Policies

We have two main goals for content on Customer Underground:

1. We want to create an open and constructive environment to talk about all aspects of customer service in Australia.
2. We want as much of the content as possible to be from users.

There are three main ways you can contribute to the site:

1. Rate a business – rate any business that has a physical address in Australia. If the business isn’t already on the site, you can create a listing for it. You can leave a short comment with your rating.
2. Write a story – this can be whatever length you need to tell your story about a customer service experience you’ve had, good or bad. You can accompany it with supporting material, for example, photos you took, or a link to a site or clip. (See our Terms and Conditions for more details on what media you can and can’t post on the site).
3. Comment on an existing story – here you can post your thoughts on a story that’s already on the site. If you have more to say on the topic than you realised, consider submitting your own story.

You need to be registered to write a story or rate a business. You don’t have to be registered to comment on a story. Here’s why.

Because we’re after an open, constructive environment on the site, we have a few things to avoid for contributions. None of them will surprise you:

• It’s not ok to use swear words in your contributions (including disguised or abbreviated swear words), to threaten people or businesses, use racist or other bigoted language, defame people (without justification), or encourage other people to do things that are criminal or otherwise contrary to the law.
• Don’t waste your time or anyone else’s talking about stuff other than issues about customer service: no spam (e.g. links to irrelevant stuff); no unfounded that someone else talking about a customer service experience did something wrong or somehow deserved any shoddy treatment they got; no comments trying to diminish the importance of what someone is talking about (e.g. no ‘in a world where there’s war and famine, does it really matter that [Name of Airline] lost your luggage’?); no comments complaining about how offending posts of yours have been removed from the site.
• Try to be as honest and accurate as possible – obviously, never make up a customer service experience (bad or good), and don’t invent facts to try to make it seem worse or better than it was.
• And of course, no posting under fake details to talk positively about a business you’re associated with; or to trash a business with whom you’re in competition.

(It’s fine for businesses and their rivals to post comments on the site, but not to submit ratings or stories. At all times we expect those with a vested interest to disclose this to other users. If you have something to say about a business you used to work with, again, you should disclose that in your post so other users know.)

All this is covered in more detail in our Terms and Conditions. When you register on the site, you’ll be asked to agree to those Terms and Conditions. You’ll be reminded of the need to stick to them each time you post something.

Overall, we expect you to ‘play the ball, not the man’; tell the truth about what happened and who you are, try to keep a cool head and be respectful of others, thanks.

Stories
Newly submitted stories are reviewed by our team, according to our editorial and legal guidelines, before being posted. They may be edited by us for length and clarity, or if they breach one of our ‘No No’s’ or legal policies and the problem can easily be fixed without impacting the story (e.g. simply removing a swear word or defamatory reference). Generally, new stories will be posted within 24-48 hours of being submitted. New stories will always appear on our ‘Recent Stories’ page. Stories we think are going to be interesting or entertaining to many of our users will also make it onto our homepage.

Submitted stories that we think violate one of our ‘No No’s’ or legal guidelines (and which we can’t fix with a simple edit) will be sent back to the author, generally within 24-48 hours of submission, pointing out the problem(s) with the story and inviting the author to fix and re-submit. If the re-submitted story fixes the problem, we will happily post it. If the re-submission does not fix the problem, we won’t.

A story may sometimes end up being removed after posting, if someone complains about it and we think the complaint is justified. (See ‘Complaints).

Comments

Comments on stories aren’t edited before being posted. But we will remove comments that we think (or that other users think and we agree) violate one of our ‘No No’s’ or Legal guidelines.

If we do remove a comment, we will generally contact you to let you know the problem with it. You will always be free then to submit a new comment which we will be happy to leave up as long as it complies with the site rules.

Ratings

Ratings aren’t edited before being posted. But we will remove ratings that we think (or that other users think and we agree) violate one of our ‘No No’s’ or Legal guidelines.

If we do remove a rating, we will generally contact you to let you know the problem with it. You will always be free then to submit a new rating which we will be happy to leave up as long as it complies with the site rules.

Anyone (a user or a business) with a concern about a story or a comment posted on the site can notify us by:

• Clicking on the “Report as Inappropriate” button that appears under each story and comment; or
• Emailing us with your specific concern.

Any story, rating, or comment that is complained about will be flagged on the site and will be immediately investigated. We will also be in contact with the person making the complaint to let them know the complaint has been received.

We will then investigate the complaint and, generally within a week, either:

• take the story or comment down if we think the complaint is justified; or
• decide to leave it up if we think the complaint is not justified.

Either way, we will be in contact again to advise the person who made the complaint of our decision and why we have made it.

Whether or not we take a story / rating / comment down or leave it up, the person complaining (including businesses) will always have the opportunity to post their own comment responding to the story / comment they have complained about.

In investigating a complaint, we may need to be in contact with the author. If we need more details to verify a story or comment and cannot reach the author, we will normally take the post down.

The site reserves the right to temporarily or permanently ban a user if their comments or stories are persistently complained about and we think the complaints are justified. See our Terms and Conditions section for more detail.

Copyright holders- images and video

Copyright holders concerned about our use of an image or video on the site should contact us. Please note, all reasonable efforts are made to identify the copyright holders in such images and videos, and to acknowledge them on the site. See our Terms and Conditions section for more detail.

Something still not clear? Just contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks for stopping by. It’s your Underground, so get contributing!