Industry welcomes 9.6 per cent Fall in Complaints to the TIO

Sydney, 17 November 2016 – A 9.6 per cent fall in total new complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in 2015-16 has been welcomed by communications industry body Communications Alliance.

“Complaints about mobile services fell by 28.8 per cent to their lowest level since 2006-07 – a strong indicator of ongoing improvements in mobile infrastructure and customer service, along with improved calling plans and features,” said Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton.

He acknowledged that after four years of significant year-on-year reductions in complaint volumes, complaint numbers in some service categories had begun to rise recently – signalling the need for industry to redouble its efforts around customer service and complaint handling.

“Complaints relating to NBN-based services have risen of late as the pace of the network rollout has rapidly accelerated.

“It is pleasing, however, that the rate of growth in these complaints is slower than the rate of growth of active services on NBN-based networks – meaning that proportionally, the complaint volumes are actually falling.

“Industry members within Communications Alliance have already produced a comprehensive guidance note that documents for all stakeholders the processes needed to authorise, validate and complete the migration of legacy services over to the NBN.

“This guidance – now being .turned into an Industry Guideline - is making it easier to ensure that coordination among multiple players can occur, to provide a relatively seamless migration experience in almost all cases.

“There is no doubt that moving large numbers of customers across networks is a complex and potentially disruptive process, but all industry players are committed to achieving further improvements and to making the process as simple as possible for consumers,” Mr Stanton said.