Telco Complaints Surge to Ombudsman

In a notable shift, a growing number of Australian telecommunications consumers are escalating their complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) for resolution, as revealed by the latest report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). The quarterly customer complaints handling performance report indicates that 7.1% of telco complaints from January to March 2025 were referred to the TIO, marking an increase from the previous quarter’s 6.9%.

The report evaluates the performance of 36 of Australia’s largest telcos, with Lebara reporting the lowest percentage of TIO-referred complaints, while Skymesh had the highest. Notably, telcos such as Felix Mobile and Tangerine Telecom saw approximately half of their complaints escalated to the TIO, with Circles.Life not far behind at 43%. Among the larger providers, Telstra had 10.2% of complaints referred to the TIO, followed by TPG Internet at 6.7% and Optus at 5.4%.

Samantha Yorke, an authority member at ACMA, highlighted the ongoing challenge for customers who are forced to escalate complaints to achieve resolution. She emphasized that this marks the third consecutive quarter with an increase in complaints being referred to the Ombudsman. Yorke stated, “The data shows that some telcos need to do a lot more to address complaints so that customers don’t have to escalate the matter to the TIO to have it fixed.”

The report further details that Vonex received the fewest complaints per 10,000 services, whereas Circles.Life recorded the most. Regarding resolution times, Dodo, Circles.Life, Moose Mobile, Amaysim, Woolworths Mobile, and Starlink excelled with an average resolution time of just one day, while Skymesh lagged with an average of 20 days. The industry average stood at 6.1 days, with major telcos showing varying results — TPG Internet averaged 2 days, Optus 6 days, and Telstra 9 days for complaint resolution.