High and disputed charges

We can help with your complaint about charges and rates that you didn’t agree to, as well as complaints about excess usage charges and administrative fees that you think are too high. To resolve your complaint, we consider the law, good industry practice and fairness.

Types of complaints about charges

We deal with complaints about issues such as consumers being charged:

at different rates than they agreed to
high administrative or miscellaneous fees
for services they weren’t aware of or didn’t agree to, such as mobile premium services, mobile roaming, third party services or equipment rental
for excess usage
for unauthorised usage by a third party.

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

The charges on your bills must be valid, correct and verifiable

Providers must make sure that charges on bills are valid, correctly calculated and verifiable. They must give you enough information to check that the charges match what you agreed to.

You shouldn’t have to pay to bar premium mobile services

If you ask your provider to bar mobile premium services – services such as ringtones and games sent from numbers that start with ‘19’ – they must put the bar in place by 6.00 pm the next business day. They must not charge you for barring premium services.

You and your provider should keep your service secure

Your provider must give you any instructions you need to make your service secure, and tell you straight away if they notice any unusual usage on your account. If your phone is lost or stolen, you should tell your provider straight away.

More information

For more detailed information read our guidance on Charges - in detail.

Other guides for Billing and payments

Tips for billing complaints about mobile services

Getting your money back: how to stop direct debits and reverse charges

This help page tells you what you can do to stop a direct debit. It also tells you how you can get a refund by reversing a charge from your financial institution if you paid with a credit card (this includes debit cards where you pay using a “credit” function).

Payment problems and errors

We can help with your complaint about direct debit payments, payment fees, and payments that are missing or applied incorrectly. To resolve your complaint, we consider the law, good industry practice and fairness.

Unclear, delayed and missing bills

We can help with your complaint about bills that are unclear, irregular or delayed, as well as complaints about how bills are provided. To resolve your complaint, we consider the law, good industry practice and fairness.

Carlo was placed into further hardship after falling victim to a scam

Complaint

Carlo, a full-time student with limited income, was scammed into buying three mobile phones, leaving him with a $3,200 debt. He contacted BranchTel for help as he couldn’t afford to pay off the debt, causing him significant distress and hardship.

Outcome

During conciliation, BranchTel initially offered Carlo a payment plan of $180 per month, which he couldn’t afford. After raising concerns about this, BranchTel agreed to waive all of Carlo’s debt due to his severe financial hardship.

Mobile phone

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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This page was last updated on

28th Mar 2024