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.
Presenter: Cynthia Gebert, Ombudsman
Event: Communications Day Policy Forum
Date and time: Wednesday 14th June 2023, 12.00pm
Duration: 20 mins
Media enquiries: TIO Media Team on 0437 548 540 or via email.
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia, and recognise their enduring connection to land, water, culture and community.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)’s Fairness Commitment enhances our capability to deliver fairness and build greater trust and confidence in the telco sector.
New research undertaken by my office and Community Legal Centres Queensland shows that almost half of community legal workers in that state are seeing clients burdened by phone and internet issues every week. And a further 20 per cent hear about phone and internet issues every two to four weeks.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and Board has welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the review of the Consumer Safeguards.
Our submission to the Consumer Safeguards Review focuses on the need for all parties in the telecommunications sector to address underlying consumer dissatisfaction with telecommunications services.
Over the last 25 years, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s high complaint volumes have coincided with major change and disruption in the telecommunications sector, and declined as change has been bedded down.
The updated CHPs aim to strengthen existing procedures, address pain points and provide all parties who engage with the TIO clear pathways to timely and fair resolution. These changes are a key component of the TIO’s Fairness Commitment.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s changing and why these updates are important.
Referral Response Trial
A voluntary six-month trial that asks telcos to provide responses to the TIO about the referrals we send in the first stage of our complaints process.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) Limited welcomes a new member to its Board of Directors today.
Geoff Nicholson will join as an Independent Director in February 2016, after a recruitment process that began in late 2015, replacing long-serving Independent Director Jane Harvey who is retiring from the TIO Board.
“I welcome Geoff as a new member of the Board of TIO Limited, and thank Jane Harvey for her long and dedicated service to the TIO,” Board Chair Patricia Faulkner said.
Between 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024, the TIO received 51,854 phone and internet complaints from consumers living in regional, rural and remote Australia about faults, poor service quality, poor mobile service coverage, outages and accessibility barriers.
Regional consumers told the TIO that faults and service problems can take longer to be resolved in regional locations. In some cases, a regional customer may report faults over several years without any lasting improvements to their services.
Rural resident Carmella* relies on her landline service for all her communication needs. However, frequent landline outages left her feeling isolated, and made it difficult to fix the fault.
Without a reliable landline, Carmella was worried she would have no service at all if an emergency happened, as there was no mobile reception on her property.