The TIO received a total of 21,344 complaints in the September quarter 2004 – a 15.0% increase on the June quarter.

Of these complaints 10,276 (or 48.1%) were related to landline services, 7,646 (or 35.8%) were related to mobile services and 3,422 (or 16.0%) were related to internet services.

Billing

Billing in all three service types recorded increases greater than the total complaints increase.

The greatest increase was in mobiles where complaints rose almost a third (31.2%) over the June quarter. Landline billing complaints rose 17.7% per cent over the June quarter with internet complaints 27.6 per cent higher.

In the September quarter, 78.7% of the mobile complaints were attributable to the GSM network.

The greatest increase in internet billing complaints related to disputed charges for ADSL access where complaint numbers rose by 154%.

With landline billing, the largest source of complaint was in the International Data category with 530 complaints. Complaints of this nature have remained the largest source of landline billing complaint since the March 2004 quarter.

Contracts

Contracts remain the largest source of complaints for mobile services. The sub-category Advice Provided GSM accounted for the largest number of mobile contract complaints with 523 complaints.

With internet services, the biggest increase in contract complaints was in the ADSL category.

Finally, for the second quarter in a row, landline contract complaints have recorded a significant increase, rising 57.3% (from 178 to 280).

The TIO remains concerned that the majority of contract complaints across all three service types are the result of allegedly incorrect or inadequate advice given at the initial point of sale.

Credit Control

Internet credit control complaints remained relatively static between the two quarters, while landline and mobile credit control complaints recorded more significant increases. The greatest source of internet credit control complaints was in debt recovery for both ADSL and dial-up services.

Landline credit control complaints recorded an increase of 10.5%. Debt factoring by some companies continues to contribute to an increase in complaints logged against them.

Mobile credit control complaints continued to rise.

ACIF Code Breaches

The TIO recorded 1175 code breaches in the September quarter, a decrease of 58 (or 4.7%) from the numbers recorded in the June quarter. 502 Potential and 52 Confirmed breaches were logged against code signatories with 566 Possible and 55 Established breaches being recorded against non-signatories.

The number of breaches per code was fairly consistent with those recorded in the June quarter. The Billing Code accounted for the greatest number of breaches at 22.3 per cent (262) of all code breaches recorded. In the June quarter, Billing Code breaches accounted for 25.3 per cent (312).

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