AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT, DEPT COMMERCE & TRANSPORT Review

Always been able to call and get great advice from them on different matters. Very helpful!

I found both their website and phone service very helpful. Obviously they aren't there to give legal advice but definately helped point me in the right direction. Was amazed that my call was answered straight away too

I have used these guys a heap of times. They are great. I haven't across any rude people. I don't think there has been a case they haven't gotten me a satisfactory outcome on yet, and I would say that they have helped me out on at least 10 cases over the years through the various name changes they seem to go through. It's 5 stars from me.

Toothless tigers. I provided an extensively documented case of a small wedding planning business who failed to deliver and then broke contract without offering a refund. They even hired a lawyer to threaten me over a review I left detailing this bad experience.

After a 6 week investigation period was I advised that since the business did not agree they had broken consumer law (duh), I would have to take them to court myself.

I had to also hire a lawyer to confirm that honest online reviews are not defamation, but there are no consumer protections in place for frivolous legal abuse by shady businesses who can drag you through the courts if they have the inclination

Save your time - just go straight to small claims, and hope that the business you're dealing with doesn't have a lawyer on hand to bully you with.

The government needs to wake up and stop creating departments that cannot help, have staff employed that are not interested and are overpaid to do nothing. This country is doomed as a result of the Government. This department has and always will be unhelpful and waste of taxpayers money.

They were helpful and gave me the confidence in pursuing a replacement engine for my car. They furnished me with the information and helped formulate a plan to achieve a positive outcome. They can t do everything but the advice they can provide can lead you to find out what can be done, and or give you the confidence to ask. Special thanks to Jane

Consumer Law issue. I spoke to Andy who was really helpful and polite. I was sad about the previous reviews. Please remember
The advice is free , the person you speak to can only tell you what the law is, which might not be what you want to hear. It offers a sense of direction.

michelle was screaming at me only becasue i wanst listening to her

Friendly and informative staff. The staff member was very knowledgable and helpful.

If I could give half or no stars I would..
Wow, how f...n disappointing.
Basically, the advise was the usual..
YOU, THE CONSUMER..-GO BACK TO THE COMPLAINANT PARTY &THOROUGHLY TICK ALL OUR BOXES /REQUIREMENTS , even though I told him I'd done that.
Thanks sooooo much, protecting NOTHING(no consumer protection) but yourselves
Pathetic & an example of another tax funded rort ought to be monitored by an impartial third party..
Unfortunately, this is the second time this department has let me down; this grievance, over accommodation
And some 10yrs prior, as an employee, only attempting to collect 4wks unpaid holidays..
Finally given half of what was owed after nearly a year,& told to be thankful for that, that a zero amount would have gone unpunished REGARDLESS.
Are you kidding!

Spoke to John today about a requirement to be provided for vacant land block as a developer and he was very knowledgeable. Most people don't take time to compliment so let us also encourage good service, to give opportunity to improve

My Daughter just spoken to two wonderful ladies of the name of Sophie and Nicola and they where fantastic giving her sound advice into helping her an issue with her car and that they seemed very worried for her issue (chrome peeling and being a cutting hazard) thanks again to Nicola and Sophie!! Have a wonderful xmas and new year!

Bad experience initially but they ultimately resolved my issue satisfactorily.

I had a very positive outcome.. case manager was excellent.
It was a car warranty claim that the lousy dealer would not cover even though my car stated in service book that it still was under warranty. Apparently "their computer stated car was out of warranty 2 months earlier, when it was 1st registered". Which was incorrect according to Consumer Complaints.
Case manager intervened and contacted regional manager of car maker and he confirmed to Dealership car WAS under warranty.
The lousy dealership then agreed to cover it.
Thanks Lee

There are so many bad reviews on here. It almost scared me off going there. I m glad I decided to give it a try anyway. We went there this morning to discuss a problem we are having with a land and house package. The gentleman helping us (I regret not remembering his name) was simply amazing. He listened to our story and gave us advice about multiple things. Yes they are not allowed to give you legal advice, but they know their stuff and point you in the right direction. We re very grateful for the help we got this morning.

