Welcome to Stay Connected
This newsletter shares useful telco tips for customers, community providers, and members; a snapshot of emerging themes; and key sector changes worth keeping on your radar.
Annual Report
Complaint trends and insights
From disputed bills and debt collection concerns to service faults and changing plans, our latest annual report reveals the issues driving New Zealanders to reach out to TDR.
Notably, complaints requiring an independent decision rose nearly 80 per cent in the past year. This shows consumers want confidence that their concerns have been properly investigated and providers see the benefit in having a neutral party to help reach a timely and independent resolution.
Case Study
The cost of service failure inaction
When a customer spent months trying to resolve persistent service issues, the provider's failure to investigate and address the root cause ultimately led to a TDR complaint.
This case highlights how service delivery and customer care can be the reason disputes escalate.
TDR Annual Members Forum 2026
TDR’s recent Member Forums provided an opportunity to share insights, discuss emerging issues, and learn from each other’s experiences.
The discussion explored what complaints reveal about customer experiences, shifting expectations of what a good resolution looks like, and increasingly important issues, including the rise of consumer use of AI in the complaint process.
Forums like this are an important part of TDR’s role. By bringing members together and sharing what we are seeing through complaints, we can help identify opportunities to resolve issues earlier, improve customer experiences, and ultimately prevent complaints from escalating.
MBIE Awareness Survey
We rely on our phone and internet services for almost every part of modern life.
So, when a problem arises or expectations aren’t met, being left without answers can be frustrating.
Every day, we see the difference an independent perspective can make when a customer and their provider can't reach an agreement.
Growing awareness of schemes like ours shows that more consumers understand their options when direct discussions go nowhere.
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