The 2016-2017 Annual Report for the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is now available.
Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 158,016 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last financial year (1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017). In this period, complaints about landline phones, mobile phones and internet services increased by 41.1 per cent.
Commenting on the appointment of Stephen Rue as the new Chief Executive Officer of NBN Co, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones says:
“Congratulations from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to Stephen on his appointment as Chief Executive Officer.
“We also extend our very best wishes to Bill Morrow for his future and thank him for his supportive and collaborative approach in resolving complaints about phone and internet services.
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.
Peter joins the Board as a Director with Consumer Experience, replacing Gerard Brody who resigned on 15 August 2024.
Telco complaints as a proportion of services in operation (SIO) increased 29 per cent in January-March 2016, but dropped 13.8 per cent from the same time last year. The results were released today in the Complaints in Context report by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and Communications Alliance.
The January to March quarter generally sees an increase in complaints to the TIO. Seasonal factors contribute to increased complaint numbers, including summer weather events that can disrupt fixed line services.
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.
Our Good Industry Practice Guides give clarity to providers and the community about how we measure the industry is operating fairly.
We encourage providers to use our Good Industry Practice Guides as a resource to consider if their responses, processes or systems need to be improved. Good industry practice is different to minimum legal obligations for providers. Our Good Industry Practice Guides do not set out minimum legal obligations, instead they set out the practices we view as demonstrating fairness.
Board Chair Michael Lavarch said, "The Board has commenced a search for Judi’s successor and aims to have this appointment in place in the first quarter of 2022.