Richard’s family was at risk with no landline service

The Issue

Richard lives in a rural, high fire risk area and has an InContact landline service with his telecommunications provider. Since Richard’s wife has a serious medical condition, he also has a Priority Assistance service on the landline. Living in a mobile blackspot area meant that when his landline stopped working, he had to travel over 1km from home to call emergency services.

Richard had experienced continual intermittent issues on his landline service for the last 10 years and often reported these faults to his telecommunications provider. One day, the landline stopped working entirely. Richard’s telecommunications provider sent a technician out who laid a cable on the ground so the landline would work, but this was only a temporary fix.

The technician told Richard they only completed a temporary fix and that they needed to permanently fix the line through additional works. Soon after, the service stopped working again, and Richard came to our office for assistance.

The Investigation

Through our investigation we discovered that the telecommunications provider was aware of the need to permanently replace the lead-in in 2014 but did not replace it until 2022. Despite Richard having no mobile coverage at his address, his telecommunications provider did not supply an interim service during the fault period, even when Richard requested it.

The Outcome

After some time, the parties were able to reach an agreement to resolve the complaint, and Richard’s telecommunications provider paid him a settlement amount over $2,000.

*Names of all parties have been changed.