ACMA says industry response to telco complaints inquiry “falls short”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority says the submissions provided by telcos as part of its inquiry into reducing customer complaints do not contain any concrete solutions and the industry needs to step up.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network also believes the result is disappointing and says the regulator should be given authority to hurt telcos at the bottom line if they do not start lifting their game.

ACMA chairman Chris Chapman says the submissions, provided by AAPT, Telstra, Optus and VHA, don’t deliver concrete solutions to the increasing problem of consumer complaints.

“As a generalisation, they acknowledged there are customer care and complaint issues. They acknowledged the telco industry is becoming more complex, and reminded stake holders there was a co-regulatory approach in play under the legislation,” he told SmartCompany this morning.

“All of which sounds very sensible. We don’t intervene in a regulatory sense lightly at all, but we didn’t have to have that simply served up to us. We’re looking for solutions here.”

The ACMA was announced earlier this year after a report from the industry ombudsman found complaints grew by 1.8% in the six months to August 2009. More recently, the TIO found the number of formal complaints reached 52,730 during the March quarter.

When the inquiry was announced, Chapman told an industry conference that the “poor complaint handling of the industry is legendary”. Now, he says ACMA is still as committed as it was six months ago.

“We want to see a mindset change. And the telco players are indicating they see a need for that. But at this stage we don’t know what that means in concrete steps, what the timings are, what the outcomes are, and so on. ACMA is concerned with a material improvement in customer care – and that will be our focus.”

ACMA yesterday announced its inquiry will be travelling over the country during the next few months. Workshops will be held in several cities for consumers and companies alike to put forward their views.
Public hearings will be held in Sydney and Melbourne, along with other dates scheduled for Adelaide, Townsville and Launceston.

Chapman hopes for a better response. However, he says that if the regulator does not receive anything concrete, there are further steps available.

“We have a range of regulatory tools available to use from codes, standards or a combination of those. Or indeed, we could move forward with an informal arrangement.”

“However, it is perceived as best practice where industry takes control and addresses these issues in a meaningful way, and does it in a sustainable way. ACMA has been entirely consistent with its language in this regard.”

But Theresa Corbin, deputy chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, says the industry needs drastic reform that will only be achieved if companies are hurt on their bottom line.

“They are saying that complaint levels have fallen, therefore they are doing something, but the reality is that it’s hard to say whether complaint numbers are just going down because there is a strong focus from Government.”

“We would have to see a reduction to levels from two or three years ago before we would consider there has been something done driven by the market. We’re still getting a lot of anecdotal feedback from consumers that customer service is not improving.”

Corbin says the regulator should consider a range of options, including monetary compensation for customers that have experienced a poor level of service.

“We’ve called for specific benchmarking and compensation directly for consumers, because we really think companies will respond if there is a threat to their bottom line.”

“We think it’s very good the ACMA is taking this seriously, but we have called for some standards and believe the way for reform is to see companies respond through these initiatives we’ve proposed.”