Small business phone and internet complaints drop in 2018

Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 60,998 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last six months of 2018, down 27.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2017.

The proportion of complaints from small businesses increased from 11.7 per cent during July to December 2017 to 15.2 per cent. But their overall complaints in 2018 dropped 6.4 per cent on the year to 9,270.

Small businesses mostly complained about no action or delayed action by the service provider to resolve their complaint, disputed charges for services or equipment, no service delivery, and delay in establishing a service.

Complaints from residential consumers mirrored those coming from the small business sector and decreased by 30.5 per cent, from 74,238 in 2017 to 51,560 in 2018.

“While I am pleased complaints decreased in the period, this report is a snapshot in a much more complex story. The final quarter of this reporting period showed a slight increase in complaints about internet services against the general downward trend,” said Ombudsman Judi Jones.

She added that the telecommunications sector must continue to focus on meeting the needs of the residential consumers and small businesses that are increasingly reliant on being connected to phone and internet services.

Looking at the individual states and territories, the TIO pointed out that all areas of Australia saw an overall decline in complaints in the last six months of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.

NSW received the largest number of complaints, 19,321 in total, down 27.9 per cent, while the Northern Territory only received 339 complaints, a decrease of 35.9 per cent.