Australians are complaining to telcos less, but with more than a million complaints this past financial year, there are still “too many issues” with phone and internet services.
This is the view of Nerida O’Loughlin, the chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority, who stressed that “further improvements” are needed, following the ACMA’s annual report for 2021-22.
“Telco services have become essential to our daily lives and more than a million complaints per year shows people are still experiencing too many issues with their phone and internet,” O’Loughlin said.
“The industry needs to make further improvements to address common telco pain points—prompt and effective communication, customer service, billing issues and the protection of vulnerable consumers—to drive down customer complaints.
“While the average time taken to resolve complaints has decreased to just over seven days, some telcos are still taking far too long to resolve complaints, with some averaging more than ten days before complaints are resolved.”
According to figures released last month from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, total complaints lodged with the TIO during the last financial year decreased by 33.4 per cent across the board.
Mobile complaints, however, increased in percentage terms, now making up 39.7 per cent of all complaints.
31,556 of complaints to TIO were about mobile services, compared to 26,989 complaints about internet services.
All issues decreased in volume, across landline, mobile, and internet service, except for poor mobile coverage, which increased 6.1 per cent.
Specifically, complaints about having a partially restricted mobile service increased 12.4 per cent, and mobile complaints about service drop outs have increased 9.9 per cent.
Complaints about Telstra decreased by 43.7 per cent, while complaints increased for Medion, who offer ALDImobile services, Aussie Broadband, and Dodo.