Your complaints. Our business.
Investigating complaints is part of our core business and we work hard to ensure complainants receive a fair and timely response.
If we cannot assist them, we refer them to someone who can.
Contact with our Office
How we receive complaints
Complaint trends
What people complained about
Contact with our Office
Graph: Complaints handled (JPEG format 129k)
Often when people have a complaint with a private organisation, they don’t know whom to contact. The situation has become more confusing with the proliferation of Ombudsman Offices dealing with different issues such as telecommunications, banking, and energy. We are often the first point of contact in this process.
An increasing portion of our resources is used in referring people to the appropriate complaint agency or advising them of the process they should follow to have their concerns addressed.
This body of work increased by more than 60% and largely explains the increase of almost a quarter in total contact with our Office.
Our own complaints have remained relatively stable over the last three years. This year, they increased 1.2% from 7,084 to 7,172.
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How we receive complaints 
Table: How we received complaints (JPEG format 150k)
Members of the public can make a complaint to us by:
- telephone
- mail
- email
- completing our online complaint form
- fax
- attending our Office.
The most common way of making a complaint is by telephone (49.4%).
However, increasingly, people use email or the online complaint form on our website to contact our Office, with nearly 20% of all complaints received in this way in 2007–08. This represents a 43% increase compared to 2006–07.
Our online complaint form is particularly effective as it allows people to assess whether they should pursue a complaint with our Office or whether another agency is better able to deal with their issue. The form contains advice and contact details to help people identify the most appropriate agency to deal with their complaint.
Complaints received by mail decreased by 17% this year because of increased use of email and the online complaint form. Complaints we receive ‘in person’ comprise a small proportion of the total complaints received (less than 1%).
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Complaint trends
Graph: Number of complaints resolved (JPEG format 74k)
While we received 7,172 complaints, we finalised 7,201. As a result, we had only 300 open complaints at 30 June 2008.
This is again an improvement from last year when we had 329 open complaints. This was the lowest number of open complaints on hand since 1984.
We have worked hard over the last five years to reduce the number of open complaints and provide a more timely and effective complaints handling service for the community. This is reflected in our improved results.
In 2008–09, we will continue to strive to make operational improvements to further improve our service delivery.
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