Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman

Just received a great outcome from telecomms ombudsman. Only took 5 business days from complaint to resolution.

Just to be clear the previous government ombudsman has been removed and replaced with a private not for profit?organization with no powers to fix or even recommend changes to government. I believe government fund them so it would be your tax dollars. The person I spoke to didn't want to confirm who funded them. They call themselves an ombudsman… Read more

but that is stretching it. They can facilitate chatting and that's it. Their.knowledge is limited and don't really care if you can't use your phone because of bad reception from both Telstra and Optus. I'm sorry but it's the only way to explain. Laziness by government. They are not helpful with the 000 fiasco either but I have concluded acma are blocking any phones they want to even though they are good to go. Some agencies are untouchable. For example ABF, acma , tax department, etc. You get the point , I'm voting Pauline but don't think they will let here become PM. Now who are the Nazis again?

A TIO which refuses to acknowledge that its own FOA documentation contains provable factual inaccuracies, misrepresents customer service experience / concerns and omits outstanding, evidence based concerns - is a TIO which as a result of its lack of integrity is by default an organisation which serves the very corporations we seek to hold accountable.

The TIO pass your complaint to the telco who dismiss it and TIO upholds their decision to do so. Strung out for months, no support, no impartiality. No accountability for either the TIO or the Telcos. Complain to your cat instead.

Most times I've dealt with this organisation, they have been helpful. One of the better companies to seek help and advice from.

useless… corrupted like other service agents, sided tpg !!! no wonder tpg behaving like sc@mers these days, altered my contact without my consent! don’t waste your time, this tio office running by lazy p$g, dragging my case over a year without good results then closed my case! they are as bad as VCAT!!!! corrupted is just an understatement!

I’m fairly sure their customer service centre is based overseas! They were trying to call me after lodging a complaint that I had NO PHONE SERVICE! It’s exhausting trying to deal with these people just the same as dealing with Telstra!! Have to start communicating by sending smoke signals to people or writing letters! It’s enough to drive anyone totally NUTS!

Like most Australians I have had to use the TIO numerous times over the years, it was once reasonably competent but now it has degenerated to a point where it is not fit for purpose about the same level as the rest of the Australian Bureaucracy. They proudly say they are independent and non-profit, of course they are, in order to make a profit… Read more

they have to be productive and efficient. The “management” wouldn’t know the meaning of those two words, they couldn’t run a bath without the guidance of a six year old child, so running a profitable organisation is an impossibility, that’s what you get when bureaucrats are appointed by bureaucrats. The most important attributes for employment at every level is political correctness, gender disparity, pronouns, environmentalism, feminism, affirmative action and reverse racism, so by the time the appointed applicant has accumulated that list of woke skills they would have run out time to learn anything of value in the real world. This dysfunctional dictate is what we have experienced over the last 3 months. In our 80s with health issues, it has been no fun trying to survive without phones or internet while jumping through all the hoops and hurdles these little dictators create while at the same time trying to communicate with the telco’s non English-speaking staff at its headquarters in the Philippines. We were asked to clearly state all of the details of our complaint in writing and then simply ignored everything every detail of our complaint and made up their own version so they could politely request their employer to try and reconnect our service that we were paying for but not receiving. They completely ignored our request for a refund for the non-service period and now have the temerity to ask us to give them a big tick of approval for their woeful service. Close them down and let them clean public toilets.

Telstra clearly says on their website that activating a SIM is just a few simple steps and you can keep your phone number. That is clearly false advertising and the ombudsman is clearly their ombudsman. They are giving Telstra two weeks to do what their website promised was a simple process. In the meantime, I have no phone and their ombudsman is… Read more

turning a blind eye to what is a breach of advertising law. I bet they wouldnt sit on their hands if it was their own phone! Less woke nonsense, more doing your actual role!

Totally useless. Do nothing. Let telcos get away with anything. Better off going directly to VCAT. People could die due to no access to emergency services and tio will do nothing.

These animals are just there to waste your time. They are also very hostile & can talk down to you.

Scumbags! These clowns should be dragged out kicking and screaming and have the office doors locked behind them. Incompetent clowns with zero respect for anyone but the large companies there obviously trying to protect! If I was a day late paying a bill there would be consequences! But these clowns will give multi million dollar companies 5 or 6… Read more

chances at screwing over legitimate complainants with serious questions about billing and services not provided when there paying for services. Where are the oversight services or committees looking into these ombudsmen? Who is paying these office's? I smell corruption personified in these office's

Incompetent – Toothless Tiger. Still waiting for a case manager re current internet service provider. Have done nothing in the past as well with other providers. A.service that is just a waste of money. Pointless really.

