More than 30,000 complaints were made to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman by business owners and residential consumers in the first three months of 2021.
Phone and internet complaints remained steady, with seasonal comparisons showing some decline.
Between January and March, residential consumers and small businesses made 30,393 complaints about phone and internet services. This is a decrease of 0.3% compared to the previous quarter and 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year.
The Ombudsman’s Complaints Report shows mobile continues to be the most complained about service type, accounting for 35% of all complaints. This is the highest proportion in the last five quarters.
Problems with inadequate fault testing has emerged as an issue for all consumer types. This is when a provider fails to troubleshoot a problem with a consumer or the consumer is not satisfied with the provider’s fault testing.
A highlight for this period shows a continuation of a downward trend in the number of complaints about consumers being unable to contact their provider. This problem decreased by 38% compared to the previous quarter.
The overall proportion of small business complaints remains steady, with a slight decrease from 17% of total complaints in the previous quarter to 16% in Q3.
Other insights include the appearance of Foxtel in the top 10 providers this quarter, replacing M2 Commander.
While overall complaint volumes have decreased over the last two quarters, complaints returning as unresolved from the telcos has been higher than previously observed. This quarter shows more than 20% of referrals in Q2 returning as unresolved.
Commenting on the Q3 results, Ombudsman Judi Jones said: “Complaints reflect the consumer experience of their phone and internet services and interactions with their telco.”
“While the decline in overall complaints is a positive sign, the increase in complaints coming back to us unresolved is concerning. We will continue monitoring this trend and working with the telcos on the problems as they emerge.”
