Strong dollar doubles mobile roaming complaints

Stuart Corner
Friday, 16 December 2011 11:41

IT Policy - Regulation

An increase in the number of Australians taking short overseas trips thanks to a strong Australian dollar has resulted in complaints to the Telecommunications Ombudsman about mobile roaming charges doubling in three months.

The TIO has released its latest quarterly complaints statistics, for the three months to 30 September saying there was a 92.3 percent increase in the number of disputes about mobile roaming charges from the prior quarter and "This statistic largely coincides with Australian Bureau of Statistics data evidencing an increase in short term departures from Australia triggered by a high Aussie Dollar."

Other significant increases - that cannot be attributed to external factors - were a 73.4 percent increase in disputes about Internet usage charges from a mobile phone from the prior quarter, consistent with the continuing increase in the take up of smartphones, and a 63.8 percent increase in complaints about inadequate spend controls.

The TIO said: "This is a leading cause of bill shock, as people who mention this as an issue will often come to us with a complaint about a high bill where their provider has not alerted them about unusually high spending.

By far the most common complaint about mobile phones (9,374 issues) was consumers receiving incorrect advice from their providers' customer service representatives. This was followed by complaints about coverage (8,690 issues).

On a more positive note it said: "Pleasingly, the number of matters that required conciliation or investigation by TIO officers reduced 7.5 percent to 5,434 [from the prior quarter]. This highlights the success of the industry's responsiveness to our conciliation approach."