Bereft of Compassion and completely disorganised – I have a brain injury. Telstra made a mistake. Telstra admitted this in an email and 'gave' me credit. But I never received the credit. About 50 emails with the TIO and months later, the TIO just rejected my complaint saying they can't help. Didn't even give me avenues of appeal or where to go. Plus, I had several case managers in this time so… Read more

had to waste time explaining everything each time.

Telstra literally admitted they ripped me off. Telstra said they gave me credit. They didn't. TIO refused to investigate by making the process so difficult, then eventually saying no when they realised I would not be intimidated and give up when it was Telstra caught red-handed.

Telco's no help TIO no help what next GIVE UP – I was Connected to Moose Mobile and Australian Company for at least a year all was well no issues at all. Then suddenly my phone stopped receiving mobile calls. Apparently I was cut off due to either error or I dont know what but I was being moved to Superloop which I did not request. I called up Superloop Mobile and it was extreamly hard to get… Read more

through to them and when I did they were of no help at all as well. I called Moose Mobile same deal no help they could not even arrange for my origional phone number to be brought back to Moose Mobile. I really wanted to keep my phone number so I called the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) I was supplied with a case number. I received a call from a lady about 3-4 days later she said she she will talk to them and get it resolved and or I may need to call them both too. Nothing happened the end result I was 2.5 weeks with out a phone with call functionality. I called up Circle.Life and got a new sim new phone number and was operational in 1.5 days. My experience was awful and if it happens to you may be you will need to gat a new number like me.

Telecommunications Self Regulation Does Not Work – The TIO are a fine example of how Industry self regulation does not work. It's time to bring back government regulation with real penalties for failure to deliver consumers what they pay for. Enough is enough.

Useless and will just waste your time – Just don't bother with the TIO. The telcos know the TIO can't do anything so they simply dig their heels in and the TIO simply come back with "While I understand your disappointment with the outcome of this matter, our office can not compel Aussie Broadband to reimburse the service fees. " This will be the outcome every time so as I said, Just Don't bother!

"Unfortunately, we are unable to handle complaints related to commercial decisions." – The subject line says it all, apparently the TIO is unable to do anything, at all, anymore. Perhaps even more concerning (this was news to me): "However, we are not a government agency. We are an independent, not for profit company that offers a free dispute resolution service to consumers as an alternative to a court or tribunal. Under our terms… Read more

of reference, the Ombudsman sets their own processes and practices."

I doubt I was the only person who assumed the TIO was government. I doubt they are "independent" especially given the continued disgrace which is telecommunications in Australia, even worse now that the telcos are forcing people to turn their phones into ewaste, even though they still work. Much of the rest of the world is removing 3G support, but many countries in Europe never removed 2G, and people can still use their very old phones there!

I have contacted the TIO, and had success, twice in the past, both times with dodgy telcos trying to intimidate me, even though they were clearly in the wrong. One of them even threatened me with legal action, until the TIO told them where to go. But that is the past, 1, or 2 decades ago.

Clueless and Gutless – Absolutely clueless and gutless. The TIO is all talk no action, Any resistance from a Telco and its belly up. The TIO is a politically correct Woke dystopia, that uses gender politics and pronouns as a platform. Telco Providers are under no obligation to do what the TIO says, and they know it, and so does TIO But TIO pretends it has power,, it… Read more

believes it has power, it wants to have power, but its powerless. If you like going in circles, week after week, month after month, year after year then TIO is for you

