Aussies alerted to cheating telco telesales staff - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Aussies alerted to cheating telco telesales staff

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
May 23, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Aussies-alerted-to-cheating-telco-telesales-staff/0,130061791,120265426,00.htm

In the first three months of 2002, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman received over 200 complaints from consumers who had been transferred to different service providers by unethical telesales people, prompting it to alert the public to the shonky practice.

Ombudsman John Pinnock said the numbers of complaints about these issues definitely wasn't improving. -As more companies have started using telemarketing sales methods, we are finding that complaints about verbal transfers are now far more common than complaints about door-to-door salespeople," he said.

According to Pinnock, in some cases consumers had been misled as to the purpose of the call. -In other cases, people try to fob off the salesperson by answering 'yes' to everything, discovering on their next phone bill that they have authorised a transfer," he said.

"Customers are often confused and don't realise they're transferring the services then and there," Pinnock added.

The TIO is advising consumers that if they have complaints about switching telco providers they should contact the company and ask to be returned to their original service provider. If this is not resolved, the consumer can lodge a complaint with the TIO.