Students from the Spanish courses in Spain could be involved at some point in a conflict or a disagreement when buying a product or using a service. We provide you with some information that could help international students to start a complaint.
Our recommendation is to always try to have a conversation with the seller or service provider and try to solve the problem in a friendly manner. In case you do not get to an agreement you should ask for a complaint form “Hoja de Reclamación”. It is a form that all establishments are obliged to have to give it to the clients from the regional administration (Autonomous Community). The regulations also oblige the establishment to show an information panel in Spanish and English informing of the existence of such forms available to consumers.
Example of complaint form for a service or purchase in Spain.
The complaint forms usually have several carbonless pages, each in a different colour. There will be at least three sheets:
- Sheet for the administration, which includes the address where it should be sent. This is usually the regional consumption administration offices location, it could also be given in at the local town administration.
- Another sheet for the establishment, with which it will be informed about the reason of the complaint.
- A sheet as a copy for the client.
Some Autonomous Communities have an additional sheet to send to the regional tourism services. When sending the complaint to the Administration it is advisable to attach a copy of the receipt, or of the documents related to the disagreement. In some regions the complaint can be sent via mail or scanned and sent via email. Others recommend giving it in in an official registry, but in any case they always take action and inform the person affected.
In case the establishment doesn’t make the complaint form available, it is convenient to send a notice to the regional consumption authorities. The complaint form should be in all establishments, but if they do not give it to you, remember, in case you go with a friend, it is advisable to add his details as well, as well as his signature, since the second person acts as a witness and the request gains reliability.
Other organizations that also recollect complaints and attend consumption problems are the consumer affairs offices of the city, and the consumption associations, although these give priority to the problems where more people are affected. The page to inform about a disagreement on the web pages of the most important associations are:
A piece of advice for all the students of the Spanish courses in Spain: if you have a disagreement with an establishment, remember that only the fact of asking for the complaint form will usually give results, even the employees of the establishment will try to give a solution to the problem since they do not like the later visit of the local authorities to their establishment to investigate the problem.
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