Telco report reveals customers are waiting three weeks for service

A new report on Australia’s telecommunication providers shows how long consumers are waiting to get issues fixed.

According to Australian Communications Consumer Action Network’s latest report on customer service, consumers waited 13 days on average to get their issues fixed, with more complex problems taking up to two months.

The report also found the country’s largest phone companies, Telstra and Optus, are less popular than most of their cheaper, smaller rivals. Telstra, which received an overall score of 43 per cent in the report, found that consumers contact the call centre multiple times for a single query. 

The report found that defunct provider Virgin ranked highest for customer service, followed by Vodafone, TPG, iiNet and Amaysim. Phone and internet provider Belong and satellite provider Activ8Me were least popular. The countries most-used providers, Telstra and Optus ranked just seventh and eighth out of 10.

Read more: Triple-zero emergency number hit by Telstra glitch

The report comes as Telstra has been hit with numerous glitches over the past few months. Last month, customers on the 3G and 4G networks reported outages and vented their frustrations online.

In April, an outage was so bad that Telstra customers were unable to make triple-zero calls, meaning anyone trying to call the police, ambulance and fire services weren’t able to connect.

That glitch came just days after the company was forced to apologise after another outage meant thousands of people across the country weren’t able to make or receive calls.

Read more: Telstra to slash 8,000 jobs amidst ongoing glitches and outages

In June the telco giant said it will cut 8,000 employees and contractors — including one-in-four executive and middle management roles, who will leave over the next three years.

Telstra’s CEO Andy Penn said Telstra had to take drastic action to stay on top in an increasingly competitive telecommunications market. He said the new strategy dubbed ‘Telstra 20220’ would benefit everyone from customers to shareholders and employees.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you had problems with a telco provider?