Axxess Direct, the One.Tel agent at the centre of the recent dispute over slamming has hit out at the junior telco.
One.Tel was one of two telecommunications carriers that faced a Federal Court hearing this week over shonky marketing methods that resulted in hundreds of customer's telephone services being illegally transferred - a practice known as "slamming".
One.Tel and fellow carrier Primus were each penalised AU$500,000.
One.Tel blamed its agent Axxess for the offence and has since terminated the contract and launched legal action.
"There's clearly an element of things not being what they appear," Steve McGovern, general manager at Axxess, told ZDNet.
"One.Tel owes us a substantial amount of money," he claimed.
Axxess, which has been in discussions with lawyers this week, claims One.Tel's legal action against it is in response to Axxess' own claims for money from One.Tel.
However, "we're not as big as One.Tel so we don't want to say anything that will jeopardise what we're trying to achieve," McGovern said.
Axxess was contracted by One.Tel to provide door-to-door marketing services of its local call package.
According to One.Tel, Axxess misled consumers by asking that they sign a piece of paper to say they were interested in finding out more about One.Tel services when in fact they were signing over their services to the carrier.
However, whilst legal proceedings are pending against Axxess, One.Tel refused to comment further.
A recent Federal Court hearing against One.Tel and Primus, which claimed both telcos had contravened the Trade Practices Act, was instigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
"At the end of the day, a company has to control its agents. That's the basic principal in the Trade Practices Act," ACCC general manager of telecommunications, Michael Cosgrave, told ZDNet.
"[One.Tel and Primus] were aware of a range of complaints against their agents yet they continued to use them."
The ACCC said it hopes the action taken against One.Tel and Primus will encourage telecommunications companies to consider the processes they put in place to make sure slamming doesn't continue to occur.
Practices may include taking marketing functions in-house to ensure tighter control and a review of door-to-door marketing tactics to include stringent verification processes to ensure rightful consumer consent is given.
The AU$500,000 fines will be used to fund an ACCC awareness campaign to stamp out slamming.
They also undertook to cover the ACCC's legal costs and pay compensation for out-of-pocket customers.
Injunctions to prevent future "misleading and deceptive conduct, fraudulently obtaining signatures or consent over the telephone and coercing or harassing potential customers in transferring services," were also taken out against the carriers.
Primus wouldn't disclose the names of the agencies involved in customer slamming but said legal action "was a possibility".
