ACCAN: 2.3 million customers unhappy with telco complaints handling
- 23 November, 2010 12:41
- Comments 5
One-in-two telco customers have had issues with poor technical, customer service and complaints handling and one-third of them were displeased with their treatment, according to a new report.
A New Galaxy research project, commissioned by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has found 2.3 million customers were unhappy with the way their telco handled a problems with their phone or internet service in the past year.
Two-thirds of people that called their telco provider to complain about their issue were dissatisfied with the way the telco handled the problem. But only 4 per cent of the customers, about 230,000 people, escalated the issue to the Telecommunications Ombudsman.
“In broad terms, we already know telco customer service and complaint handling across this industry has a very bad reputation,” ACCAN director of policy and campaigns, Elissa Freeman, said in a statement. “This data would suggest internal complain figures are very high and this is resulting in some very unhappy customers.”
ACCAN is urging the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to introduce a complaints handling standard for the telco space.
Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, took the opportunity to spruik his consumer safeguards bill currently before the Senate.
As well as the forced structural separation of Telstra, the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Competition and Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2010 also pushes for performance benchmarks by telcos.
“If the Liberals and Nationals are serious about ensuring telco consumers get a better service they should support the competition and consumer safeguards legislation currently before the Parliament,” Senator Conroy said in a statement.
Last week, ACCAN, pushed for a new principles-based regulation regime to better protect consumers dealing with their telco providers.
The concept was put forward as part of the Telecommunications Protection Code (TPC) review managed by telecommunications industry group, Communications Alliance.
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Comments
lorro
I have had no issues with my ISP, I just email one of the reps at TPG if I have an issue and it is fixed with in an hour. Personally I prefer having unlimited data and cheap prices over customer service, 90% of issues are end user based, so I personally can fix them all myself so no need for the ISP, but I know if I ever need help I can email the TPG reps and they answer my questions really quickly.
Max Clark
Well what do you expect when most call support centres are based in India and Pakastan. Plus most of the call centre staff know nothing about IT stuff as they just read a script off the screen infront of them. Bring the support centres back to Australia and put REAL IT TECH's into then.
Andrew
What a bunch of hokum. 2.3 million customers unhappy? Did ACANN commision a study to speak to all 2.3 million customers? It's a fabricated statistics by an organisation desperately trying to show its relevance and sensationalist journalism like this just pick lines like this for a cheap headline.
Kevin
So who had the most complaints. A breakdown would help.
If complaints to Telstra were removed how many would be left.
The community radio station where I work as a volunteer has been waiting for three weeks for Telstra to do a simple re-programme to transfer a phone line. They are simply hopeless and their ranting about solving problems in 48 hours is one massive piece of BS
gnome
3Andrew, it doesn't sound like a fabricated statistics (sic) at all. It's well recognised by people who know what they are talking about that it is a proper statistical procedure to use a survey as a base measurement.
You are just being silly when you ask if 2.3 million were interviewed. Did you interview 10 million to form your opinion?
When we see in the story that "about 230,000 people escalated the issue to the Telecommunications Ombudsman" in one year, that is evidence of serious problems, given that many people do not know about the existence of the Ombudsman.
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