Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR) is here to help Kiwis resolve issues with their broadband, mobile and home phone providers, and every six months we share a snapshot of what we are seeing.
Latest report
Our report for the second half of 2023 is now available. In this report we provide insights from 1 July to 31 December 2023:
About this period
TDR continued to see a high level of issues raised by consumers in this period, with 1925 complaints received between July and December. This is on par with the same period in 2022 when 1921 consumers raised a complaint with TDR and almost nine percent higher than the previous six months in 2023 where 1770 Kiwis got in touch with us for assistance resolving a phone or internet issue.
“Complaint and dispute enquiry volumes are remaining consistently high – these levels seem to be the new normal. It’s important that consumers can access a free and independent complaint service when they need it and it is encouraging to see this service is being used. In these last six months’ alone TDR saw almost as many complaints as we did during the whole of 2020/21,” explains Barry Jordan, Chair of the TDRL Board.
TDR resolved or closed 1781 complaints this period. This has increased by 19 percent from the same period in 2022 and again is higher than the previous six months by seven percent.
“We focus on an early resolution approach and it continues to make a big difference with 97 percent of complaints being sorted in our first stage of our involvement. For those remaining complaints that proceed to our formal dispute resolution stages, it’s pleasing to see so many of these still being resolved through facilitation or mediation - with only 20 complaints requiring independent adjudication,” Barry noted.
The top three categories remain as billing (50.7%), customer service (15.6%), and faults (12.8%). The main related issues within each of these categories were disputed charges (36.2%), failure to action a request (9.3%) and delays with service restoration (6.0%).
At the beginning of this reporting period the new TDRL Board was introduced, adopting recommendations made by the Commerce Commission in 2021. The new Board has been progressing several initiatives including changes to our operating model to make the scheme more effective. We look forward to sharing more on this in our next report.
In other related news, the Commerce Commission is undertaking its next regularly cycled three-yearly review of TDR. We welcome this review and look forward to working with the Commission’s team on this important exercise. We encourage anyone interested to get involved and share their feedback as part of the consultation.
Read more
You can find out more about the complaints we see and our latest news in this report which features year to date data and case studies.
We hope you find this report useful and learn more about how TDR can help. We are free and independent, so please get in touch if you need some assistance resolving a complaint.
How to get in touch
If you have raised a complaint with your telecommunications provider and it remains
unresolved or if you find yourself in a dispute, talk to TDR. You can get in touch by:
- Online: www.tdr.org.nz
- Freephone: 0508 98 98 98
- Email: contact@tdr.org.nz