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Billing for Phone Services
Q: What kind of billing complaints can the TIO investigate?
A: The TIO investigates a variety of billing complaints including claims of being overcharged for calls, being charged for calls that were not made, being charged for services and products that were not received, being charged for services and products that were not requested, and being overcharged for work carried out such as service connections.
Q: What should I do if I do not agree with call charges on my bill?
A: First contact your phone company - it may be a simple matter that can be quickly sorted out. You can request an itemisation of local calls to help you reconcile the bill if necessary.
If you remain dissatisfied, the TIO can investigate your complaint. You will need to provide us with a copy of the account showing the disputed calls and tell us why you believe the calls were not made from your telephone service. Where appropriate, the TIO will ask you to provide evidence of you and your family¡¯s whereabouts at the times of the calls, such as work attendance records or statutory declarations, to show that the calls could not have been made by you or anyone else in your household. In some cases, the TIO may ask you to include copies of previous bills to show that certain numbers have not been dialled before, or that the disputed bill is unusually high.
Q: What can the TIO do about disputed call charges?
A: If the TIO believes that there is reason for a person to be disputing call charges it will request that the phone company verify the bill. This can include checking the accuracy of billing information, investigating whether a fault may have contributed to incorrect billing, conducting call charge analysis, and looking for evidence of tampering or hacking on the line.
The TIO will expect a phone company to remove from a customer¡¯s account any charges found to be incorrect. If no possible cause of incorrect billing is identified, the TIO will usually have no basis on which to direct a company to remove charges and will expect a customer to pay the disputed charges.
Q: My service is with Optus and I¡¯ve received an account from Telstra. Why?
A: You can receive a bill from a company other than your pre-selected service provider if you have used an override code to elect to use an alternative service provider, if you use operator assisted services, or if you have dialled a number with the prefix ¡®190¡¯. These 190 numbers are premium rate information calls. You cannot choose which service provider will supply a particular 190 service, and because the 190 services do not advertise the carrier that will deliver the service, most callers don¡¯t know who will charge them for a 190 call until they receive the bill.
Q: Is a service provider allowed to have my details if I am preselected to another company?
A: Yes. The Telecommunications Act 1997 allows a service provider (for example, Telstra) to bill a customer for the purposes of carrying out its business, even if the company is not the customer¡¯s preselected telephone service provider.
Q: What are ¡°information calls¡± and how much do they cost?
A: Information calls are calls made to services to obtain information on a variety of topics such as financial investment, competitions, gardening, computer support and adult services. These are often referred to as 'premium rate services'.
Information calls are charged at varying rates, some incurring a flat rate call cost of between 50 cents and $30, while others are charged by the call length, up to $6 per minute (more from a mobile phone).
Information/premium rate services commonly have a ¡®190¡¯ prefix.
Q: I have been charged for calls to a 190 number, which appears to offer an adult sex service. I didn¡¯t make the calls. Do I have to pay?
A: The answer to this question will depend primarily on the prefix of the number that appears on your phone bill.
Numbers with a 1901 prefix commonly deliver ¡°adult sex services¡±. The Australian Broadcasting Authority has responsibility for categorising premium rate services and will allocate a 1901 prefix where the content is considered to be appropriate for adults only. Under regulations imposed by the federal government (see Part 9A of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection & Service Standards) Act 1999) a carrier cannot charge a customer for a 1901 call unless the customer has agreed in writing to the use of their telephone service to supply telephone sex calls and has been issued with a four- digit PIN with which to access the service.
If the calls that have appeared on your accounts were to a 1901 number and you did not request access to this service in writing or receive a PIN, the TIO would expect the provider to withdraw the charges, regardless of whether or not the calls were made by you or a member of your household.
If the calls were not to a 1901 number, however, you will need to establish your claim that the calls were not made by you or by anyone else in your household. Generally speaking, the account holder is responsible for calls made from their phone, whether they have made them themselves, or they are made by someone else from within the household or with access to the service.
Q: Does the legislation limiting access to 190 sex services apply to adult sites on the Internet?
A: No. The legislation only applies to voice sex calls made from a standard telephone service. Call charges relating to the billing of information calls made through the Internet are not included. See Frequently Asked Questions on Dumping for further information.
Q: I¡¯ve been charged for international calls that I don¡¯t believe I made. Can the charges be verified?
A: Disputes over international calls often relate to information, or ¡®partyline/IDD¡¯ calls. These are calls to ¡®telecafes¡¯, sex lines and other services operated in countries such as Israel, Guyana and the Dominican Republic. These calls can be extremely costly. As with other disputed call charges, if it appears that the customer has good grounds for disputing the calls, the TIO will ask the phone company to substantiate the charges in the usual manner.
The legal requirements for a carrier to legitimately bill for 190 sex calls do not generally apply to international sex calls.
Q: I¡¯ve received a bill for calls I made months ago. Do I have to pay?
A: Being charged for calls that were not made in the current billing period is known as ¡®backbilling¡¯. Backbilling usually occurs when there has been a delay in the service provider receiving billing information from a carrier.
With some exceptions, the Industry Billing Code states that a carrier can only backbill for calls within 190 days from the date they were made. While not all carriers are signatories to ¨C and therefore bound to comply with - this code, the TIO uses this timeframe as a benchmark of what is an acceptable timeframe for a carrier to backbill its customers.
Ask and answer these questions about billing for phone services.
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