Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Contents Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2010 Annual Report Annual 2010 Ombudsman Industry Telecommunications 2010 Annual Report Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2009–10 highlights 1 Ombudsman’s Overview: ‘Making a difference’ 2 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Statement of the Council Chair 4 Statement of the Board Chair 8 COMPLAINTS LANDSCAPE IN 2009–10 Making a difference – resolving complaints 12 TIO CONSUMERS Making a difference for consumers 23 TIO MEMBERS Making a difference to service providers 27 SYSTEMIC ISSUES Making a difference through the identification of systemic complaint issues 31 TIO STAFF Making a difference to staff 34 REGULATORS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS Making a difference in the telecommunications co-regulatory environment 43 Industry Codes in 2009–2010 47 connect.resolve 52 Member Statistics 64 Financial Report 72 Director’s Report 73 Notes to Financial Statements 85 Appendices Membership Report 101 Issues by category 112 Glossary 116 Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Limited A CN 057 634 787 Telephone 03 8600 8700 Facsimile 03 8600 8797 Freecall™ 1800 062 058 Freefax™ 1800 630 614 TTY 1800 675 692 Translator & Interpreter Service 131 450 Website www.tio.com.au The theme of the Telecommunications Postal Address Industry Ombudsman (or TIO) Annual PO Box 276 COLLINS StrEET WEst Report this year is ‘Making a difference’. Victoria 8007 In a fast changing environment, the need Australia for strong consumer protection, and in particular a referee to ‘make a difference’ Street Address where problems cannot be resolved, Level 3, 595 Collins Street, becomes increasingly important. And the Melbourne Victoria 3000 need for an independent Ombudsman to Australia stand back, and look more broadly across the industry, is acute. Our year at a glance at year Our THE TELECommuNICatioNS INDustry OmbUDsmAN 2009–2010 The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman scheme is a complaint handling service for consumers and small businesses who have been unable to resolve a complaint with their service New complaints A revised reporting approach provider. Our mission is to provide free, Aiming for greater transparency, the TIO 200,000 independent, just, informal and speedy The 4.6% decrease in has taken a new approach to reporting resolution of complaints. the number of New our statistics this year. Total Complaints is largely Pleasingly, there has been some due to the 15.7% and • We have highlighted the number of 150,000 70.5% decline in new complaints received by the TIO, improvement in trends for Landline and MPS* representing individual consumers telecommunications complaints in complaints, whose complaints have not been respectively. the past year, following a period of 100,000 solved by service providers The trend in New sustained and substantial increase. Mobile Complaints mirrors • We continue to report on cases that of Case Levels, created by the TIO and the issues Landline with Mobile complaints they raise, as a record of our work 50,000 Internet growing by a • We also provide data on enquiries significant 14.1% fielded by the TIO that we cannot MPS and Internet by a moderate 2.8%. investigate 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 Financial year CasES A case is recorded for each level of a complaint ALL CasES Enquiries The TIO records an enquiry when a person New Complaints Further Advice Investigations New complaints contacts us about something we cannot deal Most new complaints are Level 1 Complainants may return Level 4 + with directly – including when the person has cases where the TIO gives the to the TIO for a second Level 2 Level 3 Managing Editor Further advice not contacted their service provider, or service provider a final chance time after they have Cases that are not resolved Cases requiring Cases requiring a thorough + complains about something outside the Mirjana Jovetic at resolving the case without spoken to the service by referral, and where the further investigation, and detailed investigation, Investigations TIO’s functions or powers. TIO conciliates the including where the TIO and may result in a decision further intervention by the TIO. provider, but need more In FY 2009-10, the TIO handled 41,264 enquiries, complaint. provides advice about a fair or direction by the TIO. Editor advice or information. an increase of 30%. outcome. Alana Keynes FY 2006-07 85,188 10,559 5,837 837 42 102,463 20,258 Writer FY 2007-08 119,248 19,899 8,641 1,842 112 149,742 23,263 Campbell Smith FY 2008-09 175,963 31,937 17,402 4,321 442 230,065 31,753 Contributors FY 2009-10* 167,955 22,983 19,860 3,789 413 215,000 41,264 Cameron Burnet Change (%)* -4.6 -28.0 14.1 -12.3 -6.6 -6.5 30.0 Kate Eadie David Torrelli *from FY 2008-09 to 2009-10 William Lopez Case levels Top 7 issues Case types Jessica Sayer Bankers 200,000 Billing and 100,000 Customer Payments Mobile Commonwealth Bank of Australia Service 26% New Complaints 