MyCRA Specialist Credit Repair Lawyers

Tag: Telecommunciations Consumer Protection (TCP) Code

  • Vodafone customers – ‘desperate and defaulted.’

    20070920 Image Close up of credit card bill iStock_000003981197Large GDOE 01Media Release

    Vodafone customers – ‘desperate and defaulted.’

    5 March 2013

    A Queensland family should have been relaxing in their newly purchased home after an interstate transfer, but instead they have been fighting Vodafone over a default which saw them lose their house contract – a default which they say, was ludicrous.

    Up till now, Alastair and Nikki Taylor have not been able to join the 20,000-plus Vodafone customers who are mounting a class action against the telco, because doing so could have damaged their dispute case against their Vodafone default listing.

    The default listing which has been proven to be unlawful and finally been removed by Vodafone today, saw them cop what they say, is an unfair and incorrect 5-year default on their credit file.

    “This default was stopping us from getting a home, and it is grossly unfair the time and money we have lost, not to mention the stress it has caused our family,” Alastair says.

    Alastair and Nikki purchased a wireless internet modem from a Vodafone store in Western Australia, but claim they were misled about the internet coverage it would provide.

    “At the time we verified with the sales assistant many times if it would work in the address we intended to move to as we had recently bought a new house. She assured us we would have full coverage. Upon arriving at our new address we found we were absolutely without coverage,” Alastair says.

    He says he contacted the store at least ten times, leaving messages and getting no response.

    “When I did finally get to talk to someone they rudely hung up on me. The next time I spoke to somebody, was when a debt collector called chasing the outstanding money around two months later. I told them the situation but they wouldn’t listen and were only interested in getting the money out of me,” he says.

    The couple begrudgingly paid the account late last year, when Alastair got an interstate transfer. They were told the outstanding account was affecting their credit rating and stalling their purchase of a home in Cairns.

    “We had no idea we were defaulted anyway whether we had paid the account or not. We lost the house we were after, and have had a lengthy battle with Vodafone to remove it,” Alastair says.

    Their advocate, MyCRA Credit Rating Repair’s Graham Doessel says they are certainly not alone in their experience.

    “Many telcos have historically poor levels of customer service and many times customers don’t get what they think they are paying for. What’s worse is when those botched plans end up costing the customer their credit file,” Mr Doessel says.

    The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s annual report, released in October last year shows a rise in complaints about credit default listings. Complaints about consumers being credit default listed while their debt was in dispute increased 18 per cent from 3,700 to 4,370.

    “I am very concerned about the increase in the number of complaints where credit default listings are disputed,” Mr Cohen said “Credit listings can have very significant impacts on people – affecting applications for credit, including for housing and personal loans. Any credit default listing should only occur after the correct procedures have been followed.”

    Mr Doessel says preventing and disputing a credit file default from a telco often comes down to awareness of legalities.

    “Many people don’t know the rules well enough when dealing with these big companies, so it can be a little like David and Goliath and many times the big guy wins,” he says.

    He says his clients encounter difficulties with telcos at many levels.

    “In our experience it’s not just the initial sale of product which is in dispute, but the entire customer service process and often the process of default listing the client as well,” he says.

    He is hoping the very public class action will be a force of change, especially following the introduction of tougher laws for telcos in September last year.

    The ‘Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code’ was pushed through with the guidance of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) which have amongst other things aimed to facilitate faster, better complaints-handling, with urgent complaints resolved within two days.

    ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman said at the time the ACMA would put the industry on notice, advising they would take a “far more robust approach” to ensure the industry’s compliance with the new Code.

    You can find more information on disputing a default with your telco at the MyCRA website www.mycra.com.au.

    /ENDS.

    Please contact: Graham Doessel – Founder and CEO 3124 7133

    Lisa Brewster – Media Relations MyCRA media@mycra.com.au

    http://www.mycra.com.au/ www.mycra.com.au/blog 246 Stafford Rd, STAFFORD Qld

    MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs is Australia’s number one in credit rating repairs. We permanently remove defaults from credit files. CEO of MyCRA Graham Doessel is a frequent consumer spokesperson for credit reporting issues and is a founding member of the Credit Repair Industry Association of Australasia.

