A government agency has ordered telecommunications provider Dodo to get its act together and comply with industry codes pertaining to complaint handling and billing, after a highly unusual number of complains from customers were recorded.The Australia Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) yesterday issued the direction after an investigation of Dodo’s compliance with the Australian Communication Industry Forum’s Complains Handling and Billing Codes was ordered by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
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The TIO was particularly concerned about the rising complains it was receiving about Dodo’s complaints handling policies at the time.
According to the ACMA chairman, Chris Chapman, Dodo’s complains service was not up to scratch when compared with competing telcos.
“In directing Dodo to comply with the codes, ACMA is using its formal enforcement powers in order to ensure that customers of Dodo are offered the same level of consumer protection as customers of other telecommunications providers,” he said.
“Failure to comply with the direction may attract civil penalties.”
ACMA formed the view that Dodo had contravened the codes due to failures in its policies and procedures and commenced negotiating the case with Dodo in September 2007.
At the time, ACMA and Dodo were unable to reach agreement on the time required to rectify these breaches of the Billing Code, so ACMA decided to issue a Direction under section 121 of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Dodo sought to reconsider its decision, and the Direction was affirmed by ACMA in January 2008.
“While Dodo appears to have made significant progress in recent times relating to its complaints handling, ACMA still considers that Dodo has a sufficient way to go before it will become fully compliant with the Complaint Handling and Billing Codes, which are the important consumer protections we’re interested in restoring,” said Chapman.
