Zed signs up with TellAll, pays by direct debit, but doesn’t get a bill

The issue

Zed signed up for an NBN internet service with TellAll and agreed to pay $99 per month by direct debit.

A month later, TellAll sent him a tax receipt instead of a bill. Zed asked the TellAll app why he didn’t get a bill.

The answer was ‘We don’t send bills for accounts paid by direct debit, only receipts.’

He later spoke to a human at TellAll, who said the same thing.

Zed was confused. He thought companies had to send bills, regardless of how you pay.

He complained to us. Zed wanted TellAll to send him bills every month and not receipts.

The investigation

We think good industry practice is for providers to send bills to all consumers, unless they use prepaid services.

This does not depend on payment methods.

We shared this expectation with TellAll, which said its billing system could only send receipts to people using services they pay for by direct debit.

The outcome

We suggested it add bill functionality to its system.

TellAll agreed, updated its system and sent Zed bills every month.

This shows how we can improve industry practice and add value for providers and their customers.

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