Complaints Handling Policy
This article will outline our Complaint Handling Policy.
While we always aim to provide you with awesome customer service, if you haven't received the service you expected, you have the right to make a complaint.
A complaint means an expression of dissatisfaction made to us in relation to our products or the complaints handling process itself, where you expect a resolution. Contacting us to request technical support or to report a service issue is not necessarily a complaint. Where it's not clear to us, we'll ask you to confirm that you wish to make a complaint.
During the course of your complaint, we will treat you with fairness and courtesy and will provide a fair and reasonable outcome to all parties involved. Our complaints process is designed to encourage the fast and efficient resolution of your issue at the first point of contact. Please be assured that we will not cancel your service simply because you have made a complaint that we can't resolve with you directly or becuase you decide to pursue options for external dispute resolution.
Select one of the links below to jump to a query:
How to make a complaint
You can contact our customer service teams to make a complaint using one of these methods:
| Internode Support (for help with technical issues) | Internode Billing (for help with your account and services) | Operating Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone: |
1300 788 233 |
1300 889 188 |
Support: Billing: |
| Online: |
7am to 8pm, Mon-Fri |
||
If our customer service teams have been unable to assist you, you can ask that your complaint be referred to Customer Relations, our specialist complaints resolutions team. You may also contact Customer Relations directly as follows:
| Customer Relations | |
|---|---|
| Email: | |
| Mail: |
Attn: Customer Relations, PO Box 2580, Kingston Delivery Centre, Kingston, TAS 7050. |
When making a complaint to us, please be sure to supply your current contact information. Should we be unable to contact you via known methods, we will contact you in writing and advise that you have 10 business days to respond before we are entitled to close your complaint.
We're here to help
Please let us know if you need assistance with understanding this process or help in making or progressing a complaint.
You may nominate an authorised representative or advocate to make a complaint and deal with us on your behalf. However, to protect your privacy, you must give us your permission (provided either over the phone or in writing) to speak with your authorised representative or advocate about your complaint.
If you have a hearing or speech impairment, you can contact us by using the National Relay Service. If you're from a non-English speaking background, you can contact us via a language interpreter service or nominate someone to deal with us on your behalf.
If you have other special needs, please let us know and we will do our best to assist where we can.
If you are suffering financial hardship, please see our Financial Hardship Assistance page to learn more about how we can assist you.
What happens when we receive your complaint
Following receipt of your complaint, we will acknowledge your complaint and provide you with a reference number:
- immediately, if you contacted us by phone, or
- if you contacted us by any other means, within 2 business days for general complaints or within 1 business day for Urgent Complaints.
If you believe your complain is urgent, please see Urgent Complaints.
We will make an initial assessment, conduct an investigation and aim to resolve all complaints within the following timeframes:
- for Urgent Complaints, within 2 business days;
- for all other complaints, within 5 business days, except where the complaint involves complex matters, in which case we will aim to resolve within 15 business days.
For Urgent Complaints, we will provide, within 2 working days of receiving the complaint, written confirmation of the proposed resolution (and if accepted, the date the resolution was implemented). For general complaints, we will confirm the proposed resolution in writing within 15 working days of receiving the complaint. For complaints about alleged billing errors, we will resolve your complaint no later than the end of the next billing cycle immediately following your complaint. If you request written confirmation of the proposed resolution, we will provide such confirmation within 5 business days of your request.
If we reasonably believe that a resolution may fall outside of the timeframes above, we will contact you directly to discuss the reasons for the delay and advise a new timeframe. If the delay is expected to be longer than 10 working days, we will advise you of your options for external dispute resolution, including the TIO. Where a complaint is indicative of broader problem or systemic issue, we will seek to resolve the main cause of that problem or issue.
Complaints received by us will be classified into one of the following categories as appropriate:
- Billing - all complaints regarding billing issues, international roaming, excess usage, first month billing, and other billing complaints;
- Customer Service - all complaints regarding incorrect information, lack of ownership, failure to escalate, no callback, call wait times and other customer service issues;
- Faulty Service - all complaints regarding fault delay, fault process disputes, services not cancelled and other fault complaints;
- Provisioning - all complaints regarding connection issues, hardware delivery, hardware issues, infrastructure delays, missed appointments, provisioning delays, relocations and other provisioning issues; or
- Speed - all complaints regarding speed issues and congestion.
How your complaint will be escalated
If our Customer Service team is not able to resolve your complaint in the first instance, your complaint will be escalated to a supervisor or team manager for further assistance. Where they have been unable to assist, Customer Relations will take over management of your complaint.
