ACCAN recently provided feedback to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) on its draft guidance note, Complaints about Telecommunications Equipment. This guidance note sets out the types of device and equipment complaints the TIO can resolve, and how these will be handled by the TIO. ACCAN’s submission acknowledged the TIO’s ongoing engagement with consumer groups on this issue, and recommended that the guidance note provides additional detail on a number of areas.

ACCAN’s submission recommended that the TIO’s Complaints about Telecommunications Equipment guidance note include additional detail about:

• How the TIO will consider Australian Consumer Law (ACL) guarantees when handling device and equipment complaints;
• How complaints relating to ACL remedies would be handled by the TIO; and
• The TIO’s expectations of telcos during dispute resolution relating to device and equipment complaints.

ACCAN’s feedback also highlighted that the TIO should consider all complaints about telcos’ mis-selling of devices and equipment, and that consumers should be required to return equipment only where reasonable and practicable.

Download:  ACCAN feedback on draft TIO device and equipment guidance159.61 KB
Download:  ACCAN feedback on draft TIO device and equipment guidance250.95 KB