Staff changes at the TIO

There have been considerable staffing changes at the TIO since the last edition of TIO Talks in March. The major changes were the recruitment of two lots of Investigations and Enquiry Officers to cope with the increase in call numbers. The staff changes are:

Arrivals

Kimberley Lloyd (who has worked on telecommunications law issues at Allens Arthur Robinson); Brad Crammond (who has just completed a law degree); Dean Hamence (who has a complaint handling background with Telstra); Jason Fink (a law graduate with casework experience at the Tenants Union of Victoria Legal Service); Lou Taylor (previously working as a paralegal in commercial law firms and has been studying law); Andrew Sawle (who worked in litigation support and document management for a London law firm); Lauren Blake (law degree); Talitha Byrne (law degree); Carmel Cumberbatch (law degree and call centre experience at Telstra); Chris Baldock (Telstra escalated complaints); Byron Thompson (call centre experience with Telstra, Austar, and GE Finance & Insurance); Lisa Karu (law degree); Jonathan Tunn (involved in complaint research for Telstra Countrywide and NAB); Ed Leslie (senior customer resolutions officer from GE Capital Finance Australia); Clare Tucker (five years complaint resolution in the automotive industry); and Simon McKenzie (Wardrobe Operations Co-ordinator for Alsco Services at Crown Casino).

Sam Marquard and Brea Acton, both former TIO administration staff members, have been trained as casual Enquiry Officers. Claire Paksoy, Olivia Munro and Kelly Rice have all returned from maternity leave. Lucreccia Quintanilla has joined the administrative staff, Andrew Nolan has joined our IT team, Debbie Ross has joined the finance and human resources staff and Phillip Money has joined as Public Relations Manager.

Departures

Alison Hollins has left to take maternity leave. Michael McKiterick, who has worked as an Investigations and Enquiry Officer, is leaving this month to take up a position as a solicitor in Echuca.

Council Changes

Ross Wheeler has joined the Council as the elected member representative of internet service providers. Ross is the proprietor of Albury Local Internet, which has been in business since May 1995. While on the Council, Ross said he would aim to provide better representation for ISPs.

“I will be looking out for our side of the industry; improving things including the perception of the TIO within the industry.”

John De Satge joins the Council as the representative of the Waluwarra Aboriginal Corporation. John has worked extensively with indigenous community organisations including the Mt Isa Aboriginal Media Association and the Community Aid Abroad Indigenous Australia programs. He aims to be a conduit between the TIO and indigenous people who are gaining access to technology. “I want them to have an understanding of the role that the TIO plays,” he said. He also hopes to bring an awareness of the telecommunications needs of people in rural and remote communities of Australia.

Karen Langtry is serving as alternate Elected Member Representative while Robyn Ziino is on maternity leave. Karen is the Chief Operating Officer for Sydney-based Digiplus, a telephone and internet service provider. Karen is well versed in customer service issues having spent seven years at Digiplus and 21 years at Telstra in customer focussed roles. She said she is hoping to bring an operational perspective to the activities of the Council. “As much as anything, I will also be using my experience on the Council as a way of enhancing the customer’s relationship with Digiplus.”

Ewan Brown, who left the Council at the expiry of his term at the end of June 2004, has been involved with the TIO Scheme since its inception in 1994. He was involved in the initial discussions to establish the Scheme and subsequently appointed to the inaugural Council by the then Minister for Consumer Affairs.

He cites as highlights:

• Watching the Scheme grow to gain the respect of users and to deliver an important service.
  
• Seeing the Scheme adopt a more proactive approach rather than simply relying on complaints.
  
• Seeing the TIO provide very valuable support to consumer representatives in seeking to redress imbalances between suppliers and users.

He says that during his time on the Council the adoption by consumer/user group representatives of a cohesive approach to addressing consumer issues was beneficial and he was proud of the achievements that this had brought about.

Consumer Contracts Code

The Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) is in the process of developing a code that identifies and prohibits the use of unfair contract terms in telecommunications contracts for residential and small business customers. The code draws on Part 2B of the Victorian Fair Trading Act. Development of the code commenced in May 2004 at the request of the Australian Communications Authority.

The code committee has recently reconvened to consider submissions received during the public comment period. An issue of particular contention continues to be contract terms regarding unilateral variation. In summary, the consumer and TIO view on the committee is that consumers should have the option of exiting from a contract if a change in the contract results in detriment to the consumer, while the industry’s view is that the right to exit a contract should only be afforded when material detriment is suffered. The TIO is a non-voting member of the committee. The code should be completed by early to mid 2005.

Broadband Investigation Officers

The TIO is training four existing staff to act as broadband Investigation Officers. Once they have completed training, these staff will investigate broadband-related complaints at Level 2 and above, and will also assist with enquiries and Level 1 complaints about these issues, as well as continuing to handle complaints about other issues.

From the Annual Report

The TIO released its Annual Report on Tuesday, November 9. Below are some of the highlights.

Complaint Trends

The number of complaints increased this year by almost eight per cent to 59,850. This was the first rise in complaints since 2001, when OneTel collapsed.

A total of 53.2 per cent of complaints were about landline services, 31.6 per cent were about mobile services and 15.3 per cent were about internet services. Landline complaints continued to fall at the expense of complaints about mobile phones.

Areas of Complaint

The most common cause of complaint across landline and internet categories was billing. In the mobile service category, the most common cause of complaint was contracts followed by billing. Other common causes of complaint across all three categories were credit management, customer service and faults. Complaints about internet provisioning more than doubled from 519 to 1,340. A total of 82.3% of these were about the provisioning of ADSL services, which reflects the growing move to broadband.

Profile of complainants

A total of 56 per cent of complaints came from men, with the balance from women. About 92 per cent of complaints came from residential consumers with the balance from small businesses. The most common way for people to contact the TIO was by phone (88 per cent) with email (8 per cent) the next most frequent method of access.

Small business complaints were likely to be more complex than those received from residential consumers, with only 85.8 per cent resolved at level 1, as opposed to the general resolution figure of 89.7 per cent.

Code Statistics

There were 5,111 breaches of the Australian Communications Industry Forum’s (ACIF) Consumer Codes in 2003/04, an increase of 944 or 22.7 per cent on the previous year. These comprised 2,197 potential and 253 confirmed code breaches against signatories and 2,429 possible and 232 established breaches against non-signatories. In most cases it is difficult to ascribe the increase to any particular practice or providers. Rather, it appears to be industry wide. The increases may to some extent be attributed to the TIO’s growing awareness and familiarity with codes, and that the number of complaints recorded is a more accurate indication of non-compliance.