This guide is designed for Australia and refers to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman Act which requires telecos such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin, Dodo and the like to respond and resolve issues that customers (consumers and businesses) have with their respective services.
Step 1
The First step to the process is to go to https://www.tio.com.au/complaints which will give you an overview of the process.
Step 2
To start a complaint, go to: https://www.tioonline.com.au/ and click “Start your complaint”
Step 3
Select the correct type of account you are making the complaint under.
Step 4
Input the correct dates. Make sure you are as accurate as possible. If you have records of when you called, keep them for uploading or providing at a later time.
Try to make contact with your provider by as many means as possible. Select the one that you contacted by first or most.
Always try to get a reference number when you do. This gives your complaint more legitimacy because it can be verified. Especially a screenshot of chat or an email.
Step 5
Put as much detail about your complaint regarding when the first instance of performance issues arose, what you did to attempt to resolve it, and as many times as you have tried to contact the provider.
Outline the impact on your personally, on your life, any impact on your health, any impact on your dependents, any impact on your work, any impact on your relationships.
Clearly indicate what the provider did when you contacted them. Did they fix it temporarily? Did they do nothing?
If you have attempted to contact them again, and you should try to, specify the dates and have evidence to prove your circumstances.
Step 6
Importantly, where you can, click more than one option but try to place a monetary loss you have suffered that can be directly attributed. We have found that even stating that a loss of $1,000 was suffered, could be resolved quickly with a $600 refund on previous bills.
The telco provider does not want to have the issue dragged out.
We recommend submitting a complaint by this online process and then following up with a phone call, post letter and email tio@tio.com.au. The reason for this is that every contact with the TIO causes a fee to be issued to the provider. This is to encourage quick settlement of disputes.
We also recommend contacting the providers management as well, once the TIO complaint is active.
Fairbane also has additional tricks to this final part of the process, which we can assist you with for a reasonable fee: office@fairbane.com.au.