We work hard so you can have a good experience with us. But if we get things wrong or don’t handle an issue the way you’d like, we encourage you to contact us and let us know how we can do better.

Your feedback helps us:

• See where we need to solve problems  
• Give you a better experience next time
• Improve the way we work in the future.

We will always try to resolve your problem on the spot. Just let us know.

Customers are given the chance to provide feedback at the end of their transaction, rating their experience from 1 to 5 stars. We read everyone’s feedback.

But if you want to make a formal complaint, follow the three steps below. We promise to handle your complaint in an open and trustworthy way and give you clear time frames for how we’ll respond.

How to make a complaint

Step 1: Tell us what happened

You can make a complaint using web chat or our feedback form. Give us as much detail as possible.

We’ll let you know if it’s something we can handle, or if we need to involve another government department or agency.

If we can’t handle your complaint ourselves, then we’ll help you work out where you need to make it.

If your complaint relates to a service we’ve provided you, we’ll look through our records and use the relevant information to try and help you. 

Please tell us how you’d like us to contact you. Otherwise we’ll get back to you the same way you made the complaint. We’ll give you a reference number, in case you need to talk to us about it more.

If you want your complaint to be anonymous, then that’s fine. If you don’t tell us who you are, then we can’t get back to you. We’ll still record your message and use your anonymous complaint to improve how we do things in the future.

Step 2: We’ll assign someone to help you

If you asked us to get back to you, we’ll be back in touch within 5 working days.

The person who can help you best will be the one who contacts you. 

They’ll give you their contact details, so if you need to, you can talk to them about your complaint directly.

Step 3: We get back to you with a resolution

The outcome of your complaint could be decided by us or by another government agency or department.

We'll come back with a resolution to your complaint within 20 days. If it's more complicated, give us up to 45 days to look into it. The time it takes us to give you an outcome depends on the type and complexity of the issue you’ve raised.

To help resolve your complaint, we may:

• offer an apology
• review the wording of our website
• give more training to staff or update our policies, or
• change how we work to make sure we don't repeat what caused the problem. 

If your complaint is about privacy

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your personal information you can make a privacy complaint. Complaints should be lodged within 45 days of you becoming aware of the alleged interference with your privacy.

We’ll ask you to:

• Tell us how you believe your privacy has been breached
• Explain the effect the breach has had on you
• Outline what you’d like us to do
• Give us time to respond. (We’ll normally respond within 30 days, and we’ll keep you informed of our progress along the way).

Remember to retain a copy of your complaint.

We’ll keep your privacy complaint private. Only relevant staff who need access to review and respond to your complaint will have access. Our Privacy Officer will coordinate the investigation and will be your primary contact.

There are a number of outcomes:

• We may find there was no evidence to suggest the alleged conduct occurred
• The alleged conduct did occur, but it complied with the law
• The alleged conduct occurred and there was a breach.

If a breach of your privacy did occur, we may offer an apology, review the wording of our website and privacy policy, change our processes, give more training to staff, or offer some kind of other remediation.

You can read more about how we keep your personal data safe in our privacy and security policy.

If your complaint is about security

You can make a complaint about security, or if you think you see a scam, hoax or security issue on our site by telling our security team.

If your complaint is about another area of government

If your complaint is about another government agency, we’ll either send it to them for their response or we’ll deal with it for you: 

• If the government agency and their transaction is on Service Victoria, we’ll manage your complaint and liaise with the agency.
• If the government agency is on Service Victoria but their transaction isn’t, we’ll manage your complaint, but it will be handled by the agency.
• If the government agency isn’t on Service Victoria, we’ll guide you to the best resolution point so you can lodge your complaint directly with them.

What to do if you’re not satisfied with the outcome

There are steps you can take if you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint:

• You can tell the person handling your complaint you want it reviewed by someone else at Service Victoria. There’s a formal process to ensure this review is impartial and objective.
• If you can’t resolve your complaint with us, you can make a complaint to the Victorian Ombudsman. If you can’t resolve a privacy complaint with us directly, you can raise it with the Victorian Information Commissioner.

Your privacy when you make a complaint

We treat all your personal information and any complaint you make with respect and keep it private, in line with our privacy and security policy.

Only our frontline staff and a restricted number of authorised staff can access your customer records. If you make a complaint, they’ll only see a summary. They’ll only use this summary to resolve your issue or help you again if you get in touch.

You can ask for your complaint to be handled confidentially. Just let us know and we’ll limit further information about your case to our complaint resolution coordinator and senior executive staff. This might mean our front-line staff can't help you with your complaint as easily in the future, as they won't have all the information. For example, they'll be unable to tell you how your matter is progressing if you ask. If this happens, you'll be transferred to someone else. 

If your complaint is about another government department or agency, we may need to give them your information. We’ll let you know if we plan to do this.

Give feedback on this policy

We’re always looking for ways to keep improving. If you’ve got any questions or feedback about this policy please let us know.