FAQ

Customer Underground is owned by a team of four individuals who got together because we were tired of lousy customer service and wanted to do something productive about it. Find out more about the website and why we started it here.

The Underground wants to hear your views on airlines, banks, doctors, pubs, real estate agents, telecoms, you name it. On Customer Underground Australia, you can rate or write – positively or negatively - about any business or service with a physical address in Australia. It’s all fair game. If you don’t see the business listed already on the site, you can add it here.

Owners, employees and other people with an interest in a business are welcome to write a story about, post a comment on or rate the business, provided the association with the business is disclosed (in the case of a rating, please disclose the interest in the accompanying comments section). If we discover a story, comment or rating about a business has been posted without the interest being disclosed, we will, at our option, either remove the posting, or else leave it up but disclose the association on the posting.

If you are rating a business you used to own, work at or have an association with, again, please disclose that in the accompanying comments section. Ditto if you submit a story or comment on such a business.

You can write about anything to do with customer service in Australia that you want: particular businesses you’ve had a positive or negative experience with; particular policies at particular businesses; types of behaviour by businesses generally that you do or don’t like; it’s all up for grabs. Feel free to liven up your story with supporting material: photos or videos you took, a news story you saw, a clip you found, or a scan of a supporting document. As you’ll see from some of the stories posted, some are funny and some are serious. Feel free to write in whatever tone you think is right for the story you want to tell. The whole site isn’t a pisstake, but it’s also not ABC News. The most important thing, always, is to be as informative and constructive as possible. Without putting anybody to sleep, include as many specifics as you can. What airline was it, for example? When? What specifically did someone say to you? Remember, this is not just about getting things off your chest, but trying to get more businesses to see things from customers’ point of view and changing their behaviour. Think a business’ customer service rocks? Tell people why, so that other businesses can learn from what that company might be doing right.

We don’t provide legal advice at The Underground. If you think you may have a claim against a business please consult a lawyer or the relevant State or Federal agency. If you already have a claim against a business you are free to rate/comment/submit a story about that business, although we recommend checking with your legal adviser before doing so. If your claim is about your lawyer, we suggest you get another one.

Generally, provide as much detail/evidence as is necessary to tell your story without putting your fellow readers to sleep. Ratings do have a word limit; if you have more to say, submit a story. Please always try to be as accurate and honest as possible. Remember that posting fake information can have legal ramifications for you.

Ratings and comments go up immediately. New stories get a “once over” from us before they are posted. We aim to get them up generally within a day, and you can find them under Recent Stories. For more on how we review stories you submit, see our Policies.

We try to feature stories on the homepage that are: 1) interesting 2) entertaining, and 3) seemingly reliable. We confess: it’s subjective.

Just email us if you want us to take down your story or rating; we will normally do so within two days. If you want to change your story or rating you’ll need to ask us to take it down first then resubmit. Just be sure to email us from your Customer Underground account or from the same email you’ve used to register – so we know it’s really you.

If you are the owner (or employee of, or have some other association with) a business that is written about or rated on the site, you can participate in the discussion by adding a comment to a story, or writing your own story, provided you disclose your association.

If you post such a comment or story without disclosing your association, we will, at our option, either remove the posting, or else leave it up but disclose the association for you.

If you have a concern about a rating of your business, contact us.

Please contact us with the right match and we’ll fix it up as quickly as possible.

The Underground is delighted to hear about new businesses from you. You can type in the new business name within the Ratings or Submit Story form or Add a Business here.

Click the “Report” button and it will immediately be flagged. If we agree, it will be taken down.

It means that someone thinks it is offensive or spammy. Don’t worry, we will investigate before taking any action. If we agree, we will remove it. If you think a submission of yours has been removed inappropriately contact us.

You don’t have to register, but only registered users can post stories. That is so we can try to ensure people from a business or its rivals aren’t posting under false details. It’s also so we can get in touch with you if you submit a particularly juicy story we want to investigate further.

Sometimes Customer Underground will want to “delve deep” on a business and what people think about it. This could be for a story we’re writing, or at the request of a business to help them understand how customers feel about the business. If you say it’s OK, we may contact you via email to get more of your views about the business. Don’t worry -- we’ll never share your personal details or contact information with a business unless you explicitly tell us it’s ok to do so. For more on that, see our Terms & Conditions.

At Customer Underground, we are serious about privacy and want to keep your personal details safe. We do not share your personal details with outside parties unless you explicitly tell us it’s ok. Help us keep it safe by reporting if you receive any message from another Customer Underground member that you think violates our policies. See our Terms & Conditions for more detail.

Once you're logged into the site:

• Click on “Your Profile” in the upper right corner of any page. This will take you to the “My Profile” page
• Click the black “Edit Profile” button
• Enter your new username and/or new password (if you update your password, enter it again in the “Confirm password” box)
• Click “Save”

You can do this from the “My Profile” page – see the steps to question 17, above.

Contact us with "unsubscribe" in the body.

Just contact us with any other queries and we’ll respond as quickly as we can.