20% 80,000 Landline Solicitors 150,000 Provisioning Corrs Chambers Westgarth 3% Complaint 60,000 Handling Auditors 16% Internet 100,000 Pitcher Partners 40,000 Credit Management Contracts 13% 10% 50,000 Investigation 20,000 Mobile Premium Services Printed in Australia on PEFC Certified Further Advice Faults 12% Australian paper made from elemental 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 chlorine free bleached pulp sourced from sustainably managed forests and non The decrease of 4.6% in New Complaints and 28% in Further Advice The TIO records and reports on issues at Cases declined by 6.5%, mainly due to decreased Landline and Mobile each case level. Every case includes at Premium Service cases, which dropped by 17.1% and 70% respectively. controversial sources. It is manufactured contributed to a decrease of more than 6% in TIO cases. An 8.6% increase by an ISO 14001 certified mill using in Investigations is mainly due to the large surge of New Complaints least one issue, and most cases include Mobile cases increased by 9.7% in 2009-10, but the growth is much less received in 2008-09, and carried over. more than one issue. than the 78.7% increase in 2008-09. renewable energy sources *Mobile Premium Service Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Contents Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2010 Annual Report Annual 2010 Ombudsman Industry Telecommunications 2010 Annual Report Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2009–10 highlights 1 Ombudsman’s Overview: ‘Making a difference’ 2 MAKING A DIFFERENCE Statement of the Council Chair 4 Statement of the Board Chair 8 COMPLAINTS LANDSCAPE IN 2009–10 Making a difference – resolving complaints 12 TIO CONSUMERS Making a difference for consumers 23 TIO MEMBERS Making a difference to service providers 27 SYSTEMIC ISSUES Making a difference through the identification of systemic complaint issues 31 TIO STAFF Making a difference to staff 34 REGULATORS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS Making a difference in the telecommunications co-regulatory environment 43 Industry Codes in 2009–2010 47 connect.resolve 52 Member Statistics 64 Financial Report 72 Director’s Report 73 Notes to Financial Statements 85 Appendices Membership Report 101 Issues by category 112 Glossary 116 Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Limited A CN 057 634 787 Telephone 03 8600 8700 Facsimile 03 8600 8797 Freecall™ 1800 062 058 Freefax™ 1800 630 614 TTY 1800 675 692 Translator & Interpreter Service 131 450 Website www.tio.com.au The theme of the Telecommunications Postal Address Industry Ombudsman (or TIO) Annual PO Box 276 COLLINS StrEET WEst Report this year is ‘Making a difference’. Victoria 8007 In a fast changing environment, the need Australia for strong consumer protection, and in particular a referee to ‘make a difference’ Street Address where problems cannot be resolved, Level 3, 595 Collins Street, becomes increasingly important. And the Melbourne Victoria 3000 need for an independent Ombudsman to Australia stand back, and look more broadly across the industry, is acute. 1 TELECOMMUNICatioNS INDUStrY OMBUDSMAN 2009–10 highlights This year, we received 167,955 new complaints We focussed on outreach to vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers, and attended numerous events around the country as part of this initiative (see page 23) We responded to the influx of smartphone and broadband use by trialling a special team of staff trained to investigate internet issues (see page 30) We increased our resources for investigating systemic issues, so we can find and resolve more cases that affect large numbers of consumers (see page 31) We trialled various methods to help improve our internal operations, and continue to focus on creating a more efficient workplace (see page 36) We submitted comments to government agencies about numerous issues affecting the TIO and the telecommunications industry (see page 45) We educated members about their customer service practices with a follow-up to our original connect.resolve report (see page 52) Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman 2010 Annual Report 2 OMBUDSMAN’S OVERVIEW ‘Making A Difference’ It was not so long ago that a In 2009 the TIO ‘blew the whistle’ on telecommunications service meant only a poor customer service and complaint fixed phone in the family home, or a fax handling. The connect.resolve campaign, machine in the office. with the first public report in August However, in the past few years, 2009, put a spotlight on poor customer telecommunications services have been service and complaint handling as driving turned on their head. Millions of a complaints increase that was unique in Australian consumers and businesses have our history. taken up new telecommunication services It is therefore pleasing to report, at the and devices. The internet has gone end of the financial year, an overall mobile, and consumers are surfing the decrease of almost 5% in new complaints net or facebooking their friends on their to the TIO.