Moderation
Part of Handling community conflict and incidents
Managing disputes involving paying customers
Handle a paying customer’s conduct and complaint separately, with fair moderation and a clear route for the purchase or service issue.
Treat a paying customer’s conduct and their complaint as separate decisions. Apply the community’s conduct rules fairly, then give the commercial complaint an accountable route. Payment does not permit a member to target others. Moderating a post does not decide whether the business owes a remedy.
Separate the issues
Identify what the customer wants: a charge checked, a fault addressed, a staff response reviewed, or a disagreement with another member resolved. Note the outcome sought before focusing on tone.
A complaint may be valid even if part of the post breaches a conduct rule. A civil post may still describe a problem the business must address.
Move account numbers, invoices and other customers’ details to an appropriate private channel. Keep a general policy question visible where it can help others, while the individual account decision is reviewed privately.
The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. For consumer-guarantee triage, check whether the goods or services cost less than $100,000, or cost more than $100,000 and are normally acquired for personal, domestic or household use. Guarantees also cover vehicles or trailers mainly used to transport goods on public roads.
Key facts about consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law
- Applicable to purchases under $100,000
- Yes – all consumer guarantees apply regardless of price.
- Applies to purchases over $100,000
- Only if intended for personal, domestic or household use.
- Vehicle or trailer use
- Guarantees apply if used mainly for transporting goods on public roads.
- No fixed guarantee period
- Duration depends on product type, use, and reasonable useful life.
Moderate conduct consistently
Read the words and surrounding exchange against the published rule. Leave sharp but rule-compliant criticism available. Where a post includes a personal attack, seek an edit or remove the offending material if the platform permits. Explain the conduct decision without declaring the underlying complaint false.
Apply the same standard to staff, volunteers and valued customers. If two paying members disagree, gather enough context to decide the conduct issue without requiring either to present a private case publicly. Record the reason for any restriction and give the member the review route the community actually offers.
Give the commercial question its own owner
Send the customer’s transaction concern to someone authorised to inspect records and respond. Record what the customer says happened, the outcome sought, the case owner and a realistic next update. Give the customer a private route that does not require repeating account details in the thread.
Route a request about a consumer guarantee to the business that sold or supplied the goods or services. Customers can ask that business for a repair, replacement or refund if the goods or services do not meet a consumer guarantee; the moderator and a platform that did not make the sale should not promise or decide the remedy.
A consumer guarantee may apply even after a manufacturer’s warranty ends. There is no single guarantee period for every claim: its length depends on factors such as the goods or services, time since purchase, likely use and reasonable useful life. Services must be supplied within a reasonable time if no timeframe was agreed.
The ACCC educates businesses and consumers about their rights and obligations under the consumer guarantees and provides information to help consumers and businesses make and respond to complaints. Its guidance, “Contacting a business to fix a problem”, also explains how to approach a business. The ACCC accepts reports and uses them to inform its work, but does not resolve individual disputes about whether guarantees have been met or what remedy is due, and does not provide legal advice.
State and territory consumer protection agencies manage individual complaints and issues with businesses in their state or territory, and may offer voluntary dispute services. If the business has not resolved the individual complaint, direct the customer to the relevant agency rather than treating an ACCC report as an individual dispute-resolution process.
The responsible support or legal team should assess the particular claim. A moderator should neither promise nor deny a refund, or treat a conduct decision as an answer to a consumer-rights concern.
Moderation vs. consumer rights: what each party handles
- Platform/moderator roleEnforces community conduct rules; does not decide on refunds, repairs or replacements.
- Business responsibilityMust address consumer guarantee issues; provide repair, replacement or refund if goods/services fail to meet guarantees.
- ACCC roleEducates consumers and businesses; collects reports but does not resolve individual disputes or provide legal advice.
- State/territory agenciesHandle individual complaints and may offer voluntary dispute resolution if the business fails to act.
Communicate each decision clearly
A public moderation note can address the visible conduct and leave the general question open: “We removed personal remarks. Questions about the policy may continue here. The account-specific concern has been passed to support for private review.” Use the last sentence only when that handoff has occurred.
Tell the customer privately which conduct rule was applied and where the purchase issue now sits. Give a named owner and timeframe only when confirmed. A reporter may be told that their concern was reviewed, without receiving the customer’s purchase details or private remedy.
Moderator checklist: handling disputes with paying customers
- Public moderation note includesReason for removing content (e.g., personal attack), and that the commercial issue is being handled privately.
- Private message to customerStates which conduct rule was applied and where their case has been sent.
- Do not discloseAccount details, invoice numbers, or private remedy decisions in public.
- Review process availableEnsure the member knows how to request a review of the moderation decision.
Finish both tracks
The moderation record should contain the rule, action, notice and any review request. The customer case should contain the transaction concern, owner and eventual response.
Closing one must not silently close the other. If a public policy question remains, answer it without exposing the customer’s account.
