A new report from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has found an increase in people making compensation claims over the last quarter.
The Complaints Data Report also found an increase in mobile complaints, but reported a decrease in service reliability issues from regional Australia.
Between July to September, the TIO received a slight increase in complaints, to the tune of 1.1% or a total of 13,547 complaints compared to the previous quarter.
The biggest increase out of the top 10 issues reported was in compensation claims, which were up more than 16% from the last quarter.
Prolonged outages, confusing information and difficulties getting resolutions with their telco were key reasons that customers were seeking compensation, citing stress and inconvenience as a result.
Another complaint category up this quarter was financial hardship, which increased 9.6% compared to the last quarter, and mobile service complaints climbed by 9% from the previous quarter to a total of 5,988 complaints.
However, in regional Australia, services seemed to be on the up, as reliability issues were down considerably during this last quarter.
Complaints about slow data speeds were down by over 25%, intermittent service or dropouts reduced by 21%, poor mobile coverage issues down by 20% and no service at all complaints were down 16.8%.
On a state-by-state basis, the highest numbers of complaints came from New South Wales, with Victoria close behind, while the ACT reported the largest increase in complaints quarter by quarter.
“When people face repeated phone and internet failures, they expect their telco to make it right. Sometimes this means compensation. We’re seeing more people ask for payments because the stress and disruption caused by phone and internet problems is simply too high," said the TIO's Cynthia Gebert.
“People are telling us loudly and clearly, they need to know their mobile services will work when it's most important, including to contact emergency services.”
