Three phone calls, two different departments, and a reference number nobody else seems to recognise when you call back — this is the experience large UK companies are, whether by design or by sheer organisational mess, very good at producing. Resolver exists specifically to get you out of that loop, but it's worth understanding exactly what it does before you rely on it for something important.
What Resolver actually is
Resolver is a free, independent online tool that's helped more than 5 million people manage consumer complaints in the UK. It is not a regulated claims management company and it doesn't take on your case as a third-party representative — what it does is give your complaint structure: a dedicated case file, guided templates for what to say to a given company or sector, a record of every message sent, reminders when a response is overdue, and a connection point to the relevant ombudsman or regulator when a company exhausts its internal process.
Be realistic about what it can and can't guarantee
It's worth saying plainly: Resolver itself is upfront that it can't control how a business handles your complaint, and it doesn't guarantee an outcome — resolving the complaint is still down to the company. User experiences reflect that split. Many report that companies respond faster and more substantively once a complaint comes through Resolver's system, particularly with large telecoms, retail, and travel companies. Others report the opposite — that some companies simply send the same automated reply they'd have sent anyway, and Resolver's escalation doesn't force anything beyond what the underlying regulator's own process already requires. Treat it as a well-organised megaphone and paper trail, not a legal weapon that companies are compelled to respond to.
One more transparency point worth knowing: Resolver may also recommend independent third-party providers for certain types of claims (for example, if you might be owed money for mis-selling) and can receive a referral fee if you choose to use one — using those providers is always optional, and the free complaint-raising tool itself doesn't require it.
How to actually use it
- Go to resolver.co.uk and search for the company you have an issue with — it covers thousands of UK organisations across telecoms, energy, banking, travel, retail, and public services.
- Follow the guided prompts rather than writing free text — Resolver asks you specific questions (what happened, what you want as an outcome, reference numbers) which tends to produce a clearer complaint than an open paragraph.
- Attach evidence: invoices, screenshots, prior correspondence.
- Send the complaint through Resolver's system rather than a normal email — this keeps a timestamped record of everything in one case file.
- If the company doesn't respond in time or gives an unsatisfactory final response, Resolver will prompt you toward the correct next step — often the relevant ombudsman for that sector (Ombudsman Services, CISAS, the Financial Ombudsman Service, and others, depending on the industry).
When Resolver is genuinely useful — and when to skip straight to the ombudsman
Resolver is most useful in the early stage of a dispute: when you need a structured way to put a company on the record and you're not yet at the point of a final response. If a company has already sent you a formal final response you disagree with, or has clearly blown past its legal response deadline, you don't need Resolver as a middle step — you can go directly to the relevant ombudsman (the Financial Ombudsman Service for banking and insurance, for example) yourself, for free, without it.