Telco Complaints All Time High
May 9th, 2011 | by Mobile Data Group |Andy Schmulow is one of 59,532 people who took a new complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the first quarter of this year.
Mr Schmulow switched from Vodafone at the end of February, hoping to get better service through Virgin Mobile’s use of the Optus network, but says the new carrier is worse. His phone drops out, dials the wrong number and is unable to download data while on a phone call.
He says Optus and Virgin have sold access for so many smartphones the network is overloaded.
”Instead of absorbing the costs of improving their network or, alternatively, instead of refusing to accept any new customers until such time as they can deliver the service for which they charge, they have chosen to take on as many new customers as possible, in the full knowledge that they cannot realistically provide the services for which their customers are being charged.”
Mr Schmulow is not only dissatisfied with the network service but also how the company handled his complaint.
He called Virgin customer service on March 5. More than two months and two dozen calls later, nothing has been resolved or explained, leaving him in limbo. ”I am now at a complete dead end,” he said.
While the dispute is before the ombudsman he has not paid a bill and has received emails threatening to cut off his service.