Complaints handling and telecommunications in the United Kingdom and Australia

This paper examines the trends in complaints against telecommunications providers in Australia and the UK. It discusses why complaint handling is important to consumers and then looks at the published available information on complaints in Australia and the UK. Having discussed the number of complaints, it examines the high level principles that internal complaint handling mechanisms ought to be designed around. It concludes that the number of complaints in Australia is exceptionally high and that this seems to be part of a wider issue about complaints handling and customer service in telecommunications in both countries, as well as raising questions about the regulatory arrangements in Australia.