Credit: Telstra
Telstra’s internal IT systems have continued to wreak havoc following delayed compensation payments of more than $11 million to 67,000 customers.
Telstra has paid affected customers and entered into a court enforceable undertaking with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) where it has committed to implement an improved payment assessment solution so that any compensation owed to customers is paid on time.
Telstra is also required to regularly report to the ACMA on its compliance with the compensation rules for the life of the two-year undertaking.
The telco is also undergoing an independent review of its compliance with compensation rules after it self-reported its payments issue to the ACMA.
“We found an IT issue that meant a number of customers had not received Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) payments when they should have,” a Telstra spokesperson said.
“We self-reported this to the ACMA and made the payments to customers.
“Following this we did a deeper dive into our systems to check on CSG payments, and this identified a number of other instances when payments had not been made when they should have. We have now made these payments, and entered into the undertaking with ACMA."
The Telstra spokesperson said the telco was in the process of improving the system to better automate the payments.
“We deal with millions of customer transactions weekly however this is clearly not the experience we want to be providing our customers,” the spokesperson said.
ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the watchdog will continue to monitor Telstra’s progress on its work to update its IT systems and processes.
“Telstra knows it has had a problem with its internal systems and processes, uncovered through its T22 business strategy. The company has self-reported this and other recent breaches,” she said.
“It is critical that Telstra addresses these longstanding issues in building new systems and processes and, where it is obligated to, compensates its customers for historical breaches of telco rules.”
Under industry rules, telcos must meet agreed timeframes around landline connections and repairs or else customers may be entitled to compensation. If a telco exceeds the timeframes, it has 14 days to assess if it will accept liability to pay the required compensation.
An ACMA investigation found that between July 2017 and June 2021, Telstra failed to accept that it was liable to pay compensation within the 14 day time limit on over 67,000 occasions.
This follows recent ACMA breach findings for billing accuracy, maximum available speed and Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) breaches by Telstra - due to problems with legacy IT systems.
