Call waiting: Australians demand action on telco complaints

Last updated on July 24th, 2025

Australians are fed up with their mobile providers, with the number of people taking telco complaints to the industry ombudsman rising for the third consecutive quarter.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the national communications and media regulator, said that 7.1 percent of telco complaints from January to March this year were referred to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), up from 6.9 percent on the previous quarter.

In other words, more of us are unhappy with the way telcos have responded to our complaints.

The ACMA’s Samantha Yorke said the customer complaints handling performance report, which ranks 36 of Australia’s largest telcos against three key metrics, showed they still had a long way to go to address complaints.

 

 

While the biggest offender, Circle.Life, has recently shut down, the best-known providers didn’t fare that well, either, with Telstra ranking 18th and Optus 31st.

“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,” Ms Yorke said.

Common telco problems

We use our mobile phones for pretty much everything these days – from searching the internet, to texting friends and paying bills. For many of us, they are also an essential business tool. So we are, quite rightly, not happy when we aren’t getting the service we paid for.

The number of complaints to the TIO jumped 5.6 percent to 15,297 between October and December last year, with frustration about telco responses taking up the lion’s share. More than 9000 complaints were lodged about a provider’s failure to act or a delay in taking action.

More than 5000 were related to the price of services or equipment, a jump of 11.5 percent on the previous quarter, and the rest were related to no phone or internet service. The TIO said many of those were due to the shutdown of the 3G network in October 2024.

At Handle My Complaint, we regularly hear from consumers frustrated about their treatment from telcos, with poor service and communication common areas of concern.

 

 

People like Rochelle, whose ongoing service issues were still unresolved despite repeated reports. Technicians eventually advised she would need a modem relocation and booster, but Optus did not follow up on the job.

Then there are customers like Paul, who had no luck getting Telstra to respond with instructions on how to return a modem so he didn't get hit with a $700 no-return fee. Another Telstra customer who experienced ongoing internet issues kept getting asked to perform the same troubleshooting steps, only for the connection to drop out again.

Strengthening consumer protection

When the Optus network failed in late 2023, millions of Australians felt the sting of an unprecedented outage. Households and businesses were adversely affected, but for some the inability to communicate was life-threatening, with more than 2000 people unable to make emergency calls to triple zero. Optus was fined $12 million for breaching emergency call rules which allow another network to connect calls when a provider’s system is down.

 

 

As a result of the government review of the outage, the ACMA has developed new industry rules. These compel telcos to prioritise customer communication in major outages impacting 100,000 or more services, or ‘significant local outages’. This includes the way they handle complaints. Telcos should:

• • Ensure timely and accessible information to consumers through a mix of public and direct communication channels.
  • Appropriately recognise, accept and handle the resolution of complaints about network outages and get their disconnected services restored promptly.
  • Let consumers know what to do if their services don’t start working automatically when the network outage problem is fixed, or if they have other network-related complaints.

There are also more rules coming into effect on 1 November that require telcos to ensure that an outage does not prevent their customers’ emergency calls from being carried on another network.

Making a telco complaint

The ACMA has also reviewed the Complaints Handling Standard with a view to ensuring that complaints are resolved effectively and efficiently. This includes making it easier for you to:

• • Find your telco’s complaints handling process on their website.
  • Find the right contact information to make a complaint and then get through.
  • Get your issue resolved in a shorter timeframe.
  • Receive clearer information about how the TIO can help if you aren’t happy with the telco’s response.

 

 

If you are having an issue with your mobile or internet service, contact the provider in the first instance. Explain clearly what the problem is and ask for a resolution. Take notes whenever you speak to someone and ask for their name and a reference number so you can track the service you are receiving.

If your issue is still not resolved, ask how to lodge a complaint or check the telco’s website for the process. Follow up if you haven’t heard back. If the telco still does not come to the party, make a complaint with the TIO, via the website, phone, email or letter.

We know that all of this can be very stressful, so we are here to handle it for you, too. Handle My Complaint can take the pressure down and escalate the issue as required to help you get a resolution faster.

Our complaints system also tracks similar issues, so that we can build a collective voice for consumers. This could be in the form of a class action, or bringing the issue to the attention of the media. We believe in your rights.