Increase in complaints about phone and internet

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Increase in complaints about phone and internet

6 yrs ago

older woman making a phone complaint

Between 1 July and 31 December 2016, Australian residents and small businesses made 65,970 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman about their landline phone, mobile or internet services.

“The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has experienced an increase in complaints for phone and internet services, which were up 5.3 per cent from the preceding six months (1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016). This is a 33.8 per cent increase in complaints compared to the same six months in 2015 (1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015)," said Ombudsman Judi Jones.

The most common complaints about phone and internet services consisted of customer service, billing and payments, faults and complaint handling.

Victoria and South Australia made the most complaints per 1000 people, followed by ACT and New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Other complaints included:

24,641 complaints were recorded about internet services, a 53.6 per cent increase on the same six months in 2015
23,331 complaints were recorded about mobile phones, an 18.8 per cent increase on the same six months in 2015
17,998 complaints were recorded about landlines, a 32 per cent increase on the same six months in 2015
86.7 per cent of complaints were from residential consumers, and 13 per cent of complaints were from small businesses
There was a 6.8 per cent increase in complaints about services delivered over the national broadband network compared to the preceding six months (January to June 2016). Compared to the same six months in 2015, the increase was 117.5 per cent. However, the rate of increase in these complaints is slower than the rate of new premises connected to the national broadband network
For services delivered over the national broadband network, 4,309 complaints were related to internet services, and 3,203 complaints were related to landline services.

How's your home phone and internet? Have you reason to make a complaint?

9 comments

The Philipino call centres are the worst. Their customer service is rude, ignorant and unhelpful.

Dand

6 yrs ago

My email was a lot better before I was connected to NBN. Now it takes anywhere between 5 and 8 seconds just to delete one message and load the next.

KSS

6 yrs ago

People with the NBN or thinking about it should take a look at thier provider's Ts & Cs. Under currect (non NBN) laws people are entitled to compensation for non delivery of service (there is a range of circumstances and associated compensation rates). However, NBN service providers are having customers waive these rights. This means you still have rights under consumer law but not against the telecommunications service provider since you sign away your rights. Failure to accept the Ts & Cs means you cannot join up.

Old Geezer

6 yrs ago

I get compensated every time my NBN goes down for any more than a few minutes so I'm very happy with the service. Like everything else it will have teething problems so give it a chance to settle in.

Janran

6 yrs ago

Thanks for the info KSS. It sounds incredible that you have to waive your rights, JUST TO SIGN UP! I understand that once the NBN has been in one's area for about 2 years, one is forced to sign up anyway, as the previous service will no longer be available.

What happened to being able to get a refund if a product is not "fit for purpose"? This is one of the edicts upon which consumer laws work, so it appears the NBN is in total conflict to this. "Buyer beware" is all good, but not when you have no choice, if you wish to receive a service run by a monopoly, who waives your rights when signing up.

And Old Geezer, are you serious about being very happy with a service that's non-existant at times? No amount of compensation would satisfy me if I was half-way through a lengthy customer service email and the internet dropped out. How does your NBN measure the compensation they give you?

Janran

6 yrs ago

Old Geezer, has your internet dropped out again?

PlanB

6 yrs ago

Could everyone post what NBN company they are with please, I have been able to get the NBN since last July but there have been so many with so many problems that I have held off -- it would be good to know who with what company and how they have found them.

Everyone I have spoken to about the NBN except one person say it is a nightmare

Sundays

6 yrs ago

I'm happy with the NBN and it is actually faster than before. We stayed with Optus and negotiated the same good deal we had before (initially they wanted to charge more) I think it depends on how far away your home is from the Node

PlanB

6 yrs ago

The node is in front of the house in front of me maybe about 200feet from me

wendan31

6 yrs ago

We are with Telstra and have had NBN for nearly 3 years, the node is in our front verge garden, about 20 steps from our front door. It depends how much you are willing to pay to get a faster service, but then again after complaining to Telstra they could not guarantee a faster service, we are on a $75 plan,( this includes our home phone which we do not use but had to have, why I don't know), but I can assure you if I had a choice I would ditch NBN altogether it has made our connection slower and does absolutely nothing to earn the money spent on it.

Denisedancer

6 yrs ago

When we switched to NBN we changed internet providers. NO ONE TOLD US - DO NOT GET THE PHONE CUT OFF from your old provider. Big problem. We are still waiting to get our original phone number after over 11 weeks. Our new provider gave us a temporary number which we haven't told many people because we expected to get our old number back within a couple of weeks. It took 11 weeks before someone worked out what was causing the problem. Now I have two complaints with the Telecommunications Ombudsman one against each provider. Still waiting for it to be resolved so we can get our original phone number back.

The speeds we are getting for the internet range from 2.8 Mbps to 11 Mbps. Paying for UP TO 12 Mbps. Dont you just love the UP TO clause!! Would like to upgrade to the next speed up to 25Mbps but am concerned I might only get 13 or 14 Mbps. No guarantee of speed.

The Government certainly messed up the NBN, what could have been fantastic is an ABSOLUTE MESS. Much of the old copper wire is useless. Tried to show they were saving money but in the long run this mess will cost a massive amount more than it should have if done properly in the first place.

Nothing to do with copper wire ,

Janran

6 yrs ago

Brocky, if the problems a lot of people are having with their sub-standard NBN service has nothing to do with copper wire, what has it to do with?

It's not a rhetorical question - I'm genuinely asking for your insight. I know it's not all copper wire's fault because pre-NBN customers were on the copper wire system, which worked much better than their newly-installed NBN in some cases.

Janran the basic problem is that the NBN is a state mononopoly . We have paid billions to Telecom companies to not compete . When TPG tried to break this cosy monopoly they were taken to court to desist .

In future the NBN will be left as a white elephant as they only have a monopoly on fixed wire . New technology will see bradband move to5g mobile .

But back to the present the reason you get poor

Results on NBN is that the NBN monopoly sells block time to Telcos . Telcos buy the minimum . This means as they get more users the response drops .

It is an argument between Telcos and NBN as to costs they are charging.

6 yrs ago

The best option is to be on a no contract plan like Belong offers ,This gives the customer the choice of staying or being able to move to another company. I am happy with the old system.The new NBN will be more expensive.

6 yrs ago

PlanB

6 yrs ago

KB you will not have a choice-- the old system will be turned OFF -- ask a lot of questions and contact the Minister

PlanB

6 yrs ago

I think it is about time EVERYONE called and wrote to the Minister for Communications and complained bitterly -- I rang Telstra yesterday and asked a few questions they were unable to answer --- what happens when your phone and internet are out because of a blackout, They said Oh you use your mobile -- -- what happens when you do not have a mobile --- oh we will give you a battery backup -- oh how long does that work -- it gives you 3 charges on you mobile ( if you have one) I said -- so then you have to charge the battery then and how do you do that when there is NO power -- we sometimes have outages through weather last time was 6 days ---at least when we have a blackout now we can plug in and old Telephone and still have landline

I am afraid this is NOT good enough and it is going back to the dark ages and SOMETHING has to be done about this rubbish!

Contact the Minister

http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/mitch_fifield/contact

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Increase in complaints about phone and internet

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