Complaints and disputes
What we can do, what we cannot, and who has more power than us.
Version 1.0 · last updated 10 Sep 2026. We tell registered users before a material change takes effect.
Start here
- Tell your provider. Most problems are a missed message rather than bad faith, and the Code requires them to respond properly to a complaint about their work.
- Raise a dispute on the engagement page. That freezes what can be frozen, records your account of it, and puts the provider on a clock to respond. We ask them to answer and to say whether they accept mediation, and we record both.
- We review. We look at the agreement, the invoices, the messages and the file. We can refund you from the provider's account for payments made through the platform, suspend the provider, or close their account.
What we cannot do
We cannot decide whether professional advice was correct, order compensation beyond payments made through the platform, affect your visa application, or discipline a provider's registration. We are a marketplace, not a regulator, and a platform that implies otherwise is misleading you.
Who has more power than us
- A registered migration agent behaved badly: complain to the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. They can caution, suspend or cancel a registration.
- A lawyer behaved badly: complain to the legal services commissioner in the state or territory where they are admitted.
- Someone unregistered charged you: report to the Australian Border Force. OMARA has no power over people who are not registered, and this is a criminal offence.
- A consumer law problem: the ACCC and your state or territory fair trading office. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be excluded by anyone's terms, including ours.
- A privacy problem: complain to us first, then the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
- A card payment: your bank, through a chargeback.
If you complain about us
Email trust@visabid.io. We acknowledge within 2 business days and aim to resolve within 15. If we have not resolved it to your satisfaction, we will say so plainly and tell you where to take it next rather than leaving you to find out.
Retaliation
We do not close, downrank or restrict an account because the person complained about us, about a provider, or to a regulator. If that ever appears to have happened, say so and we will look at it as a priority.
They were prepared carefully and with the current law in mind, but they have not been settled by an Australian legal practitioner. If you are relying on them to run a business, have them reviewed. If you are a user relying on them to understand your rights, note that your rights under the Australian Consumer Law exist whatever any document says.