If a phone company technician is 15 minutes late for an appointment, then they owe you money.
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In fact, they owe you $14.52 for each missed appointment.
If they take more than five days to install a new phone service, then they owe you money.
That would be $14.52 every working day for five days and then $48.40 a day thereafter.
It’s the same penalty if it takes longer than the end of the next working day to repair a fault.
But this only applies if you have a landline – and it is credited on your next bill rather than paid in cash.
It’s part of the little-known Customer Service Guarantee brought in by the Howard government to protect consumers when Telstra was being privatised.
However, it’s a guarantee that doesn’t apply to mobile phones or internet connections.
Teresa Corbin, CEO of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), said only “standard telephone services” were covered.
“As technology has moved on it’s now become a very narrow group of services and as more and more people move off landlines and only choose to have a mobile then less and less people are enjoying the benefits,” Ms Corbin said.
She said the penalties were generally reflected as credits on future bills rather than payments and that telcos were expected to apply compensation automatically.
If this not did happen the customer was advised to contact the company first and then, if not satisified, to pursue the matter with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.
Ms Corbin said ACCAN was pushing to have similar protections in place for mobile phones and internet connections.