Complaints and Appeals Policy

This policy sets out how a learner, an employer who has bought seats, or anyone else affected by our work can tell us that something has gone wrong, and what we will do in response. It covers Deep Space Commodities, the course delivered by Shift AI Technology Ltd, trading as Deep Space Commodities.

We would rather hear about a problem than not. A complaint that reaches us can be fixed for everyone; one that does not reach us usually means the same fault is still there for the next learner.

The two are handled by the same process and to the same timescales, but it helps us if you say which you are making.

• A complaint is dissatisfaction with the service. Examples: a lesson that will not play, a factual error in the teaching material, a billing problem, an unanswered email, the conduct of someone acting for us, or something about the platform that made study unnecessarily hard.
• An appeal is a request to reconsider a specific decision we have made about you. Examples: the result of a module exam, a decision that you breached assessment integrity, a refusal of a reasonable adjustment, a refusal of a refund, or a decision to withhold, revoke or withdraw access to a certificate.

If you are unsure which one applies, write to us anyway and describe what happened. We will classify it and tell you which route we are using.

Write to info@spaceeconomy.education. Please put the word "Complaint" or "Appeal" in the subject line so it is not mistaken for a general support question. If you prefer to write by post, the address is Shift AI Technology Ltd, Unit 14, The Maltings Industrial Estate, Southminster, Essex, CM0 7EQ, though email will always be faster.

So that we can deal with it properly the first time, please include:

• The email address on your course account, so we can find your record.
• What happened, in your own words, with dates where you have them.
• For an appeal, the specific decision you want reconsidered, and the chapter, exam or invoice it relates to.
• Why you think the decision or the service was wrong, and any evidence you want us to look at, such as a screenshot or an error message.
• What outcome you are asking for.

There is no form to complete and no fee. You may ask someone else — a colleague, a trade union representative, a family member, an advocate — to write on your behalf; we will ask you to confirm by email that you are content for us to deal with them.

Please raise an appeal against an assessment decision within 30 calendar days of the decision. We will still look at later appeals where there is a good reason for the delay, but the evidence is easier to reconstruct while it is recent.

These are the timescales we will keep to, counted in working days in England and Wales.

1. 1Acknowledgement within 3 working days. This is a real reply from a person confirming we have your complaint, telling you whether we are treating it as a complaint or an appeal, and naming who is looking at it. It is not an automated receipt.
2. 2Investigation. We look at the account record, the system logs, the exam attempt data or the correspondence, whichever is relevant. If we need something from you, we will ask for it clearly and in one go rather than in a series of separate emails.
3. 3A written decision within 15 working days of acknowledgement. The decision says what we found, what we are doing about it, and the reasons. If the answer is no, we say why it is no.
4. 4If an investigation genuinely cannot be completed in 15 working days, we will write to you before that deadline, explain what is outstanding, and give you a new date. We will not let a deadline pass silently.

We have chosen 3 and 15 working days because they are commitments we can meet consistently as a small provider, including across holiday periods. A shorter promise we would sometimes miss would be worth less to you than a longer one we keep. Most matters are in practice resolved well inside 15 working days, and a straightforward technical fault is usually dealt with the same week.

We are a small provider and we will not pretend otherwise. There is no standing complaints committee and no panel. Complaints and appeals are reviewed at director level by Shift AI Technology Ltd, and the first review is carried out by the director responsible for the course.

Where an appeal concerns an exam result or a defective question, the review is a check of the evidence rather than a matter of opinion: we retrieve the question, the pool it was drawn from, your recorded attempt and the marking record, and we establish whether the question was sound and whether it was marked correctly. Where the question was at fault we correct it, regrade the attempt, and apply the same correction to any other learner affected, whether or not they complained. The technical detail of how attempts are recorded and marked is set out in our Assessment, Certification and Academic Integrity policy.

You can ask for the decision to be reviewed a second time. Reply within 20 working days of our decision saying that you want a second review and why you think the first outcome is wrong.

The second review is carried out by someone who was not involved in the original decision. Because of our size, that will be a second director of Shift AI Technology Ltd or, where no independent person is available inside the company, a suitably qualified external reviewer we appoint and pay for. We will tell you which of these we are using and who the reviewer is before the review starts. The reviewer sees your original complaint, our decision, and your reasons for disputing it.

We will acknowledge a request for a second review within 3 working days and give the second decision within 15 working days. That decision concludes our internal process.

If you remain dissatisfied after our second review, you have options outside this company and we will not obstruct you in using them.

• We are seeking accreditation from The CPD Standards Office. Once the course is accredited, a complaint about the accredited activity can also be raised with them, because they operate their own complaints route for learners. We will provide any evidence they ask us for. Until accreditation is granted, that route is not open, and the routes below are.
• A complaint about how we have handled your personal data can be raised with the Information Commissioner's Office.
• A consumer dispute about the purchase itself can be pursued through the usual consumer routes, including the courts. Nothing in this policy limits your statutory rights, and using our complaints process first does not stop you doing this.

This policy and any dispute arising from it are governed by the law of England and Wales.

Every complaint and appeal is logged with the date received, what it was about, how it was classified, the decision, the date of the decision, and whether it went to a second review. The log is kept for six years.

The log is reviewed at least twice a year, and after any complaint that reveals a fault in the material. We are looking for patterns rather than counting cases: several appeals against the same exam question means the question is wrong, repeated confusion about the same lesson means the lesson needs re-recording or a clearer explanation, and repeated billing queries mean the checkout wording needs fixing. These findings feed directly into course revisions, and the outcome of that review is recorded alongside the log.

We do not publish individual complaints. Anonymised themes and the changes made in response are available to The CPD Standards Office on request.

Complaints are handled in confidence. We share the details only with the people who need them to investigate and, where relevant, with an accrediting body or regulator. If your seat was bought by an employer, we will not tell that employer that you have complained unless you ask us to or the complaint is about the contract they hold with us, in which case we will tell you first.

This policy is reviewed every 12 months, and sooner if a complaint shows the process itself is not working. The date of the last substantive revision is shown at the top of this page.

Complaints, appeals and requests for a second review: info@spaceeconomy.education.