Telstra took credit management action against 70 customers, despite them being on a financial hardship arrangements with the telco.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has directed Telstra to comply with financial hardship rules or face fines of $250,000 after an investigation found it breached the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code.
70 customers were impacted between August 2019 and April 2022.
22 had their services restricted, four had services suspended, five were disconnected and two were referred to outside collection agencies. Others had calls or letters.
Under the Code, telcos “must suspend credit management action, which can include service suspensions, disconnections or debt collection, while a financial hardship arrangement is being discussed or is in place.”
“With the pressures caused by rising costs of living and the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever for telcos to support their customers, particularly those in difficult circumstances,” said acting ACMA Chair Creina Chapman.
“Telco services like phone and internet are now essential to daily life, used for everything from work and education, through to health and government services, so even briefly suspending or disconnecting customers can cause a real disruption to their lives.”
The errors occurred due to issues between two Telstra legacy IT systems that prevented or delayed a status update of the customers involved. These legacy system issues have caused the ACMA to issue harsh fines to Telstra in recent times.
“Telstra must continue to address these longstanding issues as a matter of urgency so that its systems can deliver on customer safeguards,” Chapman said.
“Protecting telco customers experiencing financial hardship is an ACMA compliance priority and all telcos can expect greater scrutiny of their dealings in these matters.”
Telstra Customer Service Executive Kate Cotter explains:
“The issue was caused by legacy systems not synchronising properly and we are well on the way to ensuring this is a thing of the past, by replacing these old systems with seamless digital experiences.
“In the meantime, we have implemented IT fixes and regular manual checks to prevent further issues while we complete our systems overhaul.”
Cotter also notes, “we found and fixed the vast majority of these errors quickly, but we’re sorry that our processes let these customers down.”
