Our complaints policy

Doing the right thing every time is important to us. If you ever feel that we haven’t met your expectations, we encourage you to let us know and we’ll do our best to put things right.

We’d recommend you contact the funeral home that’s been supporting you and let them know that something wasn’t right. If you feel your feedback needs to be looked at by someone else, you can get in touch with our Funeral Support Team in Lichfield.

Here are three ways to reach our Funeral Support Team. Choose the one that’s right for you:

By phone on 01543 421398

By email at funeral.support@centralcoop.co.uk

In writing to Funeral Support Team, Central Co-op, Queen Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6QD

What happens next?

We aim to solve problems straight away, but more complex matters may take a little longer. If we need to look into things and we can’t resolve your complaint immediately we’ll note your contact details, investigate your feedback and let you know when you can expect to hear from us again.

These are the steps we’ll take:

• We’ll log the complaint so that there’s a record of it.
• We’ll acknowledge it in writing within 72 hours of receiving your feedback.
• We’ll investigate to fully understand what’s happened and we’ll speak with the right people.
• We may need to ask you further questions to get more detail and find a solution, and we’ll either call you or email you if we need to.
• We’ll do all we can to resolve your concerns and we’ll ask you if you agree with our findings. We’ll also let you know what happens next.
• If it takes us longer than 28 days to resolve things, we’ll write to you and let you know how our investigation is moving forward.
• You should expect us to resolve more complex complaints within 56 days of receiving them. If there’s any change to this timeline, we’ll let you know so that you’re informed of progress.
• We’ll usually provide you with a final written response within 56 days of acknowledging your complaint.
• If our response hasn’t resolved things for you, please let us know, as we want to do the right thing by you every time.

If you’re still not happy with us

If you’re not happy with how we’ve looked after your complaint, you can contact the National Association of Funeral Directors who’ll independently review your complaint. See below for more details.

About the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD)

The NAFD is a free, independent service that looks into disputes between funeral providers who hold membership of the NAFD, and the clients of these member funeral providers. Central Co-op is a member of the NAFD. The NAFD offer a complaint resolution service and we’re bound by the outcome that they decide. Further details of this process and the application procedure are available on the NAFD website: https://nafd.org.uk/

Data Protection Complaints

As stated in The Data (Use & Access) Act 2025, you have the right to lodge a data protection complaint with us, should you be unhappy with the way we have processed your personal data.

Your complaint will be managed and responded to by our Data Protection Officer (DPO). Their role will be a conduct an independent investigation into the grounds for your complaint and provide an outcome to you. Your complaint will be responded to with a final written response within 30 days of receipt. 

Should you wish to make a data protection complaint, this can be done by contacting the DPO in the following ways:

Email: enquiries@centralcoop.co.uk

If you are dissatisfied with how your data protection complaint has been managed, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with The Information. Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find their contact details below. We would be grateful for the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Address:         Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone:     0303 123 1113

For further information on Data Protection and how we manage your complaints, please see our privacy policy.