Connecting and disconnecting your service

We can help with your complaint about problems connecting or disconnecting your landline, mobile or internet service, or having your service mistakenly disconnected. To resolve your complaint about a connection or disconnection problem, we’ll consider the law, good industry practice and fairness.

Types of connection and disconnection complaints

We deal with complaints about connection and disconnection such as:

unreasonable delays connecting a new service or enhanced call handling features, such as call waiting and calling number display
missed technician appointments for connection
services unable to be connected because a previous service at the property hasn’t been disconnected
services disconnected by mistake
services not disconnected on the date agreed or advised.

What you should expect from your provider: the law and industry practice

Your landline should be connected promptly

Generally, landlines and enhanced call handling features should be connected within five business days in urban areas. However, in rural areas providers have longer to make the connection, and sometimes exemptions from this standard may apply.

Your internet and mobile services should be connected when you agreed

Providers should connect your internet or mobile service within the timeframe agreed with you. If you didn’t agree on the timeframe, they should connect the service within a reasonable time.

Disconnections should happen on the date you agreed

When a provider agrees to disconnect a service on a particular date, they should carry out the disconnection on that date. Providers should not delay disconnection because of an overdue debt, and they should not charge for service after the agreed disconnection date.

More information

For more detailed information read our guidance on Connection and disconnection of services - in detail.

Other guides for Setting up a service

Tips when setting up a mobile service

Checking your ability to pay before selling you services

We expect providers to provide post-paid services to you responsibly. A “post-paid” service is a service you pay for after you use all or some of the service. For example, you might pay an access fee to use a mobile service in advance, but you pay all call and data charges after you use them. You can also include a handset or tablet in a post paid plan that you pay off through regular repayments. Usually, these products have minimum term contracts of 12, 24 or 36 months.

Transferring your service

We can help with your complaint about problems that happened when you transferred an existing service from one provider to another.

Sales and sign-up

We can help with your complaint about how a provider behaved when selling you a product or service, including what information they provided. We can also help with complaints about contracts that you didn’t agree to.

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.

Home phone

Internet

Mobile phone