Door-to-door sales company Axxess Australia has been tripped up for slamming telecommunications customers.
Slamming refers to the unauthorised transfer of a customer's telecommunications services to another company by unethical door-to-door sales practices that trick people into signing transfer forms.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleges that Axxess illegally obtained signatures by advising customers that, in signing a form, they were simply requesting further information.
Customers were also tricked into signing a transfer form by salespeople who said it was simply proof that they'd visited the premises.
The ACCC also alleges that Axxess induced elderly and vision impaired people to sign transfer forms.
The latest news in the slamming arena comes in the wake of the launch of a code of practice that gives the Australian Communications Authority the right to fine carriers up to AU$250,000 if they are caught slamming.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) reports that slamming complaints totalled seven percent of all telephony complaints in 1999 - this increased to 14.9 percent in the third quarter of the 2000 financial year.
Slamming complaints dropped off slightly to 14.5 percent in the fourth quarter, with the TIO saying it had noticed "a reasonable decrease in complaints".
Axxess will appear in Melbourne Federal Court on July 4.
