Once a complaint has been initiated with us and forwarded to the firm the following steps take place.
1. Two business days after an issue is first AdDResSed, an e-mail will be sent to the filing consumer requesting confirmation that the dispute has been resolved to his or her satisfaction. If it has not, additional information is requested from the consumer, the merchant's dAtabase records will reflect that a complaint has been filed but not resolved, and a second e-mail will be forwarded to the merchant emphasizing this fact.
2. Two business days after the consumer has responded to the first notice, the process is repeated and a second notice is sent via e-mail.
3. Two business days after the consumer has responded to the second notice, another e-mail is sent. This is the third notice. The consumer is again asked to verify that the dispute has been resolved. If it has not, WebAssured.comsm will attempt to contact the merchant personally on the consumer's behalf. In most cases, this personal contact will resolve the remaining outstanding issues. Merchants with several un-Resolved complaints are placed on the Watchlistsm.
4.If a complaint against a member firm remains un-Resolved at the end of the process, the files may be forwarded to a WebAssured.com Mediator. Upon reviewing the complaint history, conferring with both parties, and consulting with others, the Mediator will render a written opinion as to the most reasonable and just resolution. Member firms explicitly agree to abide by such opinions and to perform whatever restitution is indicated by the Mediator. For complaints filed against non-member firms, we will not conduct personal mediation, but may publish pertinent information about the firm, which comes to our attention.
5. Depending on the specific circumstance and outcome of this process, the merchant's WebAssured.com membership may be revoked. In no event, however, will bona-fide complaint information be removed from the dAtabase, nor will such information be expunged in the event that members allow their annual dues to fall in arrears. The record will continue to be reported to consumers, along with any special notations, which may be indicated.
Throughout the automated dispute resolution process, the firm is asked to update us on the status of the complaint. This provides an opportunity for the merchant to share its side of the story, and allows us to quickly identify complaints, which may be unwarranted or improper. While the AdDResS process is automated, various algorithms are used to identify disputes which require immediate human intervention.
