Aussie Broadband, Dodo and ALDImobile phone complaints on the rise

Cynthia Gebert (Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman)

Mobile complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) have hit a five-year high, making up 39.7 per cent of all complaints, with issues about Aussie Broadband, Dodo and ALDImobile on the rise.

The TIO's annual report for the financial year ending 30 June found Medion, which offers services under the ALDImobile brand, experienced the largest increase in complaints over the period with a rise of 31.8 per cent, to 572 complaints.

While it was a new entrant into the top 10 service providers in the country, it only made up 0.7 per cent of all complaints.

Next was Aussie Broadband, which had an increase of 8.2 per cent against it, to 1,133 complaints, followed by Dodo, with a rise in complaints of 6.2 per cent, to 1,128.

Much like ALDImobile, both Aussie Broadband and Dodo only made up a minor proportion of all complaints, with both making up 1.4 per cent of the total each.

By comparison, complaints against Southern Phone fell 47 per cent, to 828 complaints – a turnaround from its performance over a year ago, when it experienced the highest level for the most new customer complaints during the December 2020 quarter.

Additionally, heavy hitter Telstra had its complaints shrink by 43.7 per cent, to 41,741.

In fact, outside of ALDImobile, Aussie Broadband and Dodo, the rest of the top 10 service providers experienced a decrease in complaints.

As a whole, complaints about phone and internet services decreased by 33.4 per cent during the 12-month period, to 79,534, with internet service complaints falling 32.3 per cent, at 26,989.

TIO Cynthia Gebert said it was pleasing to see the “significant” decrease in complains during the last financial year, with industry improvements leading to the decline in internet complaints.

“We didn’t see the same improvements in mobile services and the number of people who complained to us about poor mobile coverage increased,” Gebert said.

“While we’ve seen some great improvements, Australia’s telcos need to do more to resolve complaints about mobile services, including poor mobile coverage, before consumers come to my office for help,” she added.