Simon suspected someone was interfering with his mobile account but Dialling denied it

The issue

Simon was an account holder with Dialling.

He reported issues with his mobile service to Dialling.

He experienced blocked calls and couldn’t make outgoing calls on his mobile service.

He told Dialling he suspected someone set up services in his name about a year ago without his authorisation because in Dialling’s app he saw a mobile number and an email address unknown to him and had to pay additional charges.

Dialling said its fraud team investigated the account and found no evidence of external control but removed the mobile number and email address and waived the charges.

He asked Dialling to put a lock on his account.

Despite Simon’s efforts to resolve the issue, including hiring a telecommunications technician who said someone had control of his phone, Dialling's responses failed to resolve the issues.

Simon wanted to be sure his account was secure, so he complained to us.

The investigation

We asked Dialling what it had done to resolve Simon’s complaint.

It said its fraud team investigated and found no evidence of anyone controlling the phone remotely.

It said Simon must have set up the mobile number and email address by mistake and waived associated charges of $150.

We asked Dialling to give us account notes for the last two years.

We found entries in the notes from around the time Simon first reported issues that had no identifying staff code but clearly showed the addition of the mobile number and service.

We also found the removal of the lock Simon asked Dialling to put on his account, again with no identifying staff code.

We asked Dialling to make Simon an appropriate offer and it refused to do so.

The outcome

In a Fair and Reasonable Assessment, we recommended Dialling pay Simon $2,500.

This was because Dialling’s records showed the mobile service was added without Simon’s authorisation, Dialling did not take reasonable steps to protect Simon’s personal information when it allowed the mobile service to be added by someone it could not identify, and Dialling had not adequately responded to Simon’s concerns.

Both parties accepted the Fair and Reasonable Assessment.

*Names of individuals, organisations and companies have been changed.