Customer Complaints Handling Code
Contents
- About this Code
- How you can make a complaint
- How to contact us
- How we will contact you
- Investigating and resolving your complaint
- Additional provisions for urgent complaints
- How to escalate your complaint
- If you're still not happy: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)
- No termination for referral to the TIO
1. About this Code
While we always strive to provide the best customer service possible, sometimes things go wrong. If there is anything you're not happy with, please let us know so that we can work with you to put things right and provide a better service in future.
This complaints Code sets out how you can lodge a complaint about any aspect of our service including our general customer service or our complaint handling process. It tells you how to contact us, what we'll do and (if we aren't able to resolve the complaint to your satisfaction) how you can take things further.
You can request a free paper copy of this complaints Code using our contact details set out below. You can also contact us and ask for a copy in Braille, large print, audio file or, where available, an electronic format appropriate to your reasonable needs. If there is going to be any delay, for example, if a particular format of the Code is not readily available, we will let you know.
2. How you can make a complaint
If you're unhappy with any aspect of our services, the best way to contact us is by phone 1300 108 184. If you prefer, you may contact us in writing at Vonage Australia Pty Ltd, Level 9, 401 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, email us at [email protected], or submit an online form www.vonage.com.au/case. If, when you contact us, it is not clear to our team whether or not you wish to make a complaint, we will ask you to clarify this. We explain our internal complaints handling procedure below. This procedure has been designed to ensure that complaints can be resolved fairly and swiftly to your satisfaction.
Unfortunately, on some occasions, after careful consideration and appropriate internal escalation, we may determine that there is nothing more we are able to do to resolve a complaint or that our customer's behaviour, or our customer's complaint, is frivolous or vexatious. In those cases, we may decide that we cannot deal with the complaint (and will therefore close your complaint). If we can't deal with your complaint, we will let you know within 5 working days of making that decision and will advise you of your rights to apply to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). In this Code, a working day is a day that is not a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday where your principal place of business is located.
3. How to contact us
- By phone: 1300 108 184 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday.
- By email: [email protected]
- By letter: Vonage Australia Pty Ltd, Level 9, 401 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
If you contact us in writing, please don't forget to include your:
- Full name;
- Business name;
- Account number;
- Telephone number (landline and/or mobile)
- Postal address; and
- Email address.
When you contact us please give us sufficient details of your complaint to allow us to deal with it, including any steps which have been taken to attempt to resolve the complaint so far.
If you need any help to make a complaint, or to progress a complaint, please let us know by calling us or otherwise contacting us at the details set out in this clause 3.
If required, you can contact us using the National Relay Service on 133 677. If you require a translation or interpretation service to contact us, the Department of Home Affairs may be able to assist you, see: https://www.tisnational.gov.au/Help-using-TIS-National-services/Contact-TIS-National.
If you have any other special needs or disabilities please contact us using the details set out in this clause 3 and we will seek to assist you.
If you may be suffering from financial hardship, please see our financial hardship policy which is available here www.vonage.com.au/about/legal/financial-hardship-policy.
You may nominate a representative to make and handle a complaint on your behalf. If you wish to do this, please provide the full name of that representative, together with contact details, such as a telephone number or email or postal address, when you make the complaint to us. You will also need to let us know if that representative has authority to access your account information.
4. How we will contact you
We will use the contact details that you provide us when you make a complaint for all of our communications with you (or as applicable your representative) regarding that complaint. If you do not provide us with such contact details, we will use the contact details associated with your account number.
If we are unable to contact you (or as applicable your representative) to discuss a complaint, we will write to you at the address we hold for you in our records, advising you that we were unable to contact you (stating how we tried to contact you) and will ask you to contact us to discuss the complaint within 10 working days from the date of our letter to you. If you do not contact us within that period, we may close your complaint.
5. Investigating and resolving your complaint
We'll acknowledge your complaint immediately when we receive it by telephone and within 2 working days when we receive it by any other means, and will use our best efforts to resolve your complaint straight away.
If that's not possible, we will provide you with a reference number for your complaint and will as soon as practicable make an initial assessment of your complaint and investigate it. We will keep you updated every 5 days on the steps we are taking to investigate and resolve your complaint and when we expect your complaint to be resolved. The steps we take to investigate your complaint will depend on the nature of the complaint and the particular circumstances. We will inform you of how we have classified your complaint (Customer Service, Platform Issues, Refund/Credit, Mis-selling, Porting Start Up Issues or Other), and the steps we will take to investigate your complaint, when we contact you.
If you wish to check the status of progress of resolution of your complaint, you can contact us by phone, email or letter, as set out in clause 3.
We endeavour to resolve all complaints, and to notify of our proposed resolution of a complaint, within 15 days of our receipt of the relevant complaint.
If we are not able to meet the timeframe set out above to resolve your complaint, we will as soon as practicable advise you of the cause of the delay, our proposed new timing for resolution and any rights you have to apply to the TIO.
We will implement any solution that we suggest to resolve your complaint as soon as practicable after you agree to that solution and in any event within 10 working days of you accepting that solution (or such other period agreed by you). This period will be extended if you are required to take action to implement the solution and you do not take that action within the agreed time frames.
We will only close a complaint with your consent or if:
(a) we have closed the complaint in accordance with clause 2 or 4 of this Code; or
(b) where you have told us you are not happy with the progress or resolution of your complaint, or have asked for external dispute resolution options, and we have advised you of your rights to apply to the TIO.
6. Additional provisions for urgent complaints
Your complaint will be considered to be an urgent complaint if:
(a) if you have applied for classification as being, or if we have agreed that you are, in financial hardship under our financial hardship policy and your complaint may reasonably be presumed to directly contribute to or aggravate your financial hardship; or
(b) disconnection of a service that we provide you is imminent or has occurred and due process has not been followed.
Our financial hardship policy is available here www.vonage.com.au/about/legal/financial-hardship-policy.
If your complaint is an urgent complaint we will give that complaint priority over other complaints in accordance with this clause 6. This clause 6 will apply to urgent complaints if there are any inconsistencies with any other clause of this complaints Code. If we are not able to resolve your urgent complaint straight away, we will endeavour to resolve that complaint, and implement any proposed resolution of that complaint that is agreed by you, within 2 working days of receiving that complaint.
We will contact you if we believe that your urgent complaint will not be able to be resolved within 2 working days and will advise you of the alternative time frame to resolve the complaint. We will also advise you of your rights to apply to the TIO.
7. How to escalate your complaint
If you're not satisfied with our first response to your complaint, or you're dissatisfied with our response times to your complaint, you can ask us to escalate the complaint to our customer services manager.
The Complaints team will escalate your complaint to the Customer Services Manager and you will receive an email confirming this escalation. The Customer Services Manager will carry out a thorough and unbiased review of your complaint and its handling or will investigate the delay in response times
We will let you know within 10 working days of the outcome of our customer services manager's investigation into your complaint and how your complaint is recommended to be resolved. We will not implement a resolution unless it is accepted by you.
8. If you're still not happy: Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO)
If we haven't been able to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction by following the process set out in the above sections of this Code, or you are dissatisfied with our response times to your complaint, you can refer your complaint to the TIO, see: www.tio.com.au. You may make an online complaint with the TIO or you may call them on 1800 062 058 or otherwise contact the TIO via the contact methods set out at www.tio.com.au.
9. No termination for referral to TIO
We will not terminate your services for the sole reason that we were unable to resolve your complaint directly and you pursued the option for external dispute resolution by the TIO.
Version Date: 4th February 2019