  • Have Your Say on Bill Shock

    Ever been overseas and returned home to find your mobile phone bill is as expensive as your plane ticket? You’re not alone. You may get a chance to have your say on what the telcos should do to stop bill shock and curb the excessively high data roaming charges which can see you in debt and threaten your credit rating in a new public consultation seeking to lift the telco industry.

    By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repair www.fixmybadcredit.com.au, https://www.facebook.com/FixMyBadCredit.com.au.

    The Government is welcoming public consultation on new standards to help Australians avoid bill shock while using their mobile phone overseas.

    As part of new guidelines for Telcos, set out through the new Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will begin consultation on developing an industry standard to help Australians best receive timely information about international roaming costs when they travel.

    Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said in a media release late last week that Australian consumers are being price gouged by telecommunications companies every time they want to make a mobile call, send a text or go online, when overseas.

    “The industry standard will be an important transparency measure. People will receive clear information about pricing, allowing them to better manage their spending and avoid bill shock.

    “We also expect that the extra scrutiny provided by the standard will encourage telecommunications companies to reduce their obscenely high prices and give consumers a better deal when they travel.”

    “I encourage everyone to have their say during this public consultation, which ends on 25 January,” Mr Conroy said.

    Here’s what the current draft standard proposes:

    A traveller receives two SMS messages when they switch on their phone when arriving overseas. The first would be sent within 10 minutes, warning the customer that extra charges will apply and allowing them to switch off international mobile roaming services.

    The second would arrive within 1 hour and must detail the cost for a standard call, an SMS, and 1Mb of data.

    The standard also requires mobile phone companies to develop cost effective monitoring tools for consumers to use when they travel overseas.

    The new standard is expected to be in operation by the middle of next year.

    In the past, we have found many times the telco customer has had difficulty disputing their phone charges before they are issued with a credit default. These credit listings can be hard to fight. Often the customer will say what they had first understood the plan to be for, or what they wanted the phone to do, was not what eventuated. This can come down to a he-said she-said situation, and the telcos – with all the power on their side can often come out on top.

    As credit repairers we see many telco customers for various reasons – in fact almost 26% of our credit repair clients have telco credit listings they need removed. Many complain of confusion over bills, date allowance and plans and also difficulties with resolving disputes – which see customers with bad credit even though they had been attempting to sort out the bill discrepancy.

    The multitude of official complaints in the area of ‘bill shock’ resulted in a major inquiry by the ACMA and the report – Reconnecting the Customer. This examined the root causes of the industry’s poor customer service and complaints-handling performance. The telco industry was asked to regulate or be regulated – and so the TCP Code was developed by the Communications Alliance (CA), and a final draft was registered in late July.

    That TCP Code came into effect on 1 September 2012. If the code proves to be effective, there will be significant positive changes for telco customers. This public consultation and is one such proposed change coming to fruition.

    So get in and have your say,

    ACMA public consultation: http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_600133

  • Telco bill shock should in theory now be a thing of the past

    The Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) Code came into effect on September 1. We look at what this means for telco customers and the possibility that less consumers could be subject to bill shock and subsequent credit rating defaults due to sky-high bills they had not budgeted for.

    By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.

    Currently approximately 26% of our credit repair clients have suffered bad credit from telcos (telecommunications providers). Not all of that bad credit should be there. Whilst mistakes and mis-communications are frequent in the industry, as they are in many others – one of the major significant differences we have noticed with the telco industry compared with other industries issuing credit file defaults, is more clients are in dispute over excess charges.

    Excess charges or “bill shock” can occur when the actual bill the customer receives is significantly higher than what they understand it should be. Issues like international roaming charges, excess data charges and customers going over plan allowances (especially when the plan had the term “cap” within it) seems to be a frequent source of dispute amongst customers.

    Unfortunately sometimes the customer is unable to come to an agreement over these charges before they are issued with a credit rating default. These issues can be hard to fight. Often the customer will say what they had first understood the plan to be for, or what they wanted the phone to do, was not what eventuated.

