[Note: typos preserved.]
The Sydney Morning Herald, 06 Mar 1980, p1, p12
The Church of Scientology has refunded amounts of up to $690 to five Sydney people following their complaints to the Department of Consumer Affairs.
The people, who decided not to undertake courses run by the church after paying for them, had complained of their treatment when they asked for a refund.
They were given a six-page "refund repayment application" (which had to be completed in duplicate), setting out 27 steps to be carried out before the money could be refunded.
To complete the form, a person must see 20 people, some more than once, all of whom have to sign the document.
They include: the technical secretary, the qual interview and invoice officer or authoritative officer, the ethics officer, the director of income, the banking officer, the LHR communicator or the keeper of tech and policy knowledge, the assistant guardian for finance, the DGF continental and the director of inspections and reports.
The assistant guardian for finance for the church, Mr Gordon Bolstead, told an officer of the department last year:
"A person completes the form, (and) with the form they attach evidence of payment. The form is them forwarded to the UK and this takes approximately five to six weeks: There is no guarantee that the money would be refunded."
In one case, it was five to six months after the initial request was made before a refund was received.
Scientologists say the delay was because the person had refused to fill in the form.
They say it was a coincidence that the refund cheque arrived shortly before the case was due to be heard before the Consumer Claims Tribunal.
One woman was told in a letter: "If you do decide to take this matter to a lawyer, you will find that it will not only delay payment through legal proceeding but will also increase your costs in doing so."
The cover sheet of the form says that its purpose "is to facilitate smooth, and eventually satisfactory handling of refund and repayment requests.
"Sometimes a claimant in mid stream, so to speak, realises that he or she does not want to cut themselves off from the help that Scientology can and has given them, and does not want to continue it [the application to recover their money].
The assistant guardian of the church in Australia, the Rev Audrey Devlin, said the form was designed to help a person air any complaints in any area.
Her daughter, Jane, the surch's public relations officer, said that often the reason that people ask for their money back was that they had some misunderstanding about the church or its courses.
"If they are upset, we like to find out why."
With the aid of the form "we can correct any fault in the church if we find one."
"About half decide to change their minds" after their problems have been sorted out.
She said that the form took one or two hours to complete if done quickly. People did not have to use the form if they were "insistent."
Step 14 of the form lists a number of grounds on which "your claim may be rejected as false or not valid."
They include:
The person must sign underneath to show that he or she understands.
The last condition may come as an unpleasant surprise to some people - the rules for one of the courses forbid a person to take drugs, be under medical supervision or have dental treatment, or have sex with someone else doing the course.
Miss Devlin said most of these conditions had never been used to reject claims.
The second point, for example, was "just put in as a safeguard."
She said that being under medical treatment could interfere with a person's progress. "It takes a week for an anaesthetic or drug to wear off."
If people were under doctor's instructions, "they come back when they are better."
She said that sex between members of the same course would not make for ideal communications. "It is the same as if you work with someone.
"It is different if they are already boyfriend and girlfriend."
Miss Devlin seemed upset that the Herald put questions to her about the form.
"We have 10,000 members in NSW, of which one or two may be a little upset. If you want to do a cross-section, 90 to 95 per cent of them are very happy."
She said the church received about one form a month.
She pointed out the community activities of Scientology-sponsored groups, such as the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights.
The church was trying to institute reforms for the mentally-ill in conjunction with such groups as the Council for Civil Liberties.
The church also aimed to help senior citizens, criminals and drug addicts.