Faulty services

We can help with your complaint about services that are faulty. To resolve your complaint, we consider what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances having regard to the law, relevant industry codes, guidelines, and good practice.

Types of complaints about faulty services

We deal with complaints about faulty services such as:

coverage or data transfer speeds that don’t match what was promoted or promised
delays connecting a service or fixing a fault with a service
faulty enhanced call handling features or add-on services
outages
recurring service faults
missed technician appointments.

What you should expect from your provider

Problems with your landline should be fixed quickly

Generally, a fault affecting a landline phone should be fixed by the end of the first full day after you report the fault. However, telcos have longer to fix the fault in some circumstances, such as in some rural and regional areas or circumstances beyond the telco’s control.

Your telco should try to reduce the impact of outages

Where practical, telcos should schedule planned outages for off-peak hours, keep them as short as possible, and warn you in advance. Telcos shouldn’t charge you for any period where a long or unreasonable outage meant you couldn’t use the service.

More information

For more detailed information on faulty services, read our guidance on Faulty services - in detail.
If your complaint involves faulty equipment, please see our guidance Complaints about equipment.

Other guides for Problems with your service

Faulty equipment

This guidance note tells you:
the types of complaints about telecommunications equipment we can and cannot consider
what we take into account when looking at these complaints
what we expect from you.

Faulty services - in detail

When we deal with complaints involving faulty services we consider what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances having regard to the law, relevant industry codes, guidelines, and good practice.

Recurring faults

This help page tells you what to do when you have a fault on your service that keeps coming back. It also explains what what your provider should do, and what remedies are available.

Slow internet speed

This help page tells you what remedies are available when your internet service is slower than expected, and your provider cannot fix the problems.

SIM Swaps

This help page tells you how our office handles complaints about unauthorised SIM card swapping.

Loss of or access to phone numbers

We can help with your complaint about certain problems with phone numbers, including complaints about losing access to your number because you have lost the rights of use of it or it has been quarantined. We can also help if you have been given an out of area number – that is, a number with an area code different to your actual location – without being told how calls will be charged.

Tamin Tutoring was charged an unfairly high early cancellation fee

Complaint

Tamin Tutoring signed up for an NBN service and equipment bundle with BlockTel but experienced frequent faults with slow and dropped video calls and inconsistent phone calls. When they tried to cancel due to these issues, BlockTel demanded over $7,000 for early termination.

Outcome

Tamin Tutoring didn’t want to pay this cancellation fee because the service never worked properly. After complaining to our office, the parties agreed that Tamin Tutoring could exit its contract and only pay 40 per cent of the cost of the cancellation fees.

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