Lodge a complaint
Before lodging your complaint please consider the following:Does your query relate to a Queensland business?
If not, visit useful links to find the relevant state fair trading or consumer affairs office in the state or territory where the business is based, and lodge your complaint with them.
Does your query relate to a consumer/trader issue?
Have you checked the following sections of this website for an answer?
- Products and services including cars, computers, mobile phones, petrol, real estate and many more
- Tips for wise shopping including refunds, lay-bys, sign contracts and many more
- Tips for buying from door-to-door salespeople, introduction agents or the internet
Does your complaint relate to buying or selling on eBay?
Disputes over items not received, or received but significantly not as described, can usually be resolved by direct communication between buyers and sellers. To facilitate resolution, eBay provides an online process where buyers and sellers can communicate with each other. You can access this facility on the eBay website.
Are you a trader wishing to complain about another trader?
We have a specific form traders can download for this purpose.
If your complaint is regarding a weights, measures or scanning issue, or a product safety issue, please use the specialised complaint forms linked to here.
Are you a consumer wishing to complain about a trader?
Please note that you must approach the trader/supplier to seek satisfaction before lodging your complaint with the Office of Fair Trading. We will not handle complaints where you have not made a reasonable attempt to resolve the matter with the trader first unless you have an exceptionally good reason.
If you do have supporting documentation, you must either scan and attach the documentation or print off the complaint form and send it, together with your documentation to the Office of Fair Trading, GPO Box 3111, Brisbane, QLD, 4001.
Our standards of service
Once we have received your complaint an officer will contact you within 10 working days to:
- acknowledge the receipt of your complaint
- inform you of your file reference number
- gain your consent to release your details to the trader (if required). Please note that if you do not wish for your details to be released to the trader, we may not be able to conciliate on your behalf.
However, if a possible breach of the legislation administered by the Office of Fair Trading is detected upon initial receipt of your complaint, it will be forwarded to our Investigations Branch and an investigations officer will contact you in due course.
We aim to resolve all complaints within 30 working days, however, difficult or more complex disputes may take longer to resolve.
We will make all efforts to contact you by telephone, so please ensure you provide a current day time telephone number on which you may be contacted. If we do not reach you by telephone we may send you a fax or write to you. If we are not able to reach you via any of these means within 10 working days we may consider the matter closed.
The Office of Fair Trading can only negotiate on your behalf and cannot make any party accept a proposed resolution to the problem. Should you wish to take the matter further you should consider taking the matter to the Small Claims Tribunal, the appropriate industry association or a solicitor.
Auzshare disclaimer
The Queensland Office of Fair Trading participates in Auzshare, a secure, web-based alerts and information-sharing initiative of Australian and New Zealand fair trading agencies. Auzshare's purpose is to ensure that key information about cross-state and other significant consumer fraud activities is accessible to participating enforcement agencies, helping them improve enforcement outcomes.
Information collected from complaints lodged with, and from, investigations undertaken by agencies may be shared with other participating fair trading agencies. Information that is shared will remain the property of the original agency and will be available for confidential use only.
Information being entered into the Auzshare database will conform to the Federal Privacy Act 1988 and be consistent with that Act's Information Privacy Principles.
Lodge a complaint
Please fill in the online complaint form.
Enquiries
If you wish to make an enquiry only - that is, you do not require the Office of Fair Trading to take any action on your part at this stage, but are seeking general information, please email the Office of Fair Trading (BrisbaneOFT@justice.qld.gov.au) - an officer will contact you with an appropriate response.
Please provide a daytime phone contact and physical address so that we can contact you directly if necessary.
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