Lodge a formal complaint

What is a complaint?

A complaint is when you tell us you're dissatisfied with the products and services we provide. This may include how we handle your reported faults, or interactions with our staff. You have a right to complain.

“No bull” is a strong part of Aussie Broadband's culture. We are human, and sometimes we get things wrong. However, our commitment is that when we do, we own up to our mistakes and we're transparent with you about how we fix them. This approach includes making sure that you are making a complaint - if we're not certain, we'll ask.

Our main aim is to resolve all complaints immediately (although we may not always be able to do so). All our complaints handling is free of charge.

How to make a complaint?

You can make a complaint to us by:

• Phoning 1300 880 905 every day from 8am to midnight, AEST
• Emailing complaints@aussiebroadband.com.au
• Completing the complaint form at the bottom of this page
• In person at 3 Electra Avenue Morwell VIC 3840
• Post at PO Box 3351, Gippsland Mail Centre, VIC, 3841

If you do not wish to handle a complaint yourself, you can nominate someone else to do it for you. If you plan to nominate someone, just let us know by contacting us (as above). We can also assist if you need help to make and/or progress your complaint.

If you are experiencing financial hardship, we also provide support via our financial hardship policy (opens in new tab).

If accessibility is an issue, you can also use these Australian Government provides services to help make your complaint:

• National Relay Service: 133677
• Translating & Interpreting Service: 131450

We are very interested in feedback on how to make our services more accessible.

What happens once you make a complaint?

Case number

When you make a complaint, we will give you a unique case number that you can quote to receive updates:

• If you make your complaint by phone or in person, we'll give you this number straight away
• If you make your complaint via email, webform, post or voice message, we will send your number to your primary nominated email address within 2 working days

Initial assessment

When we receive your complaint, we assess it as either standard or urgent.

Urgent complaints are when:

• You have applied for or been accepted as experiencing financial hardship and the subject of your complaint can be reasonably presumed to contribute to or aggravate your financial hardship;
• Your complaint involves a service that is about to be or has been disconnected, and due process has not been followed;
• You are complaining about a priority assistance service; or
• You have disclosed that you are in a Family or Domestic violence situation and the subject of your complaint can be reasonably presumed to contribute to or aggravate your circumstances

Investigation and resolution

For complaints that we can't resolve immediately, we will:

• Investigate as necessary, and then contact you within 10 working days to discuss how to resolve your complaint. In most cases it will be sooner but sometimes, it may take longer than 10 working days to investigate your complaint and if this happens, we will contact you to let you know why and provide you with an updated timeframe.
• implement any agreed resolution within 10 business days, unless:
• You have agreed otherwise, or
• You have not yet completed something you agreed to do, or
• The issue has been caused by a notified mass outage of service
• For urgent complaints, contact you as soon as possible with our suggested resolution and do our best to implement it within 2 working days

If we hit delays to what we have proposed, we'll contact you as soon as possible to let you know and propose new timelines. If you are not happy with our proposals at any stage, you can go to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Monitoring your complaint

We will provide regular updates to you on how your complaint is progressing but if you want to check in at any stage on how things are going, please contact us (as above).

Closure

Once your complaint has been resolved, we'll let you know. We will not close a complaint until you have agreed it has been resolved (unless there are special circumstances - see “attempts to make contact” and “frivolous or vexatious complaints” below).

If you wish to close your complaint at any time, please contact us (as above).

Regardless of the outcome of your complaint and whether it was able to be resolved, your Aussie Broadband service/s will not be cancelled for the sole reason that a complaint could not be solved.

What if you're unhappy with our process?

You can ask us to escalate your complaint if you're not satisfied with what we are doing, or you think it's reasonable that your complaint be treated as urgent. In both instances, we will escalate your complaint to our Complaints Manager for consideration and response:

• If you ask for an escalation, we'll respond within 24 hours;
• If you ask for your complaint to considered as urgent, we'll respond within 24 hours, bearing in mind that our complaints team do not work on weekends. If you require assistance in the meantime, contact our general support line on 1300 880 905 to speak to one of our agents regarding your complaint.

We’ll also let you know about your options for internal escalation, and external dispute resolution options such as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

Aussie Broadband will not commence legal proceedings against you if your complaint has the same subject matter, while your complaint is being handled internally and for 7 working days after you are advised of the outcome of your complaint, or while your complaint is being investigated by the TIO.

Attempts to make contact

If we can't contact you via your preferred method, we will write to you with details of our attempts and a request to contact us.

If you don't respond within 10 working days, we will consider your complaint resolved.

Frivolous or vexatious complaints

Sometimes, after careful consideration, we may decide that:

• We are unable to do anything further to resolve your complaint or assist you
• Your behaviour or complaint is frivolous or vexatious

If we decide this, we'll tell you within 5 working days of making this decision, and give you the reasons behind it. We'll also let you know about your options for external dispute resolution such as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

If you are unsatisfied

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your complaint, you have a right to take it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, which is a free and independent service.

You can also contact us and we will escalate your complaint internally.

