What happens when you contact us
When you contact us, we will ask you for:
- your name and contact details;
- the operator your complaint is about;
- the details of your complaint;
- what the operator said or did in response to your complaint, and why this didn’t resolve it; and
- what outcome will resolve your complaint.
You can contact us by phone on 1800 466 865. Other contact information for our office can be found on our contact page. You can lodge a complaint by submitting a complaint form online.
We make a record of all complaints made to our office.
Complain to the operator first
Before you lodge a complaint with us, you must give the public transport operator a chance to resolve your complaint.
If you contact us first or if you’re not sure how to make a complaint with the operator, we can let you know what you need to do.
Your privacy
We are committed to protecting your privacy.
You can read more about how we handle information given to our office on our privacy page.
Making a complaint for someone else
You can make a complaint on behalf of someone else, such as a family member or friend, or a person that you care for.
You must act in the best interests of the person and have sufficient knowledge of their complaint.
We may ask the person to provide authority for you to act on their behalf.
We can contact the person directly at any stage if we decide this is appropriate.
What we need from you
We will ask you for information to support your complaint about the operator, such as:
- Your account of what happened;
- Details of times, dates and locations;
- Documentation that shows any costs you have incurred;
- Photographs and video recordings; and
- Correspondence with the operator.
We may ask you to obtain quotes and expert advice to support any request for compensation.
We understand that sometimes it can be frustrating repeating details of your complaint but this information is important and helps us decide how to handle your complaint.
If you do not provide us with the information we ask for, we may not be able to look at your complaint. If you’re unable to provide us with some information, you should let us know as soon as possible.
When we have received information from you, we will decide how we are going to handle your complaint.
Information about our procedures on our website is described in a general way and we will decide how to handle a complaint on a case-by-case basis.
Conciliation
One way we can look at a complaint is using Conciliation. In Conciliation, we speak with you and the operator about the complaint and make suggestions for how it should resolve based on our experience and knowledge of good industry practice.
You can find more about Conciliation here.
Investigation
If we need to make a decision about what is a fair and reasonable outcome to a complaint, we can Investigate.
You can find more about Investigation here.
You can read about complaint outcomes here.
Not all complaints are suitable for us to handle. If we decide we can’t look at your complaint, we will let you know the reasons why. Read about what we can’t investigate here.
The Public Transport Ombudsman respectfully acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we operate our services. We pay our respects to the ongoing living cultures of Aboriginal peoples, and to Elders past, present and future.