If at any stage of the process, you’re not happy with the progress or proposed resolution of a complaint or you want to know more about your options to pursue a complaint further, we will advise you of your option to reasonably request to have your complaint escalated to a supervisor of Customer Relations or your options for external dispute resolution.
If you tell us that you are not happy with the response times that apply to the handling of your complaint, we will, within 5 working days, advise you about our internal prioritisation and escalation processes and your options for external dispute resolution, including the TIO.
Urgent Complaints
Please tell us if your complaint is urgent. A complaint will be considered an Urgent Complaint where:
- you have asked to be assessed (or have been approved) for financial hardship assistance and it's clear to us that the nature of your complaint will directly contribute to or worsen that hardship;
- disconnection of a service is imminent or has already occurred and where due process has not been followed; or
- your issue is about a service or situation that is dangerous to your or others.
For further information about Internode's financial hardship assistance, see our Financial Hardship Assistance page.
Please note: We do not offer priority assistance, nor support for medi-alert services and monitored alarm systems. Priority assistance is offered by Telstra for people who may be reliant on a telephone service because of a serious medical condition. If you have a medi-alert or priority assistance service or believe that you are eligible, please consider this before proceeding with your order.
Urgent Complaints will be given priority over other complaints. We will acknowledge your Urgent Complaint immediately if you contacted us via phone or otherwise within 1 business day of receiving your Urgent Complaint.
We aim to resolve Urgent Complaints within 2 business days. We will contact you directly to advise and discuss a new timeframe in the event that a resolution is likely to fall outside of this timeframe.
If your complaint has not been considered urgent based on the above criteria and you reasonably believe it should be, please let us know and we will, within 2 working days, advise you about our internal prioritisation and escalation processes and your options for external dispute resolution, including the TIO.
Ways you can monitor your complaint
We will keep you updated with the status of your complaint and you may contact us either by phone or by email with your reference number, Internode username or customer number to request a status update.
Customer Relations staff will also supply you with their direct contact details upon submission or escalation of your complaint.
Where relevant, we will let you know any reasons for any delay as soon as practical and a specific timeframe for resolution.
When a complaint is resolved
After we've completed our investigation of your complaint, we will, as soon as practicable, confirm with you that your complaint has been resolved. We will advise you either verbally (via telephone) or in writing (via email) of the outcome of your complaint. If you prefer a specific method of contact, please advise us when making your complaint. If you request written confirmation of the resolution, we will provide such confirmation within 5 business days of your request.
We are unable to implement any proposed resolution until you have accepted it. Once you have accepted the resolution, we will take all reasonable actions to implement it within 10 business days (or within 2 business days for Urgent Complaints), unless you have agreed upon another time frame, or where resolution required some action from you and you have not yet completed that action.
We will not close your complaint without your consent, except where your complaint has already been appropriately escalated within Internode and where:
- you've told us that you're not happy with the progress or resolution of your complaint and in response we have advised you of your options for external dispute resolution, including the TIO; or
- we have not been able to contact you for more than 10 business days after an attempt to contact you in writing; or
- we reasonably believe, after careful consideration, that your behaviour or complaint is frivolous or vexatious and within 5 business days of reaching this view, we have advised you that will we not deal with your complaint (and the reasons why) and explained your options for external dispute resolution. If requested by you, we will confirm these matters in writing within 5 business days of your request.
Further options for external dispute resolution
Most issues can be handled through our internal processes. We do ask that you allow us a reasonable fully explore all options to address your issues.
If you’ve given us a reasonable opportunity to resolve your complaint and remain dissatisfied with our handling of your complaint after it has been escalated within Internode, you may seek advice from the external organisations listed below. Additionally, you may refer your complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) for dispute resolution at no cost.
To find out more about how the TIO can assist you, you can visit the TIO's webpage 'What we can help with' or contact the TIO:
- Phone - 1800 062 058
- Online - 'Online complaint form' webpage
- Post - PO Box 276, Collins Street West, VIC 8007
- Fax - 1800 630 614
- Access using a language interpreter, Auslan interpreter or the National Relay Service - 'Interpreters and accessibility' webpage.
The following organisations are also available to help.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): Privacy complaints PH: 1300 363 992
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ScamWatch): Scam complaints (online form available through the link)
- Australian Financial Complaints Authority: Sold debt payment and insurance disputes PH: 1800 931 678
- eSafety Commissioner: Online Safety complaints:
Need this information in another language?
Please ask for a referral to our Customer Relations team.
Print a copy of this policy
If you wish to print a copy of this policy for your own records, please download our Complaint Handling Policy Print PDF.