1^st Energy Rebates Victoria – Dispute Resolution

As an Accredited Person with the Victorian Energy upgrades initiative, 1^st Energy Rebates Victoria, will ensure that we have a clear and effective framework in place to deal with consumer complaints concerning the conduct of the accredited person, any scheme participants carrying out a regulated action for or on behalf of us and any other person carrying out a regulated action in relation to a prescribed activity for which we will be creating a certificate.

Consumer complaints concerning the conduct of 1^st Energy Rebates Victoria and scheme participants, including the carrying out of a regulated action, the scheduling of the prescribed activity and/or the creation of certificates for the prescribed activity will be handled as described in this Dispute Resolution document.

We will provide information to the consumer of our internal dispute resolution process on our website

Our internal dispute resolution process is:

1. Negotiation
   1. We will appoint a responsible, experienced staff member to oversee the dispute.
   2. That staff member will communicate effectively and politely with the customer, discuss the issue at hand and make all reasonable attempts to resolve the issue at hand.
2. Mediation (Assisted Negotiation)
   1. A second staff member will be assigned (Director of 1^st Energy Rebates Victoria) to assist with resolving the issue.
   2. All attempts to resolve the issue will be made with a positive outcome being the aim of the mediation.
3. Conciliation (3^rd Party Assistance)
   1. If no outcome has been able to be agreed upon, it is at this point that we would refer our customer to the Victorian Energy Upgrades (03 9032 1310 or veu@esc.vic.gov.au )  or Consumer Affairs www.consumer.vic.gov.au,  to seek assistance to resolve the issue.
   2. We will assist our customer to make contact with these authorities, provide them with the necessary information to make their contact easy and assist in any way we can with any information they require from us to supply to the said authority.

If a complaint does not relate to a matter covered by our framework, we will provide to the consumer any information about the appropriate person or body that could handle the complaint and provide assistance to the consumer to contact that body and will co-operate with that person or body to resolve the complaint, if possible.

We will ensure that consumer complaints are handled in a timely and fair manner.

We will acknowledge a complaint within 5 business days after it is received and will ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to complete the internal dispute resolution process within 20 business days after the date on which the complaint is received.

1^st Energy Rebates Victoria Complaints Procedure is to be followed for any dispute resolution process.