Telstra apologises after ACMA finds $2.5m overcharging error
Telstra has apologised to its customers after the communications watchdog found the telco had overcharged more than 10,000 people over a 12-year period.
Telstra has apologised to its customers after the communications watchdog found the telco had overcharged more than 10,000 people by a total of almost $2.5m over a 12-year period.
Ahead of an investor day on Thursday in which Telstra chief executive Andy Penn and CFO Vicki Brady are expected to detail the company’s strategy, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the telco overcharged customers by an average $231 per customer, and directed Telstra to comply with its billing accuracy obligations.
ACMA chairman Nerida O’Loughlin said the overcharging occurred between February 2008 and February this year, when customers were provided with an interim mobile phone service during delays to repair or connections of their landline services.
Telstra self-reported the issues, blaming the billing errors on a software malfunction.
“Getting something as important as billing wrong isn’t acceptable and we apologise to our customers who were affected by this mistake,” a Telstra spokesman said. “Since we discovered the mistake earlier this year we have been working to refund customers and change our processes so this can’t happen again.”
Ms O’Loughlin said Telstra had breached the Telecommunications Consumer Protections code, and that the amount charged for an interim service must not exceed what the customer would have been charged for their landline service.
“For Telstra to allow an issue like this to go unnoticed for such a long time and impact so many customers is simply unacceptable,” she said.
Ms O’Loughlin said Telstra had been formally directed to comply with the TCP code, and that further noncompliance could lead to penalties of up to $250,000.
In late 2018, Telstra refunded more than $9m to 72,000 customers after charging them for content they had not bought, including ringtones and videos.
It was also hit with a $10m penalty in April that year for potentially misleading 100,000 customers with charges for premium direct billing.
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