I just wanted to update my review because I ended up calling Consumer Protection this morning in regards to an issue with our previous real estate. Once again I don't understand why everyone is so negative on here and why they are getting such a low score. The person I spoke to was extremely professional and has given me some great advice. I'm very grateful for being able to contact them and getting such good advice on things. Don't let the bad reviews scare you off from reaching out to them!

Called to get advice before sending out a statement to our customers to make sure we were doing the right thing, as it's a brave new world of cancellations under Covid-19. We followed their advice exactly and then a month later got an email saying they had received complaints about how we handled it... WHEN WE LITERALLY DID WHAT THEY SAID?? What a joke.

I frequently recommend that people call DOCEP, to get unbiased, rational advice. I am a trader, and call them when I need to clarify a point of trader/consumer behaviour. I have ALWAYS found DOCEP to be helpful, even when I may have not liked what they told me! I'm writing this, in rebuttal of all the negative reviews I have just read!

They don't know the law. They actually told me manufacturers warranty supersedes Australian Consumer Law. False!

Not helping people, unfair service, don't care about complain and lack knowledge stuffs. Even with paper evidence still lean to dealer side. Worst department in Australia.

I was making an inquiry over the phone, but the way Kerry, from Consumer Protection, spoke to me was rude and unhelpful. I can't see how she can help people with her attitude.

useless and do nothing to tenants who steal & trash houses, nor to dishonest real estate agents, a toothless tiger who abuses private landlords instead of criminals. Very disappointing

Disgraceful! : these people are SO unprofessional, SO unhelpful and basically just want to close the file and let traders get away with murder.
If you have a problem with a shop or trader you want to go to consumer protection as a last resort: but save yourself further headaches: THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING
Commissioner David Hillyard: your department is behaving just like APRA with the banks: DO NOTHING. You have not learnt anything from the Royal Commission into banks. An investigation into consumer protection is long overdue! Worst government department in WA.

Such a waste of time calling this departmemt. The staff are very rude and unhelpful.

I found both their website and phone service very helpful. Obviously they aren't there to give legal advice but definately helped point me in the right direction. Was amazed that my call was answered straight away too

A complete waste of time and energy. Consumers can help themselves better.

Really poor, wasted my time and did nothing to resolve bet you if you call up they will make u wait 10 days to tell u that u have to go to court....I am going to take action against these people and believe everyone should support...as our tax money should be going to something better then paying useless employees not going to mention my poor customer care representative.

Bunbury department
Waiting for 10 days no one contact me so I have to rang her ( my case manager)
I ask her when she gonna start with my case? She said : I don t know, it would taking up to 8 weeks.
I guess 8 weeks later the business I complained about might not let me return the product anymore... too long ... the business might be gone by that time.
I rang her manager to confirm if it s need to wait that long to starting my case?
The manager said WE ARE FREE SERVICE !
I guess this mean DON T EXPECT A GOOD SERVICE.

Ok , we don t pay for the service. Does anyone know are they working for free? Does government pay their salaries? Are we paying tax?
Ok, I withdrewed my complaint.
Thanks for giving me hope at the beginning.

I was having difficulties getting a refund from an overseas airline that cancelled my flights due to the Wuhan Virus. They had given me a case number; said it might take a few days. Months later and after numerous failures from them to respond to my messages I got in touch with Consumer Protection.
Well done Linda and Jessica! Within 3 weeks my refund was credited to my Account. Good Work!

Extremely friendly and helpful staff...could not answer my query, but put me in the direction of someone who could.

Nothing can help. Can't give you advice and very impatient to answer the questions, unprofessional people. Why people call for advice if they don't need help? What the department really means for ?!

