FAQ

Customer Underground is owned by a team of four people who got together because we were tired of lousy customer service, wanted to find businesses providing good service, and were surprised to find there wasn’t a comprehensive Australian customer review site where we could do that. We decided to do something about it. Find out more about the website and why we started it.

Customer Underground wants to hear your views on airlines, banks, doctors, pubs, real estate agents, telecoms, you name it. You can write a review, a story or simply comment on an existing story – in positive or negative terms - about any business that provides a service in or to Australia. That includes both businesses with a physical address, and businesses operating online. While our focus is mostly on Australian businesses, overseas businesses are ok, if the service they are providing you is within Australia, (e.g. if they’re shipping something to you here.) If you don’t see the business you want to review already listed on the site, you can add it.

While owners of a business can participate on the site in many other ways (see I’m a business owner; What can I do on the site? below), they cannot review their own business (or write a story about it that amounts to a positive review of it). Employees and other people with an interest in a business are welcome to write a review, a story or a comment on a story about the business, provided the association with the business is clearly disclosed. If we discover a review, story, or comment 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 ourselves.

If you are reviewing, writing a story about or commenting on a story about a business you used to own, used to work at or used to have some other association with, again, please disclose that clearly. Again, we’ll either take the posting down or disclose the association ourselves if you don’t.

In the reviews, stories and comments you post, you can write about anything to do with the customer experience 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.  Reviews can be as long or short as you'd like; the best ones usually include specifics about your experience and/or tips for other customers.  If you're submitting a story for the blog, feel free to liven it up  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 is doing right.

We don’t provide legal advice at Customer Underground. If you think you may have a claim against a business please consult a lawyer or the relevant State or Federal agency for your claim. If you already have a claim against a business you are free to review/submit a story on or comment on a story about that business, although we recommend checking with your legal adviser before doing so. If your claim is about your lawyer, may 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. While neither reviews nor stories have a word limit on our site, reviews should generally be shorter (say, 80-300ish words); if you have more to say, please consider submitting a story to our blog. Please always try to be as accurate and honest as possible. Remember that posting fake information can have legal ramifications for you.

Reviews (and comments on existing stories) go up immediately. New stories for the blog get a “once over” from us before they are posted, though we don't guarantee that all stories will be posted in their entirety (we may edit some on the same subject together into one article, for example). We aim to get story submissions up generally within 1-2 days, and you can find them under the Blog heading at the top of our home page. For more on how we review stories you submit, see our Content Policies.

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

Once you’re logged in, at any time you can edit or delete your profile or any review (or comment you’ve written on someone else’s story), by clicking on My Underground (at the top right hand of any page you’re on). If you want us to take down, change, or append something to a story you have written, contact us and we will normally do so within two days (just be sure to email us via the contact form or from the same email you’ve used to register, so we know it’s really you). 

We welcome business owners to join Customer Underground – indeed, we encourage it.  By joining, you can tell customers more about your business, display photos, and give more detailed information such as opening hours. Soon, you will also be able to offer special deals to encourage Customer Underground readers to visit you.

To join as a business owner, first set up an account as a regular member (click Join on the black banner at the top of the homepage), then go to your business' listing and click the link at the bottom that says Claim this business.  We’ll get in touch with you to verify that you are the bona fide owner of the business and then your user account will “own” the business listing – so you can edit and add other information.  Joining is free – please do!

As noted above, our only restriction on business owners is that you cannot review your own business. You are welcome to write a story that deals with an aspect of your business (eg. your perspective on dealing with customers) but not a story that amounts to a ‘backdoor’ positive review of your business. You are also welcome to comment on someone else’s story about your business, provided your association with your business is clearly disclosed. If you review a competing business, please clearly disclose your interest as a competing owner.

If you post such a comment or review without disclosing your association, we will, at our option, either remove the posting, or else leave it up but disclose the association for you. So far, we haven’t had to do either too often. For more detail on how business owners (or anyone currently or formerly associated with a business) should conduct themselves on the site in relation to that business, please see the 'Unauthorised Uses' section of our Terms & Conditions.

If you have a concern about a review of or story on your business, contact us.

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

Customer Underground is delighted to hear about new businesses from you. You can add in a new business by clicking Add a business.

Click the “Report this page” link at the bottom of any content page to immediately notify us.  If we agree, it will be taken down.

You don’t have to register, but only registered users can post reviews and stories. That is to prevent spammers and bots from posting dubious content, and 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. You don’t need to be registered to comment on an existing story (although, again, we prefer if you are logged in so that we can contact you more easily if we want to follow up on your experience with a business).

At Customer Underground, we are serious about your 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, and we will never sell your personal details. Help us keep your information safe by reporting if you receive any message from another Customer Underground member that you think violates our policies. See our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more detail, and always feel free to contact us with any questions.

Once you're logged into the site:

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

Once logged in, you can update your email or change any other aspect of your profile on the My Underground page – see the answers to the question immediately above.

Once you’re logged into the site:

• Click on "My Underground" in the upper right corner of any page. That will take you to your profile page.
• Click “Edit”, just above your username
• Click “newsletter subscriptions” 
• Untick the box next to “Subscribe to Customer Underground’s weekly newsletter”
• Click “save settings”.

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