Telstra missed payment deadlines for more than 67,000 customers: this is how to claim compo

Telstra faces an investigation after it failed to pay $11m compensation to customers on time. Here’s how it happened and how some are getting cash back.

Australia’s largest telco is facing an independent investigation after failing to pay compensation to more than 67,000 customers on time over four years.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority on Friday revealed Telstra missed payment deadlines for more than $11 million owed to customers despite clear industry rules.

The payments, which were owed for failing to meet connection and repair timelines for landline phones between July 2017 and June 2021, should have been made within 14 days of the incidents.

But a Telstra audit of other problems revealed its “internal processes” led to delays.

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the company would now undergo a independent review of its operations.

Telstra faces a review after failing to pay customers on time. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

“Telstra has let down its customers by not paying compensation in a timely manner,” 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.”

Ms O’Loughlin said ACMA would “monitor Telstra’s progress” and had accepted a “court-enforceable undertaking” from the company to update its systems and provide regular updates over the next two years.

Telstra customers, she said, had now received the $11 million payments.

Australians with landline telephones can qualify for compensation if their services are not connected or repaired within specified time frames under Australia’s Customer Service Guarantee Standard.

Those in urban areas should be able to have a phone connected within five business days, for example, or up to 15 days in minor rural or remote towns.

If the telco fails to meet these deadlines, customers automatically qualify for compensation unless the company has an exemption. The telco has 14 days to assess and accept or reject liability for the compensation.

A Telstra spokesman said its missed payments were caused by an “IT issue” that it reported to ACMA.

“We deal with millions of customer transactions weekly, however this is clearly not the experience we want to be providing our customers,” he said. “We are in the process of improving the system to better automate payments.”

The breach is the latest of several problems for Telstra, which has recently been punished for billing errors and broadband speed promises.

It also comes just one day after the latest report from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman showed complaints rose 21 per cent over the previous quarter, including more than 8500 complaints about mobile services which RMIT Associate Professor Mark Gregory called “unacceptably high”.

Originally published as Telstra missed payment deadlines for more than 67,000 customers: this is how to claim compo