Complaints we receive involving financial hardship include claims a telco:
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Consumer warning
A trend of complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has revealed a ‘question and answer service’ is asking consumers to pay to have their phone or internet complaint fixed.
When trying to contact your telco, you may unintentionally end up speaking with a fee-charging ‘question and answer’ service
As part of a wide-ranging panel discussion on complexity and intersectionality, Ms Gebert said that hardship and vulnerability are often invisible, and that more must be done to provide support for consumers doing it tough.
“While some consumers are more at risk of vulnerability, a majority of us will experience some form of vulnerability in our lifetime”, she said.
“Vulnerability and hardship can take many forms. Consumers tell us that there is more that Telcos can do to support their circumstances, from the moment of purchase, to paying bills”
Commenting on the enforcement of ACMA’s new telco rules being enforced from today (21 September 2018) Ombudsman Judi Jones says, “Residential consumers and small businesses want migration from their old phone or internet service to a service delivered over the National Broadband Network to go well. The ACMA’s rules give clear guidance to telcos about its expectations under the new rules, and provides a strong framework to resolve problems if these arise.
“We will take the ACMA’s new rules into account when dealing with complaints.”
The role of the telco sector is to ensure telco consumers who are experiencing family violence are treated with respect, care, and urgency when they have problems with their phone or internet products and services.
The TIO’s contact centre hours were previously aligned with Victorian and New South Wales time zones – Australian Eastern Daylight Time and Australian Eastern Standard Time. For members and consumers based in Western Australia, this only allowed a narrow timeframe to discuss a case, with a five to six hour window instead of the eight and a half hour standard work day.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman welcomes today’s announcement about enforcement action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in relation to misleading telemarketing practices about transitioning to the NBN by BVivid.
BVivid has paid $25,200 in penalties after the ACCC issued it with two infringement notices.