    Resolutions with telcos over these billing issues can be difficult to come to. Sometimes consumers have reluctantly paid the bill, thought the matter was settled, only to find they were defaulted anyway, and others have just refused to pay the bill until they got some resolution. Either way, customers have been faced with at least 5 years of bad credit from the episode unless they have been able to make a successful complaint.

    The telcos – with all the power on their side can often come out on top.

    Escalating levels of telco complaints in Australia, resulted in a major public inquiry by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the report – Reconnecting the Customer. This examined the root causes of the industry’s poor customer service and complaints-handling performance. The telco industry was asked to regulate or be regulated – and so the Telecommunciations Consumer Protections (TCP) Code was developed by the Communications Alliance (CA), and a final draft was registered in late July.

    That TCP Code came into effect on 1 September 2012. If the code proves to be effective, and if the ACMA does as it says it will and come down heavily on those that don’t comply with the TCP Code, there will be significant positive changes for telco customers.

    What the Code provides for.

    The ACMA outlines the basic benefits for consumers in its article Fair call—new telco code to benefit consumers. Here is a breakdown of consumer benefits of the TCP Code:

    • Telco providers must be clear about what they are offering in their phone plans and stop using confusing terms like ‘cap’ (unless the offer refers to a ‘hard cap’—an amount that cannot be exceeded).

    • Better spend management tools designed to avoid ‘bill shock’.Including improvements in billing processes and credit management, and the introduction of notifications about data usage and expenditure thresholds.

    • From 27 September telcos will be required to provide unit pricing for national calls, standard SMS and downloading 1 MB of data in advertisements.

    • From 1 March2013 customers buying a new service will receive a two-page document called the ‘Critical Information Summary’. This includes essential information about service, pricing and complaints-handling, as well as volumetric information so consumers can easily understand how many two-minute calls or texts they can make under their plan.

    • Faster, better complaints-handling, with urgent complaints resolved within two days. All of these new measures will be monitored and the telcos subject to new benchmarking standards.

    • For customers having difficulty paying their bills or meeting unexpectedly high bills, telcos must advise consumers about spend management tools, hardship advice and options to restrict a service.

    • A new industry compliance body is being formed to ensure all industry participants comply with the new code.

    According to IT Wire in its story New telco code toughens up consumer protections, Optus jumped the gun ahead of the introduction of the Code, and launched its new usage alert service which it says gives its customers greater transparency in managing spending on their mobile accounts. The new Optus service sends text alerts to Optus’ customers on most post-paid mobile plans when they reach 50 per cent, 85 per cent and 100 per cent of their voice, text and data allowance.

    IT Wire also reports ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman as saying the ACMA will put the industry on notice, advising they would take a “far more robust approach” to ensure the industry’s compliance with the new Code and had “resourced up in this space.”

    “We will conduct more audits and investigations dealing with key areas of consumer detriment and expect substantial changes in industry practices,” Mr Chapman says.

    For consumers who consider that their service provider is not complying with the code, Chapman says they “may make a complaint to the provider in the first instance and if they are not satisfied with the resolution, they should contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.”

    And, if telecommunications service providers do not comply with the code, Chapman says they faced a direction to comply from the ACMA, “while further breaches could lead to Federal Court action where civil penalties of up to $250,000 are possible.”

    We will be following these telco improvements with great interest as they relate to the volume of credit file defaults due to telco customer service issues and bill disputes.

    For those consumers currently facing what they consider to be excessive charges, or other issues with their telco which have resulted in bad credit – it is possible MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs may be able to help.

    If a credit listing has been placed unlawfully, it may be required to be removed from the consumer’s credit file. Consumers can contact a credit repair advisor 1300 667 218 to assess their suitability for credit repair. There are no guarantees of success, but the specialised knowledge of credit reporting and industry law means engaging the services of a professional credit repairer gives the consumer the best chance of having bad credit removed completely and permanently from their credit file. Visit the main website for more information www.mycra.com.au.