Complaining, and what happens next

There are four different things people complain to us about, and they go to different places with different time limits. Pick the one that fits; if you pick wrong we will move it rather than send you away.

1. The product, a payment or a refund

Email support@applysafer.com and put Complaint in the subject so it is not read as an ordinary question.

• We acknowledge within 1 working day.
• We give a final answer within 10 working days, or tell you why we need longer and when to expect it.
• When we tell you our decision, we also tell you what you can do if you disagree with it - that is a legal duty on us, not a courtesy.

Refunds and cancellation have their own page with the figures and the timescales: refunds and cancellation.

2. How we have handled your personal data

This is a separate right and a separate route. You can complain to us directly about anything we have done with your personal data - what we hold, how we got it, what we did with it, how long we are keeping it, or how we answered a request.

• Email privacy@applysafer.com with Data protection complaint in the subject. That is the electronic route; you can also write to us by post at Office 1216, 60 Tottenham Court Road, Fitzrovia, London W1T 2EW.
• We acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay.
• Tell us what happened, when, and what you would like us to do. You do not need to cite any law and you do not need an account.

You can also complain to the regulator, and you do not have to come to us first. The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF - ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113. You can also go to court. Our ICO registration number is ZC176381.

If what you want is a copy of your data rather than a complaint, that is faster to do yourself: there is an export in your account settings, and the privacy notice explains the rest of your rights and how long we take.

3. Something on the site that is illegal or harmful

Use the report link on the item itself - you do not need an account. A person reviews every report within two business days. How that works, and what we do about each kind of report, is on our online safety page.

4. A review you say is unlawful

That has its own statutory process with legal time limits that are not ours to set, so it does not come through this page. Use the complaint form linked from the review itself, so the clock starts correctly and we can act on it properly. How we handle complaints about reviews explains each step and each deadline.

If you are still not happy with us

We are not a member of an alternative dispute resolution scheme. If you are unhappy with this decision you can ask your card issuer to raise a chargeback, get free advice from Citizens Advice on 0808 223 1133, report us to Trading Standards, or bring a claim in the county court - the small claims track covers claims up to £10,000 and you do not need a solicitor.

We say that plainly so you know what is and is not available. There is no ombudsman for this kind of service and we are not pretending otherwise.

One thing that does not apply here: ApplySafer takes its own payments rather than selling through a third-party payment service, so there is no separate payment provider with its own refund window you can appeal to. We are the only route, which is why our own timescales above are short.

If we do not seem to be answering

Our outgoing email is not always delivered - some providers accept a message from our server and discard it before it reaches an inbox. If you have complained and heard nothing, check your spam folder, then try again from a different address or write to us by post. The clock runs from when you contacted us, not from when we managed to reply. See contact us.