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman can be contacted by:

• Phone: 1800 062 058
• Fax: 1800 630 614
• Online: https://www.tio.com.au/complaints (opens in new tab)

Network Outage Complaints

Monitoring your complaint

A network outage complaint is when you report a service disruption to us, and we determine this is caused by a Significant Local Outage or Major Outage. Once we make this determination, we will treat your service report as a complaint under this Network Outage Complaints process.

Our network outage complaints handling is free of charge.

How to make a network outage complaint

You can make a network outage complaint to us by:

• Phoning 1300 880 905 every day from 8am to midnight, AEST
• Emailing complaints@aussiebroadband.com.au
• Completing the online complaint form at Lodge a formal complaint
• In person at 3 Electra Avenue Morwell VIC 3840
• Post at PO Box 3351, Gippsland Mail Centre VIC 3841

If you do not wish to handle a network outage complaint yourself, you can nominate someone else to do it for you. If you plan to nominate someone, just let us know by contacting us (as above). We can also assist if you need help to make and/or progress your complaint.

If you are experiencing financial hardship, we also provide support via our financial hardship policy (opens in new tab).

If accessibility is an issue, you can also use these Australian Government provides services to help make your complaint:

• National Relay Service: 133677
• Translating & Interpreting Service: 131450

We are very interested in feedback on how to make our services more accessible.

What happens once you make a network outage complaint?

Case number

When you make a network outage complaint, we will give you a unique case number that you can quote to receive updates:

• if you make your network outage complaint by phone or in person, we'll give you this number straight away
• if you make your complaint via email, webform, post or voice message, we will send your number to your primary nominated email address

Initial assessment

When we receive your network outage complaint, we assess it as either standard or urgent.

An urgent network outage complaint is one where you:

• indicate there is a risk to your personal safety or a serious health risk; or
• are impacted by an outage to a service which is receiving priority assistance.

If you have an urgent network outage complaint, Aussie Broadband will make all reasonable efforts to assist you to stay connected to your service during the network outage, including by considering alternative or interim options where available.

Investigation

To determine if your report of a network outage is a network outage complaint, we may request information from you to assist with that decision, such as:

• Details of your service
• Timing and duration of the issue
• Whether you have received notification from Aussie Broadband that your service is impacted by a major outage or a significant local outage
• Any additional information we believe to be relevant to the determination of an outage

Monitoring and updates for network outage complaints

At Aussie Broadband, we have always taken pride in letting our customers know when there is an unplanned outage that is affecting their service. We will continue to commit to communicating with you during a major outage or significant local outage.

When there is an unplanned outage, we will always attempt to send you an email or SMS with all the relevant details you need to know.

Where available, these details will include:

• the size of the outage
• the likely cause of the outage
• the location/s of the outage
• the type of Aussie Broadband service/s impacted
• the estimate on how long until further updates will be provided on the outage
• an estimate on how long the outage will last

Additionally, we will provide updates on our website. If the outage is a major outage, we will also provide real-time updates on our Facebook page (opens in new tab).

Throughout the course of the unplanned outage, we will aim to provide updates every couple of hours, or sooner if there is a significant change. At the very least we will provide updates every 6 hours, for the first 24 hours, and once in every subsequent 24-hour period.

Once the outage has been resolved, we will attempt to let you know via all the avenues mentioned above.

Resolution of network outage complaints

Our default resolution for a network outage complaints and urgent network outage complaints is to restore access to your Aussie Broadband services affected by a network outage.

We will complete all necessary actions within our capacity to restore access to your services as soon as possible, because we understand how disruptive unplanned outages can be.

A network outage complaint is considered to be resolved when your services are restored after an outage and you have received written confirmation of this.

Closure

If you made an urgent network outage complaint, Aussie Broadband will seek confirmation from you that our restoration of your service was successful within 2 calendar days after you received the initial notification of restoration.

If you believe our attempt to restore your service has been unsuccessful, you can respond to this notification advising that your service is not restored, and we will take steps to implement a successful restoration within 2 working days after we receive this message.

We will not close an urgent network outage complaint until your service has been restored and we have received confirmation that you are back online.

For non-urgent network outage complaints, if we do not receive confirmation your service is restored, we will not close that complaint until 3 working days after we sent the notice of restoration.

If you wish to close your complaint at any time, please contact us (as above).

Regardless of the outcome of your complaint and whether it was able to be resolved, your Aussie Broadband service/s will not be cancelled for the sole reason that a complaint could not be solved.

What if you're not happy with our process?

A network outage complaint is considered to be resolved when your services affected by an outage are restored. However, if you are unsatisfied with the restoration of your service, you may;

• contact us and we will take steps to implement the default resolution no later than 2 working days after receiving your response
• contact us to lodge a new internal complaint requesting a tailored resolution or;
• opt for an external dispute resolution such as the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (noting the TIO may request you contact us first)

During a network outage, Aussie Broadband can be contacted by:

• Phoning 1300 880 905 every day from 8am to midnight, AEST
• Emailing complaints@aussiebroadband.com.au
• Completing the online complaint form at Lodge a formal complaint
• In person at 3 Electra Avenue Morwell VIC 3840
• Post at PO Box 3351, Gippsland Mail Centre VIC 3841

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman can be contacted by:

• Phone: 1800 062 058
• Fax: 1800 630 614
• Online: Complaints (opens in new tab)