Telco customers are being forced to wait up to two months to have connection issues resolved – with Telstra ranking among the country’s worst providers.
It follows a new report which was prompted after a record number of customer service complaints towards networks last year.
The survey, which was conducted by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, also slammed Telstra as a ‘low-performing provider’.
Telco customers are being forced to waiting up to two months for their connection to be fixed – with Telstra in particular slammed as ‘a low-performing provider’
It follows a report from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network which revealed telco customers waited 13 days on average to have issues resolved and less than 40 per cent of the major providers’ customers were satisfied with the service
On average it took 13 days for consumers to have issues resolved, but this waiting game was extended up to two months for more complicated problems.
And among an increasingly saturated provider market, it revealed the country’s biggest phone companies, Optus and Telstra, are becoming less efficient than most of their cheaper rivals.
In fact, more than half of TPG, iiNet, Amaysim, iPrimus customers said they’d had a positive experience.
This was compared to only 40 per cent of Optus and Telstra customers who felt the same way.
The survey also showed consumers routinely had to contact their telco multiple times and found it tough to escalate an issue to a formal complaint.
However, customers of the same brand weren’t always on equal footing for how long they would have to wait.
Those who dropped into their telco store in person had issues resolved the quickest – typically with eight days – while those who complained by phone often had to wait more than 23
Those who dropped into their telco store in person had issues resolved the quickest – typically with eight days – while those who complained by phone often had to wait more than 23.
According to ACCAN chief executive Teresa Corbin, the results from the report leave room for improvement in an increasingly customer-centric industry.
‘It’s time to shift the balance back to telcos so that customers are not carrying such heavy costs to maintain their essential telecommunications services,’ she said.
‘Nearly half the complaints received by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman last year identified customer service as an issue, so we know it’s a source of considerable frustration.’
Last year, a record 158,016 complaints made to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman prompted the need for a report – with over 76,932 of those lodged involving customer service issues.