Useless.
They have no power to do anything. Waste of time. Are taxpayers forking out for this non existent service??

Highly recommended for anyone wishing to start their own business or whom are currently operating as Individual or Sole Trader. The workshops are always informative and I received very helpful and effective one-on-one service plus fantastic resources such as a hub, with on-hand advisors.

went here for advice and support regarding purchase of a secondhand vehicle. John at the information desk was patient and knowledgeable. dealership was unresponsive, so i went ahead and filed a complaint. the case officer, Lee Davies, handled my case unsatisfactorily. there was little "consumer protection" given. they just facilitated communication, managed to get the dealership fix some minor issues under warranties, still leaving me with $2,000 repairs.

What a waste of space Pearl Wilson.
I contacted ConsPro about a scam Woolworths email and I get a prompt for my credit card details to pay for a legal opinion.
What a joke, ConsPro are no better than the scammer.

Completely unhelpful and time wasting.

Told me to take legal action - gee, thanks.

They could have easily mediated the dispute instead of complicating matters further.

I called the Department regarding issuing a copy of Eftpos machine receipt. It was obvious that the person didn't know the matter a 100% and kept repeating one sentence that he new. Absolutely not helpful!

Seriously this is just a joke, customers are calling for help and asking for protection against seller coz we do not know most of the laws. and you advise to talk with the dealer rather obviously dealer wont take any responsibility. Such a rude behaviour with customers who already in trouble and knoking your door never expected that. Feels like just sitting and doing nothing for custmoers still getting paid from our tax.

Did you see that how lazy they are just copy and past same reply on negative reviews, such pathetic withought reading the review

A waste of five dollars, waiting, thanks for nothing.

Called for advice on an issue and met with polite and direct information about an issue...thankyou

This department is a joke.

Had an issue with a dodgy business, complained to this organisation, was told of this so called conciliation they try to do between complainant and business. After all the up and down mumbo jumbo, was told the business doesn't want to come to the party and there is nothing they can do. Was told to take it to the courts.

This organisation is a total waste of tax payers money. It's there for nothing!

The guy assigned to my case was nice enough. But the end result was that they could not do anything. Tradie is still trading because there is nothing these guys can do. Seriously. Not good enough the tradie promises to fix damage to consumer protection and then no follow up to ensure tradie does. And tradie has been uncontactable by me. Advise from consumer protection was to follow with court.

Biased service. Not professional people. Sometimes they do not have the right attitude to problem-solving.

I am absolutely disgusted with how I was spoken to by Michelle at consumer protection! I felt belittled by her with the way she was addressing me and questioning my complaint.

If she has this attitude with everyone, then she should not be doing the job she is in

I am leaving this review because I don't like seeing poor reviews which have no real substance, (or facts) and represent no more than personal venting.
I had dealings with Consumer Protection over a period of two years, with respect to a tree lopping service not acting within the rules of the law when quoting a job.
Although I managed to get my payment refunded directly through my Visa card, the team at Consumer Protection took on the case based on unlawful actions by the service provider.
They had previous complaints about the same tree lopping service provider and wanted to stop this company from repeating their unacceptable business practices.
All they asked of me was to appear at court as a witness, and provide factual details of my experience.
The initial Magistrate's Court case against the tree lopper didn't stand, but Consumer Protection department believed that a law was broken and so decided to appeal against the Magistrates Court ruling - their appeal was won, and a legal precedent established.
To me, this is testimony to the fact that if a law is broken by a trader, Consumer Protection does indeed help the consumer - but the consumer does have a responsibility to provide clear evidence of facts.
Without facts, or evidence that a law was broken, we can't really expect them to do any more than negotiate a compromise.

