Complaint against charity

[retreatingheadlights]

I made a complaint to the manager of a charity that provides a service to a disabled family member because they are not providing the service they are supposed to. It's a paid for service. In response they have closed ranks and accused my family member of being abusive towards them on the phone. I was there and there was no abuse. No raised voice, no swearing, no aggression, but there was frustration at the ongoing issue of not providing the service. The manager is launching an investigation into my family member who is going to be distraught. They are elderly and well known as a lovely, polite, pleasant person.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? They are part of a wider council group so perhaps the council might be able to help.

There's no record of who takes the calls that have been recorded on paper either which seems poor practice. How can they effectively monitor things or raise issues if the basics aren't documented.

I don't know how to help but I'm giving this a hopefully helpful bump.

Are they not recorded or have identifying details been redacted?

Some names redacted throughout the record but no documentation of the call being handed over to a manager or any abusive language from my relative and no mention of staff making a complaint to HR.

Ok, so there is something odd here. I would go back and ask specifically if calls are recorded. If so they should have sent you a copy with the DSAR, so point out the admission and ask for it to be sent.

If not, then why is there no reference to it? If a user is abusive then this is a serious matter and it would have been recorded. If not then I think you are entitled to ask if any of this has any basis in fact.

They already told me that calls are not recorded. They bite down the date and time of calls but not who took the call, just a brief e try as to what was discussed. For example Client phoned to cancel due to illness. Driver informed.
I have queried the missing data and am waiting to hear back. I can't see HR doing much with a case of he said she says but there's no record of a call let alone any details of the call or who took the call.
I'll be taking it to the charity commission if I don't get anywhere. Our PTA runs a better business than this charity.

I'm not in the least surprised, OP; sadly, "they were nasty to me" is standard practice among many who receive a complaint and hope it'll get them off the hook

I wouldn't waste time expecting the council to deal with this - or anything at all, come to that - but wonder if there's anyone else available to provide the service?
If it's a caring-type role it would be unusual for there only to be one such agency and perhaps a change might work best in the end?

Luckily those who volunteer for the charity and provide the person to person service are generally lovely. It's some of those in the office who are not nice to deal with. Some are lovely and really helpful whereas others you wonder why they are volunteers because it's obviously not for them.

Apparently the incident has not been documented. Strange how that eh? Almost like it didn't happen!

The manager is being very obstructive. I've asked for the contact details of HR and asked to see a record of this abuse but they just reply without the information.