaviour

We understand that lodging a complaint can be stressful and can affect how you communicate with us. However, we still expect you to behave appropriately and treat our staff with courtesy and consideration as they carry out their work.

If you do not act in a reasonable manner it is likely to make it difficult for us to deal with your complaint or query effectively.

Examples of unreasonable behaviour or actions

Some examples of behaviour we would consider unreasonable might be where you:-

  • make threats against The Languaging Lab, our staff or any third parties allowed to act on our behalf
  • keep using rude, offensive or intimidating language
  • demand responses in an unreasonable time period
  • refuse to cooperate with the complaint process
  • refuse to accept that certain issues are not The Languaging Lab’s responsibility or something we can deal with, for example, in cases where the language work we delivered is not “perfect”
  • insist your complaint or query is dealt with in ways that go against our complaints procedure
  • make unjustified complaints about staff who are trying to deal with your complaint or query
  • try to get staff dealing with you, or your case, replaced
  • contact us repeatedly about the same or similar issues when we have already given you all the information we can
  • make unreasonable demands on the time and resources of staff, for example, making excessive phone calls or writing detailed emails and letters every few days
  • repeat complaints or queries with minor additions or variations that are not enough to start a “new” complaint
  • argue points already responded to with no new evidence
  • change the main point of your complaint as the investigation proceeds
  • change or deny statements you made at an earlier stage (aside from when this is a genuine mistake)
  • raise lots of detailed questions that are not related to your case or complaint
  • blind carbon copy (bcc) any third parties in email conversations or record meetings and telephone conversations without telling us that you are doing this

Type of action we can take

In the event of unreasonable behaviour or actions, we might need to limit your contact with us. We consider any decision to restrict contact with us very carefully and any action we take will always be reasonable.

Before we take any action, we will tell you that your conduct is a concern to us. This will give you the opportunity to change the behaviour. If you continue to behave in a way which we consider unreasonable, we might:-

  • limit your contact to writing only. This might be where you have subjected our staff to abusive or excessive telephone calls
  • limit our written contact with you to postal methods only. This might be where you have submitted excessive emails on the same or similar subjects
  • limit you to only having one response to multiple lines of communication
  • limit your contact to a specific named person or people
  • stop all future communication with you on a defined issue. Any further correspondence on issues that have already been addressed, or that do not set out any substantially new issues, would be filed, but we do not respond to you. This action may apply to one specific area or where we consider it appropriate, we may extend this to cover all business areas. If that is the case, if you attempt to call us, you will be told the call is being terminated
  • report any threatening or abusive comments to the police

This is not a full list, and we might take other actions depending on what the unreasonable behaviour is.

Making you aware

We will always write to you to tell you:-

  • why your behaviour is considered unreasonable;
  • what action we are taking; and
  • whether this action applies across all or is only for a specific person, team or business area. If we decide we will not respond to any of your future correspondence, we will also explain how you can challenge this decision.