Phone bills back on Australian watchdog's agenda - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Phone bills back on Australian watchdog's agenda

By Vivienne Fisher, ZDNet Australia
June 13, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Phone-bills-back-on-Australian-watchdog-s-agenda/0,130061791,120265925,00.htm

Telephone contracts, this time of the mobile variety, are once more attracting industry focus as consumer complaints continue to roll in.

More than 40 cases relating to mobile contract termination fees have been investigated by Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman John Pinnock this year, according to a statement issued by the watchdog. Complaints about mobile phone contracts made up 26 percent of all complaints about mobile phone services.

Overall, more than 19,000 complaints were received by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) office in the first three months of this year. Billing was the biggest cause of complaint. Issues about faults in landline phones, and poor customer service of telcos and Internet companies were also logged.

Pinnock is arguing that early termination fees would only meet the TIO's approval if they reflected genuinely estimated loss to the company of a terminated contract.

According to Pinnock, he has written to all mobile service carriers and resellers. His aim is for the industry to improve the transparency of these early termination fees by itemising components, and disclosing calculation methods in mobile phone contracts and associated documentation, the statement said.

Although he was positive about the removal of flat fees by some companies from their mobile deals, he said there were still a number of outstanding cases. -No company is yet supplying as a matter of course the information a customer needs to be able to make an informed decision about when to terminate a mobile contract," Pinnock argued.