Member and Community Services Manager Shaun Kingma was touched by the powerful stories he heard from residents. Many of these communities are still feeling the impacts of the 2020 bushfires.
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The report “Defending phone and internet accounts from fraudsters” shares the TIO’s findings on fraudsters being able to access telco accounts and conduct malicious activity. It explores consumers’ experiences and highlights improvements made by telco providers to combat fraudulent account access.
View the Data Dashboard and Complaints Insights
In this reporting period, 30 percent (3,389 complaints) of cases returned unresolved after referral to a telco, in relation to issues such as poor customer service, problems with bills or equipment, and intermittent service or dropouts.
Complaints this quarter increased largely due to the impact of the Optus data breach. Complaints about the unauthorised disclosure of personal information jumped to the third most complained about problem during this quarter. Mobile complaints about non-financial loss such as stress and humiliation from a privacy breach increased significantly this quarter, along with problems about customer service, termination fees, and failing to cancel a mobile service.
Between July 2020 and March 2022, the TIO received over 63,000 complaints about mobile services. While overall complaint numbers declined in that period, the proportion of mobile complaints increased. Complaint numbers about misleading conduct by a telco and unsuitable payment options were higher for mobile services than for internet, landline and multiple services combined.
Slow data speed was the top reason internet users made complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in July-September 2015, according to the TIO’s quarterly statistics, released today.
The TIO received 1,663 new complaints about slow data speeds during the period, 8.5 per cent fewer than in the previous quarter, but 66.3 per cent more than at the same time last year.
Consumers reported a range of issues about slow data speeds.
My time as Ombudsman has been both challenging and rewarding – in almost equal measure! But every challenge has presented an opportunity to learn, adapt, and grow.
When I started in 2016, we had reduced our complaint handling resourcing in response to a five year decline in complaints. We needed to rebalance the organisation to be really focused on delivering our fair, independent, and accessible service. We changed our organisational structure, and fundamentally shifted to empower our people and bring out the best in them.
Lead Investigator Penny Goulding said, “Our team is designed to test the tools and concepts that will allow us to help reduce consumer wait times. The work we do helps us meet the demands of the queue, and keeps consumer and provider experiences positive.”
Recently, the Targeted Resolution Team just completed a six-week ‘DR Blitz’, where Penny manually allocated cases to the Dispute Resolution Officers (DROs) in her team from five different queues. The DROs were allocated 12 cases in the first week, 12 in the second week, and two in the third week.