The TIO recorded 42,681 complaint issues in the March 2007 quarter, a 20.7 per cent increase on the 35,371 complaint issues logged in the December 2006 quarter.

Of these complaints, 14,838 (35 per cent) related to landline services, 14,190 (33 per cent) related to mobile services, and 13,653 (32 per cent) related to internet services.
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Please note, complaints received under the MPSI Scheme are reported separately and all MPSI related statistics have been removed from the Complaints Issues reported in this section.

Billing and Payments
Billing and Payment complaints issues account for 20 per cent of all complaint issues in the March 2007 quarter, compared to 24.2 per cent in the December 2006 quarter. The 21.7 per cent reduction in mobile Billing and Payment complaint issues is due to the TIO now recording complaints related to premium SMS services under the MPSI Scheme, rather than an actual decrease in complaint numbers. Internet Billing and Payment complaint issues increased by 14.0 per cent and landline by 15.6 per cent.

Complaints relating to the Total of Bill account for 22.3 per cent of all landline billing complaint issues. The second largest category of complaints remained Timed Calls which accounted for 11.7 per cent of landline Billing and Payment complaint issues.

The primary type of complaint for internet users related to Internet Usage Charges, which accounted for 18.4 per cent of all internet Billing and Payment complaint issues. Complaints related to service charges accounted for 15.4 per cent, the second highest area of internet Billing and Payment complaint issues.

The most frequent type of mobile Billing and Payment complaint was for Total of Bill complaint issues (20.8 per cent). The next most common complaint issue related to Termination Fees (11.1 per cent).

Complaint Handling
Complaint Handling accounted for 16.2 per cent of complaint issues in the March 2007 quarter, compared to 15.6 per cent in the December 2006 quarter. This represents a total of 6,897 complaint issues, of which 34.4 per cent relate to landline services, 34 per cent relate to mobile, and the remaining 31.6 per cent to internet services.

Complaints issues relating to an alleged failure of suppliers to advise dissatisfied customers of the existence of the TIO accounted for 70.8 per cent of all Complaint Handling complaint issues. Mobile providers recorded 36.7 per cent of all Failure to Refer to TIO complaint issues, almost equalled by landline providers (34.7 per cent). This category also accounted for 76.3 per cent of all mobile Complaint Handling complaint issues.

Faults
Faults accounted for 14.3 per cent of all complaints issues recorded in the March 2007 quarter, with increases across all service types. Mobile Faults complaint issues rose by 29.8 per cent, and internet and landline Fault complaint issues rose by 37.8 per cent and 33.6 per cent respectively.

Mobile Equipment Faults again recorded the highest number of Fault complaint issues, accounting for 27.5 per cent of all Fault complaint issues, 71 per cent of all mobile Faults complaints issues, and 3.9 per cent of all complaints to the TIO for the quarter. The TIO also recorded a high number of complaint issues relating to Service Coverage – 13.5 per cent.

The largest number of landline Fault complaint issues was for CSG: Fully Unworkable, with 844 complaint issues, or 54 per cent of all landline Fault complaint issues. This represents a 32.5 per cent increase on the December 2006 quarter, continuing on from a 55.5 per cent increase in the September 2006 quarter.

Recurring/Intermittent and CSG Partly Unworkable were the next highest numbers of landline Fault complaint issues, at 14.3 per cent and 14.7 per cent of the category respectively.

Internet Faults accounted for 35.8 per cent of all Faults complaint issues. Internet Fully Unworkable complaint issues accounted for 44 per cent of all internet Fault and 15.7 per cent of all Fault complaint issues. Drop Outs and Slow Data Speed were responsible for 20.1 per cent and 13.9 per cent respectively of the Internet Faults category.

ACIF Codes
The TIO recorded 14,276 possible code breaches, and 70 confirmed breaches, in the March 2007 quarter. This increase of 10.0 per cent, or 1,302 possible breaches, is not unexpected given the additional 7,310 complaints issues recorded for the period.

Billing Code breaches, which included possible and confirmed breaches, accounted for 33.9 per cent of all code breaches. This was a 3.6 per cent decrease on the March 2007 quarter. This reduction is largely due to TIO now logging premium SMS complaints as complaints under the Mobile Premium Services Industry Scheme. Confirmed Billing Code breaches account for 28.6 per cent of all confirmed code breaches. The major cause of complaint under this Code was the alleged failure of suppliers to verify charges.

Breaches (possible and confirmed) of the Complaint Handling Code were the second largest source of all breaches, accounting for 34.4 per cent of all breaches recorded by the TIO, as well as 17.1 per cent of all confirmed breaches. The major cause of complaint under this code remains the alleged failure of suppliers to advise dissatisfied customers of their external avenues of recourse, such as the TIO.

Complaint Statistics against TIO Members
Complaint by Issue
Complaint by Level