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.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)’s Fairness Commitment enhances our capability to deliver fairness and build greater trust and confidence in the telco sector.
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While the overall trajectory of declining complaints is a positive sign for consumers and telcos, the nature of complaints made to the TIO indicates consumers remain frustrated by stubborn challenges such as service reliability.
This has been a tough year for everyone. Providing a great dispute resolution service isn’t just about looking after consumers and telcos, it’s also about looking after employees and their mental health.
Over eight weeks in September and October, TIO employees participated in psychological resilience training so they could look after themselves and continue providing help to all the consumers and telcos who were also feeling stretched.
Consumers who wish to communicate using Auslan currently contact the TIO through the National Relay Service (NRS), where the NRS operator makes a phone call to the TIO. There is no video link between the consumer and TIO, and the NRS does not offer a video service with all parties online.
For the first physical event since the pandemic began, the TIO attended Seniors Day at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The show has been running since 1823 is one of the largest annual ticketed events in Australia. The show now hosts a specific discounted day for seniors, making it an unmissable opportunity for the TIO to connect with elderly citizens who may be experiencing phone or internet issues.
We support the proposed constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament as the first step in this journey.
As an Ombudsman service, we believe in the power of listening to achieve fair outcomes. We see our support for the Voice as a natural extension of the commitment to reconciliation we have made through our Reconciliation Action Plan. We know from our community outreach work with First Nations communities that listening to the members of a community is how to achieve the best outcomes for that community.
Through our experience helping small business consumers resolve service complaints with their telco, we’ve come up with some tips for protecting your business when the unexpected occurs.
Most businesses rely on their phone and internet services but many don’t have a back-up plan to protect against financial loss.
The direction to better protect consumers in financial hardship is a significant step toward appropriate consumer safeguards in the telco sector.
While this is an important first step, the TIO encourages the government to continue to improve consumer protections through stronger regulation and consider the establishment of a registration scheme for telcos.