iiNet, Telstra, and the Unbundled Local Loop

Let's start this rant with a question.

Were does the telcos responsibility stop and the consumers start on the phone line that comes to you house or bussines?

The answer, according to ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) is quite clear and can be found on ACMA's website.

Now to the Rant!

In December 2009 a new phone service was connected at home in preparation for my new naked internet service to be provided by iiNet. Telstra attended and ran a new fly-in cable from the pole in the street, pulled it under the house and tagged it ready for service. No plug, no socket just a tag ready for iiNet's Naked DSL. (See pic right)

A few weeks after Telstra installed the service, iiNet's Naked ADSL2 service was connected. No more dial tone, no more Telstra bill!. Everything was going to plan until a Modem was connected to the line. I was expecting anywhere from 15 to 20Mbs but was lucky to get 1Mbs. A fault was logged with iiNet, the initial tech support test were done, unplugged the fax etc... but no joy. A Vision stream tech called, agreed there was a fault and couldn't fix it, so Telstra was called in to pick up the pieces.

The Telstra tech fixed the fault in a jiffy. There a two pairs or 4 cables that fly in from the street. The Blue and White pair were open circuit (bad) so he climbed his ladder and changed the line to the second pair, Red and Black, and we had blistering 24MBs ADSL. The Blue and White pair had fallen victim to a wayward staple from the initial Telstra installer.

Tech problem solved. Time for the blame game.

Bill Shock.

On January 4 2010, 1 bill arrived detailing $255 of callout fees for Telstra.

Hang on a minute? What's going on here? The fault was with the fly in cable - the domain of the telco! A call to iiNet confirmed this which, just so happened was recorded. You can here the iiNet CSR agree with the Telstra technicians report.

The iiNet CSR thought there was an error and refered it to a higher authority, saying he would call back in the next few days with a resolution. The call never came.

The day the bill was debited to the credit card with the associate call out fees it was time to email iiNet

Email to accounts

Hello Accounts.

I would just like to say how disappointed I am with iiNet and the gung ho approach to billing.

Two charges were included in this invoice which were disputed. These were the service calls to resolve a Telstra fault on the fly-in cable.

These faults were before the point where it becomes the customers responsibility.

Both the onsite Telstra tech and the iiNet rep agreed that the fault was Telstra's. In fact the fault was the original Telstra line installer who put a staple through the blue and white pair on the fly-in cable only two weeks before the service was connected. This was a brand new service connected especially for the Naked DSL.

The billing complaint was raised on the day of invoice - Jan 4 some 14 days ago.

At this time the CSR said he would fix it up within a couple of days. To this point no-one has responded. In future, maybe the shoot first and ask questions later policy could be made a little more consumer friendly.

Consumers place trust in suppliers such as iiNet that they won't get ripped off when it comes to direct debit. It's probably time to for me to rethink this as I am now $255 out of pocket.

to which iiNet responded four days later and after a suggestion of a referal to the TIO...

Thank you for your email response. I am sorry to hear you have had a bad experience with us, and would like to offer our service to resolve concerns.

Firstly we apologies in not informing you in writing or contacting on number provided, of outcome of the results that where sent back to us.

Secondly in regards to your feedback about fees being passed on to customer and not being filtered out by us, we really appreciate your feedback and will be addressed. At the moment we do pass the charges on to customers, as our wholesaler charges us for lodging them.

The two charges, that where charged to you, and are charged to us by our wholesaler for the fault callout that was lodged. As they have determined that their no fault found with their lines or equipment, they had charge the incorrect call out fee, which would have been lodged by the Telstra Technician that visited your home.

In regards to the fee being charged as a new connection line charge, we did look into this and found that was not the information lodged by wholesaler. For a new connection the fee would have been $299.00, as well as a brand new service number connected to the premises which was not needed.

The Billing of your invoice which included the two additional charges where put on hold, whilst we disputed the incorrect callout fee with the wholesaler on your behalf. We have had a received response from wholesaler which they believe charges are genuine.

We again apologies for inconvenience this may have caused. We do value your continued business with us, as a gesture of good will; we have waived one months fee off your Naked DSL ecommhome account. This should be visible on your next invoice.

If you require any further assistants, please do not hesitate to call us on 13 22 58, or email with your request, we will be happy to assist

Good outcome right? Wrong! There were two problems here, firstly iiNet were being had by Telstra, and secondly, iiNet were incosistant in there reporting to the customer. What was recorded on tape was not what was said in email.

Andrew M. Feb 3, 2010 @22:03

The emails continued...

My objection was to the two call out fees on the current invoice, one for $180 and one for $75. Let me address your response...

The two charges, that where charged to you, and are charged to us by our wholesaler for the fault callout that was lodged. As they have determined that their no fault found with their lines or equipment, they had charge the incorrect call out fee, which would have been lodged by the Telstra Technician that visited your home.

This is totally incorrect for two reason. Firstly, the report that you received states There was a problem with the lead in which is true.

Secondly, the lead in or fly in cable IS the responsibility of the Telco and is clearly stated in Section 22 (4) (ii) of the Telecommunications Act 1997

The telco is responsible to the NTD (Network Termination Device) The carriers lead in cable at my premises was not connected to an NTD. In fact, the lead in cable was tagged and left jutting out under the house. Please see picture above.

No NTD, just a cable that run under the house and to the pole in the street.

As Brendan (the second Telstra tech to visit my premises) said "There was most likely a staple in the lead in causing a short or open circuit. This was done by Scott, the Telstra installer who Brendan knew.

He fixed the problem by climbing his ladder and swapping the lead in cable to the red and black pair. Problem solved.

<stuff deleted>

I appreciate your good will gesture but the bottom line is that something is not quite right here. Neither iiNet or I should be out of pocket for poor Telstra workmanship. Also, what your CSR (Brendan) said and what you are saying conflict.

My opinion here is that Telstra is at fault. iiNet didn't install my phone line, I didn't install my phone line, so I guess Telstra must have.

After all, isn't this what we pay our ULL for?

The response

From: support@iinet.net.au [mailto:support@iinet.net.au]
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2010 8:18 PM
To: <removed>
Subject: Re: FW: Payment confirmation - DISPUTE # 72796048 (ref: 73708288)

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your email.

I have reviewed what happened regarding your fault and have determined that we will waive the ICF.

We got VisionStream out to check your line and they advised to book a Telstra Technician.
Unfortunately the fault was found on your side of the network it was also an area that only Telstra could fix.

I apologise for the delay in replies and a credit for the amount of $255 will be applied to your account

If you have any further queries please email or call 132258.

Kind regards,