The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has ordered Telstra to comply with its billing accuracy obligations after an investigation found it had overcharged more than 10,000 customers.
Chair of ACMA, Nerida O’Loughlin said the overcharging totalled almost $2.5 million over a 12-year period.
“The overcharging, averaging $231 per customer, occurred between February 2008 and February 2020 when customers were provided with an interim service (usually a mobile phone) during delays to their connection or repair of landline services,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
“Telstra self-reported the issue to the ACMA and explained that the billing error resulted from mistakes made when introducing a new customer relationship management system in 2008.”
Ms O’Loughlin said the errors were a clear breach of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code.
“The amount charged for an interim service must not exceed what a customer would have been charged under their existing or requested landline service,” she said.
“Overcharging can potentially lead to financial difficulties for affected customers, which is why the ACMA considers accuracy in billing practices to be an important consumer protection.”
Ms O’Loughlin said Australians should have confidence they would not be overcharged for their telco services, helping them to effectively plan for and manage their household budgets.
“For Telstra to allow an issue like this to go unnoticed for such a long time and impact so many customers is simply unacceptable,” she said.
She acknowledged that Telstra had moved reasonably swiftly to fix the problem once identified, including refunding affected customers, and had committed to removing all ongoing charging for interim services to prevent the problem from occurring again.
