New figures from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) show telcos received around 283,000 complaints in the 2019 December quarter, a decline of 25.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2018.
NBN broadband complaints were down 36.4 per cent in the same period with 126 complaints per 10,000 services.
The data comes from ACMA’s first interactive telco complaints dashboard-which looks at all complaints during the September and December quarters from the top and mid-tier telcos, excluding Optus.
The average time taken to resolve customer complaints has also decreased, from six days to four, across both quarters.
ACMA Authority Member Fiona Cameron said the report is a snapshot on how telcos are performing and areas where they need to improve.
“These are encouraging numbers and a strong indication that consumers over the period were more satisfied with the services they received from their telcos,” Ms Cameron said.
“It is particularly encouraging to see the levels of complaints for the different NBN technologies have evened out, compared to previous reports where some technologies received notably more complaints than others.
“During the current unprecedented times there is likely to be an uptick in complaints as customers may have difficulty contacting their service provider and as access to properties becomes more uncertain.”
“It will be important for customers to be patient and considerate as telcos work through these difficulties and it will be equally important for telcos to prioritise support to more vulnerable customers,” Ms Cameron said.
Optus’ data is being excluded from this report due to multiple amendments of its data submissions, and ongoing data anomalies.
As a result, the ACMA has used its powers to require Optus to obtain an external audit of its compliance with the ACMA’s record-keeping rules.
Data from Optus will be included in future reports when the ACMA is confident of its accuracy.
