October 18, 2017
Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) rose 41.1 per cent over the past financial year.
The TIO’s annual report, released on Wednesday, shows that residential customers and small businesses made 158,016 complaints about landline phones, mobile phones and internet services.
“The picture the complaints show is we are frustrated when we cannot rely on technology to stay connected, to be informed, and to do business,” ombudsman Judi Jones said.
“Sharing high quality videos immediately, holding an online meeting or watching Netflix on the way home, is now the norm and part of our daily routine.”
The report also shows that for the first time complaints about internet services were now higher than complaints about mobile phones.
“Complaints about services delivered over the national broadband network more than doubled, and while this is somewhat to be expected given the accelerating rollout, the increase is a cause for concern,” Ms Jones said.
” The national broadband network project is complex, and it is important all parties involved work together to ensure a great consumer experience.”
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Some Statistics
- 87.8 per cent of complaints were from residential consumers
- 11.9 per cent of complaints were from small businesses
- 41,824 complaints were recorded about landline phones, up 30.1 per cent
- 52,300 complaints were recorded about mobile phones, up 27.5 per cent
- 63,892 complaints were recorded about internet services, up 64.8 per cent
- Customer service, billing and payments, faults and complaint handling were the most common complaints about phone and internet services
Small business complaints rose 31.3 per cent to 18,789; the main issues affecting small businesses were customer service, faults, and billing and payments.
Complaints By State
In 2016-17, South Australia recorded the highest growth in complaints, up 51 per cent:
- NSW made 50,537 complaints, up 43.6 per cent
- Northern Territory made 1043 complaints, up 29.7 per cent
- Queensland made 28,988 complaints, up 42.7 per cent
- South Australia made 12,526 complaints, up 51 per cent
- Tasmania made 2,964 complaints, up 38.4 per cent
- Victoria made 43,565 complaints, up 41.1 per cent
- Western Australia made 13,623 complaints, up 49.1 per cent
Phone and Internet Providers
The top 10 service phone and internet providers accounted for 90.9 per cent of complaints in 2016-17:
- Telstra received 76,650 complaints, up 43.5 per cent
- Optus received 28,766 complaints, up 31.2 per cent
- Vodafone received 10,684 complaints, up 37.5 per cent
- iiNet received 10,170 complaints, up 79 per cent
- TPG received 6995 complaints, up 44.9 per cent
- Dodo received 3309 complaints, up 1.1 per cent
- Southern Phone received 2068 complaints, up 266.7 per cent
- Primus received 1917 complaints, up 32.1 per cent
- M2 Commander received 1704 complaints, up 25.3 per cent
- Virgin Mobile received 1354 complaints, down 11.6 per cent
Services Delivered Over The National Broadband Network (NBN)
- 27,195 complaints were recorded about services delivered over the network, up 159.3 per cent
- 16,221 complaints were recorded about faults in services; this is 6.7 fault complaints per 1000 premises activated
- 11,224 complaints were recorded about connection delays to services delivered over the national broadband network; this is 8.3 connection delay complaints per 1000 premises activated
- Delays to connections are the main cause for complaints, followed by internet and landline faults for services delivered over the network
