Consumer complaints to the TIO concerning bill disputes with Telecommunications companies have risen steadily over the year from around 1,100 to 1,300 between the March and December quarters.
Complaints regarding landline services have exhibited the sharpest rise increasing from an average of around 650 per quarter in the first half of 2002 to around 800 over final two quarters.
Telecommunications ombudsman John Pinnock said that Telstra's decision to "factor" its debt may, to a large extent, be behind the increase in complaints, the carrier placing its problem creditors in the hands of agencies that depend on successful recovery of outstanding debt for their bottom line.
"It might be that the factor is a little more aggressive in pursuing the debt," said Pinnock.
Pinnock said that the TIO could not state for certain that the introduction of factoring was behind the complaints. However, the regulator decided in November to alter its constitution to ensure it would have jurisdiction to deal with debt disputes sourcing from the telecommunications services regardless of the agent collecting it.
"The problems is exacerbated whenever debt recovery is outsourced to a recovery agency because immediately the TIO member has that much less control over what happens on a day-to-day basis," said Pinnock.
Debt recovery complaints account for over 50 percent of the credit related complaints the TIO received in December.
Pinnock said instances of inappropriate threats and inappropriate referral to credit agencies featured strongly among the kinds of complaints received by the TIO.
