[LINK] TIO Annual Report

Stephen Loosley stephen at melbpc.org.au
Thu Nov 30 00:38:21 AEDT 2006


Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 
Annual Report 2005/06

http://www.tio.com.au/publications/annual_reports/ar%202006/annual_2006index.htm

* Landline Service Issues (Overview) 
* Mobile Service Issues (Overview) 
* Internet Service Issues (Overview)

Internet Service Issues
23,066 issues raised 

Overview 

Internet  services accounted for 18.1% of all complaints, a 44% increase on the previous year. This makes internet the fastest growing of all three complaint categories. With the exception of complaints about provisioning of services, each of the internet complaint categories increased, with Customer service and Contracts recording the most notable rises. 

The take-up rate of broadband services continues to rise. This increase may be attributed to further reductions in the price and value of broadband and the increased availability resulting from the Federal Government’s Connect Australia strategy. This is accompanied by an increase in complaints about broadband: 84.5% of this year’s internet complaints involved broadband, compared with 74.3% in 2004/05. 

Customer service

Customer service accounted for almost a third of all internet complaints. It ought to be noted, however, that in many cases the customer service issue is not the primary cause of the complaint. For example, the complainant’s original complaint to their provider may have been about a charge on their account, but the matter is subsequently exacerbated by their experience in having the complaint dealt with. What was once a billing complaint therefore becomes both a billing complaint and a customer service complaint. 

Billing

Billing was the second largest category, representing 23.4% of all complaints. This category also includes complaints about payments. Over the past year complaints about direct debits increased by 77.5% to 623 complaints. This increase coincides with a trend in the telecommunications industry as a whole towards encouraging payments by direct debits. This is often done by providing discounts to customers who agree to pay by direct debit and imposing fees for all other forms of payment..
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