Telco complaints fall a further 21% in FY19

Complaints to Australia’s Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) fell a further 21.1% in the last financial year, but unresolved complaints took longer to solve, according to the Ombudsman’s latest annual report.

The report found that total complaints to the TIO fell to 132,287. Just over 85% of these came from residential customers, with nearly all the remainder coming from small businesses.

The proportion of complaints coming from small businesses increased from 12.2% in the prior financial year.

Meanwhile complaints about internet services accounted for 32.6% of total complaints, with the category overtaking mobile services (30.3%) as the largest subcategory. Around 13% of complaints were about landline services, 23.2% were related to multiple services and 0.9% were related to damage to property.

Ombudsman Judi Jones said the decline in complaints during the financial year tells only part of the full story. Over the same period, less than half of the complaints returning as unresolved — where the consumer and provider could not reach resolution — were settled within 60 days.

This represents a significant spike from the 77% of complaints closed within 60 days in 2017–18.

Likewise, during the quarter, the TIO notified telecommunications service providers about 53 potential systemic issues; 33 of these notifications resulted in the provider agreeing to or making changes to its systems, processes or practices.

“The volume of complaints coming back to us unresolved shows an emerging picture of complexity in technical and small business issues,” Jones said.

“Some measures we have taken to address this are the formation of specialist teams to handle these escalated complaints, and working closely with the phone and internet providers to better understand the barriers to resolving these issues.”

Telstra accounted for just over half (50.2%) of complaints to the TIO during the financial year, followed by Optus (23.9%), Vodafone (5.1%), iiNet (4.3%) and TPG (4.1%).

This year’s report for the first time provides the top five issues in internet, mobile and landline services by number of complaints.

The report shows that service and equipment fees, and complaints over a lack of or delayed action by providers, were ranked among the top complaint issues for consumers across all three service types combined.

This was followed by the quality and reliability of internet services, and difficulties establishing a connection with an internet service.

Another common complaint category for internet services is slow data speed, while for mobile services the fourth largest complaint category involved misleading conduct when making a contract. The second main complaint related to fixed line services was a lack of phone or internet services.

Industry body Communications Alliance welcomed the findings of the report. Its CEO, John Stanton, said the body was pleased to see that complaints decreased in every state, and for all providers listed in the TIO’s report.

“There has been significant work over the past two years by industry to improve the customer experience, including — but certainly not limited to — NBN Co and RSPs achieving better communication and coordination for consumers and businesses as they migrate services to nbn-based networks,” he said.

“The commencement of the ACMA’s consumer experience rules in July 2018, and the TIO’s ongoing work with service providers, also contributed to the improvement seen in the report. [But] the TIO report highlights the growth of complex complaints, which leave some customers with issues unresolved for too long, pointing to the need for redoubled effort by service providers and the Ombudsman.”

Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) CEO Teresa Corbin added that the decline in complaints demonstrates the power of effective industry legislation in curbing customer experience issues.

“While there is still further work to be done, these latest statistics show that new regulation of the telco industry is starting to work,” she said.

“The TIO’s investigations, systemic reports and referrals to the regulator not only shine a light on poor practices in the industry, but allow the ACMA the opportunity to enforce consumer-focused regulation such as the Complaints Handling Standard.”

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