Back in March, RACCA Australia published an article on the launch of the Small Business Complaints Toolkit and how it was partially developed as an incentive for businesses to stay off the then soon-to-be launched NSW Complaints Register.
Now the NSW Complaints Register has been launched.
The NSW Complaints Register was launched by NSW Fair Trading last week, identifying all NSW businesses that were the subject of 10 or more complaints last month. According to NSW Fair Trading’s media release, LJ Hooker topped the list with 31 complaints, followed by Harvey Norman and Air Asia with 29 and 25 complaints respectively.
NSW Fair Trading Commissioner, Rod Stowe explained in the media release that the NSW Complaints Register is a win for consumers as it gives them greater information and choice in the marketplace, while it provides an incentive for traders and business owners to improve their business practices.
The media release also stated that several businesses have engaged with NSW Fair Trading to try and reduce the number of complaints and in turn avoid appearing on the register. One example of this being NSW Fair Trading’s meet with a large national business to identify complaint trends and establish methods to resolve any future issues.
NSW Fair Trading have stated on their website that the NSW Complaints Register is updated monthly in the second half of each month, with complaints data from the previous calendar month. They also stated that the information listed on the register includes the name of the business, the number of complaints received about the business in the last month and the product groups complained about. LJ Hooker’s complaints were broken down into two main categories: Property and Tenancy/Bonds/Parks with four product name subcategories: property–purchase or sale, property management (landlords), tenancy–residential and bond–residential.
The NSW Complaints Register can be found here.