LODGE A COMPLAINT

What is a complaint?

Contacting us to request support or report a service difficulty is not necessarily a complaint. A complaint is when you let us know that something is unsatisfactory or unacceptable. This could be an issue with our product or service, your interaction with us or even the way we have handled an enquiry or complaint itself. We understand that when you make a complaint, you expect a response or resolution. If we are not sure, we will always seek to clarify with you whether you are making a complaint. You have the right to make a complaint if you are dissatisfied. You will not be charged for making a complaint.

How do I make a complaint?

You are welcome to lodge a complaint yourself or nominate an authorised representative or advocate to liaise on your behalf when making a complaint

Contact us

You can contact us with the details of your complaint by using any of the contact methods listed.
If your complaint is via telephone, we will usually acknowledge receipt of your complaint as soon as we have spoken to you. If you lodge your complaint by letter or email, we will acknowledge receipt within two (2) business days.

Need assistance?

If you need any assistance with making or lodging a complaint, progressing a complaint, or simply to understand our complaint handling process, please let us know. Please also let us know if you have a disability, are suffering financial hardship, have any special needs, or are from a non-English speaking background so that we can provide the right assistance.

If you need an interpreter, you can call the Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech/communication difficulty you can contact us using the National Relay Service (NRS).

Please note that we will not implement a resolution or close your complaint until we have your agreement to do so. Your agreement may be either verbal or in writing.

Once you have agreed to a resolution, we will make the necessary actions within 5 working days of your acceptance unless otherwise agreed upon with you. Of course, if some actions are required on your part, then this may take longer depending on you.

If you would like us to provide written confirmation of your complaint and the proposed resolution, we will supply this to you upon request within 5 working days. We will provide confirmation in writing that your complaint has been resolved within 5 working days after we have completed investigation of your complaint.

We will not cancel your service for the sole reason that you were unable to resolve a complaint with us, and you pursued options for external dispute resolution.

In some cases, after careful consideration and appropriate internal escalation, we may reasonably consider that there is nothing further we can do and that your behaviour or complaint is frivolous or vexatious. In these circumstances, we may decide to end our complaint resolution process with you. If this is the case, we will send you, within five (5) working days, written notification of our decision and advise you of avenues available to you for pursuing the matter further with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Urgent complaints

We deal with the majority of complaints in the order in which they are received. However, there are certain complaints that are considered urgent, such as those involving financial hardship, service loss or disconnection, or where you have disclosed you are in a domestic or family violence situation.

We aim to provide confirmation of a proposed resolution of an urgent complaint, and if you accept the proposed resolution, implement that resolution, within 2 working days of receiving the urgent complaint. If we believe it will take longer than 2 working days to resolve your urgent complaint, we will let you know of any reason for a delay, advise a timeframe for resolution, and provide you with information on the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Please let us know if you think your complaint is urgent. You can learn more about our Payment Assistance Policy here.

Please note that Exetel does not offer a Priority Assistance service.

Further options

We believe that our complaint handling process provides the quickest and most effective way for you to resolve your complaint. As a first step we would ask you to allow us the opportunity to exhaust all avenues in resolving your complaint.

However, if you are not satisfied with our resolution or the way we have handled your complaint you are welcome to request that this be escalated with us. We will acknowledge this request within 5 working days for regular complaints, or two (2) working days for urgent complaints. Where we consider the request for escalation to be reasonable, an escalated complaint will be handled by a dedicated senior complaint manager.

Where you advise us that you are unhappy with the response to, progress or resolution of your complaint, or advise us that your complaint should be treated as an urgent complaint, we will provide you with advice, within 24 hours, on our prioritisation and escalation process and information on the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint, you have a right to take it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), which is a free and independent service.

The TIO may be able to assist you where you are unhappy with the information we have given you, the time it takes for us to respond, or the way we respond.

To find out more about how the TIO can assist you, you can visit the TIO's webpage What we can help with or contact the TIO:

Phone: 1800 062 058
Online: www.tio.com.au
Email: tio@tio.com.au
Post PO Box 276, Collins Street West, VIC 8007
Fax 1800 630 614

Information on accessibility options for the TIO (language interpreter, Auslan interpreter or the National Relay Service) can be found on the TIO's Interpreter and accessibility webpage.

Please note that the TIO will expect that you have attempted to resolve the complaint with us before lodging it with them.

Network outage complaints process

Where you report a service outage during a major outage or significant local outage as covered by our Outage Communications Procedure, your outage report will be handled in line with our Network Outage Complaints Handling Process. This process is free of charge. This process does not apply where an outage is the result of a natural disaster.

You may report a service outage using any of the above contact methods. Telephone and live-chat are real-time assistance options. You may also nominate a representative to make your service outage report on your behalf and handle your network outage complaint. Some of these contact options may not be available depending on the nature of the outage. We will keep these contact methods up to date and will update our website within two hours of making any alternative contact methods available during an outage.

When we receive your service outage report we will determine if there is reason to suspect that a major outage or significant local outage is occurring and whether you are affected or likely to be affected by the outage. We will attempt to determine this on first contact with you. We may ask you for information such as location information or whether your service may be impacted by a natural disaster to assist us in making this decision.

If we determine you are affected or likely affected by an outage, we will treat your report as a network outage complaint. Where this occurs, we will provide you with a unique reference number that you can provide on future enquiries to monitor progress of your network outage complaint. We will also advise you:

• that your report is being treated as a network outage complaint

• about this process (including sending you a link or advising on where this is available on our website)

• that the default resolution is to restore your access to services affected by the outage

• about available contact options

• about how we will advise you of the resolution of the outage and your network outage complaint

• about where you can find information on our website covering this process, our outage communication process, the outage and any other available remedies

The default resolution of a network outage complaint is to restore your access to services affected by the outage. We will take all necessary actions within our capacity to restore your access to services as soon as possible. As soon as possible after services are restored, we will notify you in writing about:

• how to make a complaint if you are not happy with the default resolution of restoring your service rest

• actions you can take and how you can request further assistance if your service has not been restored

• details of any additional resolution offers we may make available

Your network outage complaint will remain open for 3 working days after we send you this notice, unless you confirm that your service has been restored earlier. Where you advise us that service restoration was not successful, we will take steps to restore your service.

In the case of an urgent network outage complaint (for example where you indicate there is a risk to your personal safety or a serious health risk due to the outage) we will make reasonable efforts to assist you to stay connected, including considering any alternative or interim options. We will also contact you to confirm if service restoration has been successful within 2 days of advising you that affected services have been restored. Where you advise us that service restoration was not successful we will take steps to restore your service within 2 working days of receiving your advice. We will not close an urgent network outage complaint until we confirm that service has been restored. Please let us know if you believe your network outage complaint should be treated as an urgent complaint.

Our Outage Communications Procedure provides details on how we will keep you updated in the event of a major or significant local outage. We will provide status updates if there is a material change that relates to the outage as soon as possible after we become aware of the change. Otherwise, we will provide status updates at least once every six hours for the first 24 hours of the outage, and once during each following 24-hour period. As soon as practicable after we consider that all services affected by a major outage or significant local outage have been restored or fully rectified, we will notify our customers and the public.

Where this process does not apply to your situation, or where the outage is due to a natural disaster, we will consider whether to handle your report as a complaint under our standard complaints handling process.

Please contact us if you are not satisfied with the default resolution of restoring your service and we will consider how we can be of further assistance. If you wish to make a complaint about how we have handled your network outage complaint you can follow the standard complaints handling process which is outlined above.