Credit: ACMA
Melbourne-based V4 Telecom has received a formal warning after an investigation found that customers could not contact the telco to complain about service outages.
According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) , V4 failed to tell customers what it was doing to restore their service and did not keep a record of the complaints.
As a result, V4 contravened multiple provisions of the Complaints Handling Industry Standard between July and December 2018.
V4 was also directed to comply with Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code after more than 30 customers were moved to another wholesale network without being notified.
ACMA chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said customers had a right to expect their complaints will be heard, acknowledged and answered.
“It’s unacceptable for customer complaints not to be dealt with properly,” she said.
So far, ACMA has investigated 42 complaints handling issues in the past 12 months, with four telcos receiving remedial directions and 28 receiving formal warnings.
“Proper handling of customer complaints should be a high priority for telcos. It’s apparent however, that some telcos need to lift their game. Telcos are on notice that the ACMA will deal firmly with continued non-compliance with the standard,” she said.
If the ACMA finds further breaches of complaints provisions by V4, stronger enforcement options may be applied. Telco’s can potentially face penalties of up to $250,000 for failing to comply with ACMA directions and TCP code.
