Mediation succeeds if the supplier (the car dealership, the retailer, the bank etc) is willing to engage with the complaint and willing to compromise to make your complaint go away.
You’re wasting your time and money on mediation or consumer offices when the supplier is not honest in seeking a solution and doesn’t care enough about its reputation to sort out a consumer complaint. Then you need a lawyer.
Various free consumer resources (in this article, I’m calling them consumer offices) exist to assist consumers in resolving complaints, such as various ombuds, provincial consumer protectors, the National Consumer Commission etc.
What can a lawyer do that a mediator or consumer office can’t? We have a variety of strategies that can make it so uncomfortable for the supplier that it becomes easier to pay out your claim. For example, suing the supplier, making use of the press or social media to put pressure on the supplier without committing slander, putting pressure on a third party who has authority of the supplier, like a car finance provider to sort out the problem etc.
How can you tell beforehand whether you can easily resolve a dispute with a supplier?
- Check the reviews of the supplier online- if there are several negative reviews they’ve not taken the trouble to resolve or remove, the soft options will be a waste of time.
- Trust your experience- if you’ve been blocked, disregarded or treated with a lack of respect by the supplier, things are not likely to improve.
- If your claim is big enough to make the supplier wince, it’s unlikely they’ll be willing to pay up without putting up a major fight.