Customer Service Commitments
At Telstra, we are committed to knowing our customers and meeting their telecommunication needs. We aim to provide each customer with a personalised, seamless experience that makes it easier for them to manage their lives.
The following are the basic commitments we make to our customers:
We are committed to:
- enabling you to contact us in the way you prefer – by telephone, teletypewriter (TTY), online, in writing or in person
- being available 24x7 for you to report any faults or service difficulties
- enabling customers who speak a language other than English to contact us through our multicultural call centres (selected languages) or by using the Australian Government's Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS)
- responding to your letters and emails within five working days
- maintaining a Sales Watch Hotline, where you can report instances of unethical sales behaviour you experience.
We are committed to:
- providing information about our products and services in plain language to enable you to make an informed purchase decision that best suits your communications needs
- ensuring that our consumer contracts do not contain unfair terms
- providing services that recognise the individual needs of customers, including our Disability Equipment Program for people with a disability and our Access for Everyone package for people on a low income
- providing for the communications requirements of regional Australia and addressing these with appropriate products and infrastructure investment decisions
- providing people and businesses in Australia with reasonable access to the Internet, whether via dial-up, cable, ADSL, wireless broadband, satellite or mobile
- connecting your mobile service and responding to your mobile billing enquiries and reports of network problems within published timeframes
- providing Priority Assist for connection and fault repair to residential customers who have a person residing at their home with a diagnosed life threatening medical condition whose life may be at risk without access to an operational telephone service.
We are committed to:
- protecting your personal information (including your phone calls and other communications) from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure
- providing you with access to your personal information that we have on record and taking reasonable steps to keep your details accurate and up-to-date
- having our performance in relation to privacy independently audited annually
- not contacting you for marketing purposes if you tell us you do not wish to receive such contact from Telstra
We are committed to:
- providing you with bills that are accurate and easy to understand and giving you access to the detail you need
- presenting your telephone bill in a form that suits your needs, with options including online, paper, large print and Braille
- providing you with a range of easily accessible payment methods which allow you to be in control of your payment
- working with you to negotiate tailored, flexible payment solutions, including assisting people who are experiencing financial hardship.
We are committed to:
- providing an option to block your mobile handset so that it cannot be used on Telstra's digital networks to make voice calls (other than emergency calls or calls to customer service) if it has been stolen or lost
- providing information about the safety of electromagnetic energy from mobile phones and base stations
- providing assistance to help you to manage unwelcome and nuisance calls
We are committed to:
- dealing with your concerns or complaints promptly, fairly, completely and courteously informing you of how we propose to act, how long it should take and what the results are
- reviewing your complaint through Telstra's Complaint Review Centre, at your request, if you feel that it has not been resolved to your satisfaction
- advising you of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman scheme and/or Privacy Commissioner if you cannot directly resolve your complaint with us.
Telstra has the responsibility of ensuring that people in Australia have reasonable access to standard telephone services and payphones.
The legislated Customer Service Guarantee for Standard Telephone Services commit Telstra to providing a guaranteed level of service.
If Telstra is unable to meet the above guaranteed service level you may be entitled to a customer service payment.
Telstra is committed to providing the consumer protections in the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code and continually improving our customer service.
The code protects the rights of consumers and spells out the obligations of retail telecommunications service providers.
It deals with a range of customer transactions and sets out mandatory requirements on:
- the information providers are required to give customers about products and services, prices, terms and conditions
- complaint handling
- bills and billing
- credit management and spend management tools
- customer transfer
- consumer contracts
The primary telecommunications industry body association, Communications Alliance Ltd has published a brochure on the code called Protecting Our Customers. This brochure summarises the key aspects in the TCP Code and is a useful resource for consumers.