Another Wasted Effort Hoping the TIO would be Honest – We' ve had so many issues with our Mobile Service provider that we had of necessity to approach the TIO for help. Our latest problem was our handsets were no longer functioning with the 4G network. So for the last approx 6 months we couldn't receive or make Mobile calls and had to resort to our Landline to make and take calls which was more… Read more

expensive AND at the same time our Mobile provider charged us for our Mobile Service which wasn't working. Our Provider also stopped our Direct Debit Payments each December for the last 3 years putting us each time in Arrears. No explanation and now when our Provider won't assist with used compatible handsets as the new Network is non functional due to the upgrade we must kowtow to accept the cheapest handsets or else go without. An 'Ombudsman' is supposed to be impartial but that's not how it works in Australia. Here we have Insurance and TIO and Water Ombudsmen BUT in Australia they are 'Industry PAID Ombudsmen' who don't really care about any impartiality but favour the Providers they work for. How many of us follow the Complaints process wasting hours ,days, weeks and months of our time providing reams of information and documents and at the end of the day our time spent was a waste of time as the Ombudsman makes a choice for the ones who pay them and not for the man in the street who has been overridden by corporate greed. The reality is we are on a legacy low cost Mobile plan which is all we can afford and our Provider is trying to get rid of us by suggesting if our Mobiles won't work we should try another Network. Shame on the TIO for not standing up to the Providers who have the power to make everything more difficult and unfair.

TIO is financed by "fines" paid by telcos, and TIO in turn looks after telcos' interests – When I was having NBN FTTP connected to my home in late October(?) 2023, the Nbn Co-contracted technician (from Service Stream), without checking with me first, installed the interior NTD at an unsuitable location on my home office wall. It's a long story how it came to happen and the details are irrelevant here. I lodged a complaint with Nbn Co… Read more

for relocation of the NTD and compensation for the only partly reparable hole that would then be left in my wall. While initially conceding that I had some grounds for grievance, Nbn Co's response was that I should get quotes from a private electrician and plasterer for the works to be done, and Nbn Co would reimburse me up to a maximum of $500. I was told that if I didn't accept the $500 offer and took my complaint to TIO instead, then Nbn Co would have to pay the $500 to TIO, so I might as well take the $500 instead. This was clearly a ruse by Nbn Co to have me "settle" early and limit their risk exposure in my matter to $500.

I referred my complaint to TIO, whereupon Nbn Co withdrew their capped offer of $500 compensation.

I argued my case to TIO with professionally presented multipage documents complete with explanatory photographs, and in several emails. After several exchanges of correspondence, their first recommendation of action, issued to me by Ms K.P., was that Nbn Co should do ... nothing. I was asked to indicate whether I would accept or reject that recommendation. Seriously! What is there to accept in a recommendation that proposes NOTHING? It was apparent from some assumptive commentary from Ms K.P. that she hadn't read all of my statements fully, so she wasn't giving me a fair hearing in the first place.

Of course, I rejected the offer of nothing, and my complaint was escalated to the Adjudicator team.

The first proposal from the Adjudicator team member (Mr D.M.) was that I could obtain quotes from a private electrician for the NTD to be relocated, and Nbn Co could give their approval for the works to be done. Why would one bother obtaining and sending quotes to Nbn Co if they're not going to pay out anything on them? Then he offered me the incentive that he might be able to persuade Nbn Co to reinstate their capped offer of $500 reimbursement for relocation and repairs.

That proposed offer with the $500 included was simply equivalent to what Nbn Co first offered me before I referred my complaint to TIO. In other words, in a fine example of recycling, TIO were now offering me Nbn Co's original unsatisfactory pre-TIO offer as its own proposed "resolution"! It's analogous to sending an unsatisfactory meal in a restaurant back to the kitchen, and then having the staff bring the same meal back out from the kitchen and serve it to you as a compensation for the original unsatisfactory meal.

At no point during my negotiations with TIO was any kind of improvement on Nbn Co's unsatisfactory offer ever floated. TIO's idea of a "resolution" was that I just change my mind and accept something equivalent to or less than what I could have simply accepted from Nbn Co in the first place without ever having taken it to TIO. That was the best prospect that they could offer me because, as they said several times, they can't do this, and they can't do that, and they can't do some other thing, either...

Today, after around seven months of dealing with my complaint with Nbn Co and then with TIO, it became obvious that there was no hope left that TIO would propose any kind of "resolution" that would be any improvement on Nbn Co's original offer of compensation, so I advised TIO that, without in any way conceding "resolution" of my complaint, I was cutting my losses and abandoning my dealings with them as a complete waste of time and effort. I'll just pony up myself to have things fixed to the extent possible after Service Stream's stuff-up in my home, and thereafter hold all three of Nbn Co, Service Stream and TIO in deserved enduring contempt as dubious operators. It's not going to cause me any financial difficulty, and I could have otherwise had such corrective works carried out months ago, but I pursued the complaint as a matter of principle that Nbn Co should deal fairly with customers who have been wronged in some way by Nbn Co or its contractors, and not "game" aggrieved customers with a ruse of "take this substandard offer now and 'settle', because if you take your complaint to TIO, we'll withdraw our offer and you'll miss out completely".

