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
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 has appointed Queen Margaret University from Edinburgh, Scotland to conduct the 2022 review, including the public consultation.
Commenting on the review, Ombudsman Judi Jones said the organisation has “come a long way” since the previous review in 2017.
“This review provides an opportunity to reflect on how we are performing. It provides a valuable contribution to what we need to focus on in order to improve our service for consumers.”
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”
Privacy rights matter because they protect your information from being misused or accessed without consent.
The most common complaints we see about privacy issues involve:
When handling complaints involving privacy issues, we may ask you or your provider for more information. This could include:
Consumer complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reached a five-year low in 2012-13, according to the TIO annual report released today.
The TIO received 158,652 new complaints about landline, mobile and internet issues in the 2012-13 financial year – an 18.1 decrease on the previous year.
There was a 25.6 decrease in the number of complaints received about mobile phones – or more than 31,000 fewer complaints. Mobile phone complaints accounted for 57 per cent of new TIO complaints.
The Ombudsman Judi Jones' TIO Opening remarks Inquiry into the business case for the NBN and the experiences of small businesses Joint Standing Committee on the NBN can be found here.
Today the Government announced the Telecommunications (Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) Industry Standard 2025 (DFSV Standard). The rules will be rolled out in stages, with most set to become mandatory from 1 July 2025. The DFSV Standard raises the bar for consumer protections for victim-survivors, including by requiring telcos to:
