An increasing number of telco customers are turning to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) for dispute resolution according to the latest Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) quarterly customer complaints handling performance report.
The report, which ranks the performance of 36 of Australia’s largest telcos against three key metrics, shows that 7.1 per cent of telco complaints for the January to March quarter were referred to the TIO, up from 6.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Customers complain to the TIO when their telco does not address their issue satisfactorily.
In the telco rankings, Lebara had the lowest percentage of TIO referred complaints while Skymesh had the highest. Other telcos with high TIO referral rates included Felix Mobile and Tangerine Telecom, where about half of their customer complaints were escalated to the TIO, and Circles.Life, which had 43 per cent of its complaints escalated.
Of the larger telcos, Telstra had 10.2 per cent of complaints referred to the TIO, while TPG Internet had 6.7 per cent and Optus had 5.4 per cent.
Authority member Samantha Yorke said the figures show too many customers are having to escalate complaints to find a satisfactory resolution.
“This is the third quarter in a row that has seen an increase in the proportion of telco complaints referred to the Ombudsman,” Ms Yorke said.
“It is incredibly frustrating for customers when they not only have to make a complaint to their telco, but the provider is then unable to resolve that complaint.
“The data shows that some telcos need to do a lot more to address complaints so that customers don’t have to escalate the matter to the TIO to have it fixed.”
In terms of total numbers of complaints received, Vonex ranked first, receiving the fewest complaints per 10,000 services, while Circles.Life received the most complaints per 10,000 services.
Of the three major telcos, Telstra ranked 18th, Optus ranked 31st while TPG Internet ranked 34th for the total number of complaints received per 10,000 services.
Dodo, Circles.Life, Moose Mobile, Amaysim, Woolworths Mobile and Starlink finished equal top of the rankings for average time to resolve complaints, with an average of just one day. Skymesh ranked lowest, averaging 20 days to resolve their customer complaints.
The industry average was 6.1 days to resolve complaints, with larger telcos having varying results. TPG Internet reported an average of 2 days, Optus reported an average of 6 days and Telstra reported an average of 9 days.
The report includes data for January to March 2025 and is updated each quarter to track performance over time. The ACMA will be examining compliance with the Complaints Handling Standard under our enduring priority of protecting vulnerable telco consumers.
The interactive aggregated industry-wide complaint handling report with data dating back to 2018 is also available.
MR 21/2025