What happens when you complain

When you submit your complaint, it joins others waiting to be assessed. We will look at the details you submitted to see if: 

1. the issue is covered by the laws we’re responsible for
2. we are the best organisation to take on your complaint.

We can't force a trader to resolve issues. We can give advice on what is fair based on the laws we cover. Only a court can require an action backed by law.

We have a high level of demand for our services and must deal with urgent complaints first. See Complaint timeframes and results for more details. 

We may contact you if we need more information. We will communicate with you and the trader or landlord to try to fix the problem. We will keep you updated throughout the process. 

To save time, please try to sort it out with the trader first. Our How to make a consumer complaint page has tips to help you. 

If we are unable to help, we will explain why and tell you who else may be able to help.

Complaining to Consumer Protection

When you lodge a formal complaint, we will send you an email with a reference number. Keep this number handy, you may need to refer to it later. 

We will help you and the trader or landlord fix the problem together. Your complaint may go through up to three steps: 

1. Assessment – we check your complaint and decide what to do next
2. Early intervention – we let the trader or landlord know about the complaint and ask them to sort it out with you
3. Conciliation - in some cases we will move the complaint to conciliation where we work with you and the trader or landlord to find a fair solution.

Most complaints are dealt with at early intervention and do not progress to conciliation.

We cannot force the trader or landlord to fix a problem. Only a court or a tribunal can do that.

If the trader offers something fair or reasonable and you say no, we may stop the process. 

Sometimes, information from a complaint may lead us to investigate a trader or landlord in more detail. Investigations generally focus on matters of broader public interest, rather than resolving an individual complaint. For serious issues, we may educate or warn the trader or landlord, issue a fine, or take court action.

Download the complaints timeline (PDF)

Assessment

We will look at your complaint and decide:

• what the problem is about and how it could be fixed
• how serious the problem is and prioritise it
• if any laws we cover have been broken
• if we are unable to help, what other organisation may be able to handle the problem.

What to send to us

You may need to provide the following to help us assess your complaint:

• emails or text messages
• quotes, invoices, or receipts
• contracts, rental agreements, terms and conditions
• copies of independent reports.

We will assess your complaint and email you about what happens next, such as:

• if we can help, we will move your complaint on to one of the next steps – early intervention, conciliation or investigation.
• if we are unable to help, we will refer you to another organisation e.g. Building and Energy for problems with builders or ASIC for finance problems.

Watch the When we assess your complaint video

Early intervention 

Most complaints are finalised at this stage.

This stage is the quickest and easiest way to resolve a formal complaint. 

At this informal stage, we write to both you and the trader or landlord, providing information about rights and responsibilities. 

We ask the trader or landlord to:

• contact you within seven business days
• try to fix the problem directly with you.

Please let us know if you and the trader or landlord agree on a solution together.  It may help other consumers. 

See When the complaint isn't resolved for advice if early intervention doesn't work.

Conciliation 

Conciliation is not used for every complaint.

We may refer some complaints to conciliation in special circumstances. This is based on:

• the seriousness of the complaint
• conciliation being likely to help resolve the problem.

One of our conciliators will work with you and the trader or landlord to find a fair solution based on the law. Both you and trader or landlord must be willing to work together and with us. 

We help you try to resolve the issue by:

• listening to both you and the trader or landlord to understand what's gone wrong
• find out what you both are willing to accept to solve the problem.

The conciliator cannot:

• make decisions for anyone
• direct consumers to agree to an outcome they don’t want
• order businesses or landlords to provide a specific outcome
• provide any form of legal advice.

We encourage both parties to follow through with any agreement made. Conciliation is voluntary, so we cannot force either you or the trader to do anything.

We may stop conciliation if our officer believes the trader or landlord has made a fair offer and you say no. We will explain why the offer is reasonable and outline what your next steps are such as going to court. 

Watch the Conciliation process video

Reasonableness

Being reasonable doesn’t mean you have to give up what you believe is right. It means you’re open to finding a solution to address your concerns in a way that makes sense.

Although reasonable outcomes aren’t always perfect solutions, they are good enough for both sides to accept and move forward. When a complaint is resolved in a reasonable way, there’s a better chance the solution will last

Watch the Reasonableness is key video

When the complaint isn’t resolved

You can take your problem to court or tribunal if:

• we are unable to help resolve the problem
• you are not happy with the solution offered
• you do not wish to wait for help. 

See Magistrates Court video series or SAT infosheet for more information. 

Before going to court, we recommend you seek legal advice and there are several agencies who may be able to assist. See Legal services for further information.

Trader intervention

When we notice a pattern of poor practices by a trader or industry, we often work with them to:

• educate them on their responsibilities under consumer protection laws
• improve their business practices
• deliver better outcomes for consumers.

Investigation or regulatory action

Investigation is about identifying when the trader or landlord has broken the law and getting them to follow the rules. 

Our investigations focus on behaviours where we can have the most impact, such as those:

• targeting vulnerable consumers
• resulting in widespread consumer harm. 

We have to be sure an investigation is in the public interest. This means we do not usually investigate individual consumer complaints. We focus on trader conduct.

We may decide to investigate if it’s a serious breach of the law, like:

• a dealer selling unroadworthy vehicles
• a business repeatedly taking money from consumers without providing the product or service
• a real estate agent misusing trust funds
• a business selling products that don’t meet safety standards

If we do investigate:

• we will reach out if we need more details
• we are not able to keep you regularly informed, and you may not hear from us until the investigation is complete.

Investigations can take a long time.

Watch the Investigation video

When we are unable to help 

We cannot help with:

• complaints about other government agencies
• disputes already in court
• personal disputes not about consumer rights
• issues between two or more traders.

The Small Business Development Corporation can help with disputes between businesses. See further information at Dispute resolution service | SBDC.

See further information at What Consumer Protection does.