Lodged a formal formed complaint about 2 businesses but was told that they have no legal power to do anything. Why ask me to fill up detailed forms of the issue then? I don't need talk therapy. Was asked to take legal action on my own

Zero stars, complete waste of time reporting your complaint to these people. They could not care less if you have been ripped off by a retailer hundreds of dollars. I was sold a dodgy security door that does not even close. Its not like it was a toaster or something lame, its a product I rely on to protect. They did not send the complaint form after 2 calls and spent 2 hours on hold on Friday calling for the third time. Forth time I just get a busy tone now. To all the people reading this I would not bother trying to resolve it by calling these people. I recommend you take the law into your own hands and use you imagination instead. After all... as Justin Timberlake says... what goes around, comes around.

Totally useless service another Government department filled with useless garbage

originally spoke to an officer in perth who seemed very informative. sent my file into bunbury office; however, it took months to get a reply and when i did it was hopeless and had nothing to do with the query i posed. the person, annetta even managed to get my name transposed with the defendant's surname!! i didn't bother ringing the latter person back after her response (which apparently she'd got from someone else). however, did think to re-ring perth office who again seemed far more knowledgeable and put me on to legal aid who got back to me a couple of weeks later. thank you perth office you need 5 stars! the two missing are somewhere floating above bunbury!

As usual the business is allowed to carry on ripping off the public. Pointless service. Thanks for wasting my time.

As long as unsupervised, lazy, employees with no commitment to work and in addition sadly with tendency to lie (like Helen Hart and Margaret Pinkus) are employed in Consumer Protection, far long dodgy businesses in Australia will thrive and flourish keeping customers to be ripped off from their money with no consequences at all.

If no significant change in the department is going to be introduced very soon, keeping positions there (paying wages to employees for their poor job performance) will continue to be a total waste of taxpayers' money!

Dodgy businesses though can be for sure quite positive, optimistic, and very happy to keep the things in the Department as they are NOW, while many WA customers (incl me) are feeling very disappointed with Consumer protection workers job performance and my time to help (not myself but thousands of WA consumers mainly) unfortunately wasted. Shame!

They r useless

They don't understand what they doing
They told me to call small business

Small Business which I can complain business to business , then small business told to complain to them

Then , I ring , they told me to complain Small business, I explained, I m not a business man, I don't have ABN number, I buy a card , they still telling me to small business complain department , finally, u can do if u want but will see

What to do ??????

So so unhelpful for Coustomer

Totally wast of tax payers $

Spoke to Lee this morning to get advice on a problem I am having with a tv that I bought from Kogan. Com, he was very helpful! Thanks

When ever I have a question usually for advise about realastate stuff Wendy deserve a a 10 star tho but I find em helpful thanks heaps

Hi everyone, share with my experience so you don t have Waste your time.
1. Take up to 2 weeks to contract you since you put a complaint.
2. Take up to 8 weeks to get back to u.
3. No guarantees they will on your side.
4. No guarantees they will get a solution.
5. This department have no legal right to making any forceable actions.
6. They just on your behalf talking, nothing else. The business owner won t scared become they have no power to do anything to them.

Suggestion : 1. Government should get rid of this department instead of have separate small courts to make this kind of disputes quicker and easier.
( government waste money to have lots of people work for ACCC answer phone calls but can t do anything. No time frame for them to sort out your case, they could doing nothing or very slow. Waste taxpayers s money to have those people)
2. Now, if you have any dispute with any business, you should directly go to court or negotiate with the business owner. Or pay for your lessons. Maybe a review to share you experience, this will benefit other people.
Thanks for read.

I have used Consumer Protection several times over the past few years. I have found them extremely helpful and courteous. They have created a pathway to a refund each time, either through their magistrate's court or through contact with the offending business. They warn us of scams, which abound through the website and the media. Great service

All evidence provided to the department for investigation regarding a malice business. However, instead of carrying out a through investigation to find out if the company have breached any consumer law(s), all I received was a quick unsatisfactory "closing letter" after a so-called conciliation process and I was told to seek legal advice. I let the case officer know that I could not afford legal costs - the response I received was that there was nothing Consumer Protection could do to help me. Totally hopeless !