The genesis of my whole problem was that the Nbn Co-contracted technician had failed to exercise duty of care in checking with me first before knocking a hole in my home office wall – in a location not where I required the NTD to be installed – to install the NTD. Despite me repeatedly making that point to TIO, they steadfastly refused to even acknowledge it. As far as TIO were concerned, the fault was mine in that I made the "wrong" decision, under duress, about how to continue with the work after I walked in and saw what the technician had done, and no prior fault on the part of the technician was ever acknowledged by TIO. Intrinsic to conducting an unbiased investigation into a complaint is to acknowledge and take into account ALL of the relevant facts. Whether TIO were biased in their conclusion can be a matter of opinion. However, in choosing to ignore the genesis of the whole complaint – the initial lapse in duty of care on the part of the technician – TIO showed themselves to be at least procedurally biased, and in a way that would help to exculpate Nbn Co and their subcontractor, Service Stream.

Edited 20 days later (25 June 2024) to add:

In an incredibly tone deaf faux pas, TIO have today emailed me to invite me as a randomly selected client to participate in an online research activity to help them improve how their website is organised. They've received a concise response in unvarnished language informing them how strongly they've got to be kidding me. Good grief ... how their website is organised isn't their biggest deficiency by a long shot.

waste of time and a total waste of tax payers money – Sure some of their staff work for Optus they never listen to any thing you say and only believe what Optus say

Toothless Tigers – In the end they have no real power to punish incompetent and dishonest providers. Toothless Tigers. Don't bother if you have a real issue they are powerless to help in anyway. A total waste of time and effort. Don't bother with them. One positive they are very polite.

Absolute waste of time – I would rather give 0 stars. Months of back and forth with them regarding property damage done by their subcontractors. It was very obvious that they were biased, and threw every possibility at me as to why there were damaged areas in my yard. I came back with proof to the contrary every.single.time. In the end, I had a professional state that he… Read more

could provide an opinion that the contractor was at fault, but without digging up my yard, it was impossible to prove 100%. The ombudsman ran with that and denied my claim. I knew there was an appeal process, and told the rep that I wanted to use it. She straight up told me that it was pointless, and that they rarely, if ever, change the decision. She was correct, I lost the appeal. I want to add, that as frustrated as I was, I was always truthful, and polite in dealing with them. I hope I never ever have to deal with them again .

TIO is Toothless Tiger and needs to be changed – I registered a compliant with the TIO in April 2023 about a Mobile Phone company. It is now September and they have no progress towards resolving my complaint and the Mobile Phone company is just stonewalling both them and me.

Superficial effort to complaints – The ombudsman's office does little to mediate in difficulties consumers face with their providers industry wide they escape the scrutiny by saying it is outside their charter to assist , the purely push complaints back to the management of a telecommunications provider without further compliance by the provider !

A waste of time – A.M and E.H from the TIO failed to investigate fairly. The took the word of the provider MATE telecommunications over mine, when all they had to do was ask for a call recording from when MATE contacted me on 06/05/2022. They asked me for proof that MATE lied, although I had plenty of written evidence, they believed MATE who did not give full… Read more

information regarding an NBN upgrade, costs or repurcusions involved. TIO have authority to request the call, instead they did not and the only way for me to seek compensation for the stress and hell that MATE put me through, is to subpoena the call through VCAT, which I am willing to do. Imagine if they had done their jobs, there could have been one less case clogging up VCAT. Shame on the TIO.

Fantastic service – I have found them very responsive. I have had endless problems with Telstra in business due to being unable to ever directly contact them . These included billing, faxing , unreliable internet and landline problems. Usually within 48hrs these problems have been addressed by the TIO.

Exasperated & Disappointed – A complaint was lodged with the Ombudsman 8 months ago regarding Telstra, which was accepted. Later, one letter that was received from the Ombudsman did not contain any content !!!! When this was brought to their attention, they ceased to correspond further. The Ombudsman has failed to respond to 5 emails since November 2021. This is a… Read more

dereliction of duty, which is astounding from such an organisation & extremely disappointing. They should be held accountable for their actions & distrust displayed.

Who are they protecting ?????