Priority assistance
If you have a life-threatening medical condition and need access to a working landline service, you may be able to get priority when connecting or repairing a landline service. Your provider should tell you whether they offer priority assistance. If they do, they should help you get the assistance you need. Telstra is the only provider required to offer priority assistance to eligible customers.
TIPS
How you can work with your provider to get priority assistance
Tell your provider why you need priority assistance and who you need access to (for example: 000, a local hospital, a nurse)
If your provider cannot offer priority assistance, they need to tell you this as soon as possible and tell you which providers can offer you this
You may need to provide a certificate of the medical condition to confirm your eligibility
OUR EXPECTATIONS
What we expect your provider to do
If you need access to a landline service for a life- threatening medical condition, your provider should:
Tell you about priority assistance
Your provider should tell you about priority assistance and if it can give this to you. If your provider cannot give you priority assistance, they need to tell you which providers can.
Temporarily grant you priority assistance
If you are not registered for priority assistance, your provider should temporarily treat you as a priority assistance customer and send you a form to confirm eligibility.
Meet priority assistance timeframes
Your provider should connect or fix the fault with your landline service within 24 hours in urban or rural areas, and within 48 hours in remote areas.
Keep you updated and connected
If your provider cannot meet these timeframes, they need to provide you with an interim service.
Not take credit management action
Your provider should not suspend or disconnect your landline service if you have priority assistance.
Ready to make a complaint?
10-20 minutes
OUR CONSIDERATIONS
We look at what went wrong, what your provider told you, and if they did enough to fix it.
Did you tell your provider you needed access to a landline for a life threatening medical condition?
Did your provider tell you about priority assistance when you signed up, or when you asked about it?
Was there a delay in connecting orf fixing your landline service?
Did your provider offer you an interim service?
POSSIBLE OUTCOMES
Depending on your issue, we may ask your provider to...
Release you from the contract
Let you leave without cost.
Provide priority assistance
If they offer priority assistance to apply this to your service.
Provide compensation for any delays
If there was a delay in connecting or fixing your landline service, they need to assess if you are eligible for compensation under the Customer Service Guarantee Standard.