Recurring Issues

One of the aims of the TDR Scheme is to identify recurring issues that affect the majority of the telecommunication companies and their customers. This section of the website outlines some of those issues, and has some advice for both consumers and telecommunication companies that are part of the TDR Scheme.

Transfer issues

Transfer issues of various kinds are a major cause for the complaints received by TDR. Around twelve complaints each month, on average, involve concerns about these issues. 

TDR identified specific areas of potential concern and suggested that there was room for improvement in the process used to obtain valid, complete and informed customer authorisation. More recent complaints have been about:

  • Unauthorised transfers
  • Delays in providing services
  • Forceful sales tactics
  • Technical problems/faults
  • Number porting errors
  • Customers receiving bills from both the losing and gaining providers for the same service

Many of these complaints involve providers that are not members of the TDR Scheme. Unfortunately TDR is therefore unable to assist those customers.

TDR is pleased to note that the TCF is working on a new, draft Transfer of Telecommunications Services Code which attempts to address complex transfer issues involving multiple parties, including many of those issues giving rise to the complaints TDR receives. The TCF's Customer Transfer Code Working Party expects to reach agreement on how to progress with the draft code mid-2010. 

Further information about the draft Code can be found at:
http://www.tcf.org.nz/content/e7d59986-b45f-4cd4-b58c-ac9e604ceed2.html


Internet data usage

Consumers continue to make complaints about internet data usage charges. They usually deny using the internet to the level that they have been charged, and their ISP provider is unable to give them the information to verify the usage they have been charged for.

A typical example is a customer who was on a 1GB plan costing $24.95 per month (a special, limited time half-price charge). She received a bill with a charge of $595 for data usage. She stated that her usage pattern had not changed that month, and that she was unable to find out why the bill was so high. She had received no warning about exceeding her data limit.

In some of the cases reported to TDR, the charges for data usage have run into thousands of dollars.

TDR strongly recommends that when customers sign up to broadband services they make sure they know:

  • What the limit of their plan is
  • How usage is calculated
  • What tools are available to monitor or limit usage
  • How warnings about exceeding data limits are provided 
  • What the charges are for data usage that exceeds the limit of the plan.

Customers should also be aware that:

  • If they use file sharing software it may be possible for files to be uploaded from their computers even when they are not at home
  • Unsecured wireless networks leave internet connections vulnerable to unwanted people using them for downloads (see the following link for an example of a news item about this): http://www.3news.co.nz/Technology/Story/tabid/412/articleID/16888/cat/73/Default.aspx
  • Usage may include downloading as well as uploading
  • Movies and songs use up considerable amounts of data
  • The responsibility remains with the customer to keep their usage within the limits of their plan (using the available monitoring tools).

TDR’s experience is that many customers do not have secure control over the use of their computers. TDR urges bill payers to monitor use of computers by children or family members, visitors and other people that might have access to their computer. Unauthorised internet use may well account for the unexpected charges.

TDR would also like to see the Internet Service Providers playing their part in making customers more aware of the costs of data usage, how these costs may be incurred, and how to monitor or limit usage. If customers are told that their data usage will be capped at the limit of their plan, customers should be able to rely on this.

While providers do provide monitoring tools, TDR would like to see them routinely offer customers a warning mechanism or a capping of services, when the data usage limit is reached, so that the “bill shock” situation can be avoided and so that the hardships that occur when customers unwittingly run up extraordinarily large debts can be prevented.


Water damaged phones

Severalcomplaints have been received about water damaged phones. 

The typical scenario is that a customer discovers a fault with the phone which needs to be examined by a technician and the diagnosis is water damage, which cannot be repaired. Customers are usually puzzled by this, saying that they are certain the phones have never been exposed to water. Because water damage is excluded from the warranty, customers are charged for the inspection and have to purchase a new phone. This usually occurs during the term of a contract, so that if these customers want to terminate the contract they incur a penalty fee.

It appears that the metal components of mobile phones are susceptible to rust damage, making the phones unworkable. However, it does not require putting phones through washing machine cycles or dropping them in the bath to cause the damage. It seems that exposure to moisture of any kind can damage the components. 

Customers are therefore advised to protect their phones from moisture at all times. TDR also advises providers to do more to make customers aware of the need to protect the fragile internal components of their phones against exposure to moisture, especially because the damage is not covered under warranty.


Ancillary issues

Alongside the main issues, TDR continues to receive a significant number of ancillary complaints relating to the time taken for call centres to answer, and about overseas call centres and the resulting language/understanding difficulties. 


TDR has raised these issues with some of the Scheme Members involved, and will continue to do so.