In this period, new complaints about mobile services fell, however internet and National Broadband Network (NBN) related complaints both rose significantly.
Launching the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s 2015-16 Annual Report today, Ombudsman Judi Jones said the total number of new complaints about mobile, landline and internet services dropped 9.6 per cent in 2015-16.
The decline, however, appears to have leveled out and for the past nine months, complaints have increased. From July to September 2016, new complaints rose by 25.7 per cent on the same period last year.
Across all service types, billing and payments, customer service, faults, complaint handling and contracts were the most common complaints.
“We saw nearly a 100 per cent increase in the number of NBN related complaints this year, but the rate of growth is lower than the growth of active services” said Ms Jones. “Delays in connections to the network, faults including unusable services, and dropout of services were regularly reported, which is of concern.”
New complaints about faults on NBN services jumped by 147.8 per cent, while complaints about NBN connections rose by 63.2 per cent. NBN complaints now represent 11.9 per cent of all new complaints to the TIO. More than a quarter of our new complaints came from regional and rural Australia. Compared to last year, we saw a six per cent increase in the proportion of new regional and rural complaints. The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has also seen a change in the services consumers complain about. More consumers are complaining to us about problems with their internet than in previous years. New complaints about internet services rose by 22 per cent to the highest level in five years. “Consumers told us that slow data speed was the biggest problem with internet services,” said Ms Jones.
“New complaints about internet data speed increased by 48 per cent.” “Consumers also made an increased number of complaints about long waits for connections and repairing unreliable services." There was a 28.8 per cent decrease in the number of new complaints about mobiles, to the lowest level in nine years. Complaints about problem areas such as coverage, excess data and roaming charges all decreased. “Complaints about mobile services have reduced due to better product offerings from Telcos including higher data allowances and increased investment in mobile infrastructure,” said Ms Jones. “If consumers are unable to resolve a dispute with their telco, they can contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman online at tio.com.au or call 1800 062 058,” said Ms Jones.
