Handling customer complaints when franchising in Spain

Before franchising a business, it is worth addressing an everyday situation: a customer complains to head office about a purchase made at a franchised outlet. The brand is shared, but the businesses may be separate. A franchise network needs a procedure that helps resolve complaints without blurring responsibilities or turning every refund into a negotiation between head office and the franchisee.

1. Identify who contracts with the customer

The first step is not to draft a friendly reply, but to establish which business sells the product or provides the service. Check how that business is identified on quotations, orders, invoices, receipts and terms and conditions. Shared branding is no substitute for identifying the business entering into the contract.

Map out the situations that actually arise in your business:

• Purchase and collection at the same outlet.
• Online orders collected from a franchised outlet.
• A service booked at one location and provided at another.
• A voucher bought at one outlet and redeemed across several.

For each scenario, specify who takes payment, who issues the invoice, who supplies the goods or service and who receives the complaint. Where several businesses are involved, do not assume that the one taking payment is always solely responsible.

In Spain, the consolidated text of the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, governs matters including consumer information, complaints handling and rights where goods or services do not conform to the contract. Specific responsibilities depend on the transaction and each business’s role. A franchise agreement cannot restrict the customer’s statutory rights.

2. Separate statutory rights from goodwill gestures

Not all requests for returns or refunds have the same basis. Your procedure should distinguish between a faulty product, a failure to provide a service as agreed and a simple change of mind.

For example, customers generally have no right to return an in-store purchase simply because they have changed their mind. Such a right may exist if the business has offered it. Distance contracts usually carry a right to cancel within fourteen calendar days, subject to statutory exceptions that need to be checked for the product or service concerned.

This distinction avoids two mistakes: denying a statutory right or presenting a goodwill gesture as a universal obligation.

Create an internal table covering four points:

• Reason: what happened and what the customer is requesting.
• Checks: what information is needed, without asking for unnecessary documents.
• Resolution: repair, replacement, refund or another appropriate response.
• Authorisation: what the outlet can resolve itself and when head office must become involved.

Internal authorisation limits must never prevent customers from exercising their rights or unduly delay them. If head office wants to offer exchanges across outlets, it must establish how those outlets will compensate one another: a brand promise needs a financial mechanism to support it.

3. Allocate tasks and costs before signing

The operations manual should explain how to handle each case; the agreement should set out the obligations between the businesses. Specify who pays a refund upfront, how it is documented and when that amount can be recovered from another party.

Distinguish between problems arising from the franchisee’s operations and those caused by head office instructions, campaigns or systems. Also account for product defects and suppliers’ actions. Internal cost-sharing arrangements must not leave the customer responsible for resolving a disagreement between the businesses.

Franchising is subject to specific legislation in Spain: Article 62 of Law 7/1996 on the Regulation of Retail Trade, and Royal Decree 201/2010. The latter provides for ongoing commercial or technical assistance and requires disclosure of the agreement’s essential rights and obligations. Pre-contractual information must be provided in writing at least twenty working days before the agreement or preliminary agreement is signed, or any payment is made to the franchisor.

If handling complaints means funding refunds for other outlets or participating in a shared compensation scheme, explain that obligation and its scope before entering into the agreement. Do not introduce it later as a mere operational instruction.

4. Test the process with real cases

Before opening the first franchise, use incidents from the existing business to test the procedure. Include a straightforward complaint, one requiring head office involvement and one concerning a purchase made through a different channel.

Check whether the team identifies the responsible business, records what happened and provides a clear response. Set internal deadlines that are consistent with the applicable statutory time limits, and check the requirements in the relevant Spanish autonomous community for official complaint forms, their availability and signage.

Record only the information needed and restrict access to those who need to be involved. Review recurring causes regularly: a return may reveal an unclear instruction, rather than just an individual mistake.

Practical takeaway: before franchising, put in writing who handles complaints, who makes decisions and who pays. Then test whether the customer can obtain a resolution without getting caught between two businesses.