Just tried to sign up with Flip, so far they wont sign me up as I have credit ban on my account but they wont tell me which credit bureau its with. I rang them 3 times, Indian call centre asking for a manager and so far no return calls so I asked for complaint procedure. They advised I can’t lodge a complaint as Im not a customer of there’s. Beware, if I’m being treated like this and im not yet a customer imagine how they treat their customers.
There are only 3. All referenced on this page, with contact details.
Good luck getting it sorted.
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Did you instigate a block on anyone accessing your credit report? It could have been an action taken after being subject of one of the recent data breaches (Optus, Medibank etc). They are relatively simple to remove and can take a few hours to a few days to have them available for Flip.
You don’t need to know which ones have a credit report block in place, you can submit a request to lift the ban with those agencies used in Australia using these websites:
https://consumer.experian.com.au/s/ban-lift-form
https://www.equifax.com.au/eform/submit/credit-ban
Once you have removed the block, Flip will be able to progress your application for the mobile and NBN connection.
If you are concerned about your details from a data breach being used, don’t forget to reinstate the blocks after Flip carry out their credit report search.
Irrespective of the company, if you are changing to another ISP/mobile provider, they will carry out a credit check to determine your potential credit risk as a new customer.
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‘Catch 22’ in real life.
You cannot become a customer, because you fail the credit check, because it is blocked.
And you cannot complain about that because you are not a customer.
A warning for others who have gone out and put blocks on their credit history access. It can come back to bite you on the bum.
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It is educational knowing locking a credit file is called a ‘ban’ rather than a ‘block’ although once understood it becomes understood.
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Dodged a bullet I reckon, good of them to let you know how their ‘customer service’ performs before you have even paid for it. Plenty of other providers around that are just as competitive.
I’ve used a very good inexpensive prepaid service for mobile phone and also home wifi. Coles Mobile 365 day unlimited phone plan with over 200 gb data included for $240 (often discounted at Coles or ColesExpress servos. A few plan choices- monthly ones as well as 365 days. For 4G home wifi they also sell similar SIM cards with a similar of amount of data and I use it in a Huawei 4G Fast modem that just plugs into wall. It’s faster than some NBN services. Uses Optus network so works well for me but you need to check Optus coverage map to see if it suits your location. Customer service (is in Australia) and is excellent; also have a great app so you can see your usage, expiry, plans, payment, etc. 50gb rolls over on recharge. Can recharge online or buy voucher at Coles. I’ve used ColesMobile for a couple of years and haven’t had any problems. Website is ColesMobile.com.au Good luck
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this post is not about that, its about the customer service of Flip. Anyone can make a complaint about company whether they are a customer or not and as @melinch6 say’s below, ‘dodged a bullet’ which is exactly the point I was getting across by posting here.
Exactly, perfect explanation of my reasoning behind this post. ‘Dodged a bullet’. I’m not even a customer yet and look how they treated me if thats an indication of what they are like then I’m going to save myself a lot of stress by not signing up with Flip.
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Hmmm a quick google review, confirms everything I discovered when trying to sign up
[
Phantom Technical Support
](Flip reviewed by OAPonanMTB on 11/9/2023)
The problem with Flip, and other “cheap-skate” providers is they don’t have a technical support. To them it’s wasted money. Network troubleshooting 101 is completely beyond their capabilities.
I was seeing excessive packet loss connecting to an outgoing mail server and sent in a fault ticket asking if they could check the same on their side. They sent back a reply suggesting a browser/DNS issue; a cut-n-paste from their website that I had already read before sending the ticket. I suspect “Djion” was nothing more than an email app. They clearly hadn’t bothered to read the ticket.
I’ve realized, as others have that Flip support is of no help and would be the reason why so many non-technical customers, who have to rely on this sham-service for help, get so frustrated and feel the need to vent.
I can also understand why Flip don’t bother sending those “How did we do?” emails anymore.
Date of experience: 08 November 2023
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Now, I quite often take a contrary view about posts on this site and defend businesses. They have a duty to properly vet new customers, and if circumstances prevent them from doing that then don’t blame them. And don’t blame the call center people who are just following procedures.
How often do we hear about scammers who manage to con telco companies into doing phone number porting?
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@Gregr. I guess you missed the point on what I my post is about. This is not about the ‘procedure’.
So far, I have called 3 times and sent 3 emails including confirmation my ban was lifted and no one has got back to me, they just ignore me. I do not have a bad credit rating at all.
Its about the lack of help by their customer service and googling the reviews of which one I copied I above confirms this.
I understand the point of your original post. They have lousy customer service. But so do other telcos.
Unfortunately, most businesses have processes, and as much as they seem to thwart something that should be simple, that is the game one may have to negotiate.
Their process broke at the first step in doing a credit check on you. You may well have an excellent credit history, but they couldn’t check that. And your calls and emails can’t seem to unbreak their new customer process. It is possible that they have a customer relationship system that has you flagged as unable to credit check, so ignore you.
So, there are plenty of other telcos out there. And now that the ban on accessing your credit history has been removed, they can get past that step.
And that ban on accessing your credit history was the subject of my posts. What can happen if one puts a block on accessing credit history from one of these credit recording companies.
No I dont think you are understanding my post @Gregr and you seem to be hijacking and denying the fact that Flip connect are crap. I’ve had plenty of dealings with telco’s in my life and Flip are up there in top 2 of red flags.
Fact is I have called since my credit ban was lifted asking to speak to Supervisors etc and they say they dont have one. I’ve sent them emails from credit bureau’s confirming my ban was lifted but they are still saying its got a ban and when I ask whom they ignore me.
I’ve never dealt with a telco like this that wont even reply or respond and to have one of them say I cant make a complaint because I’m not a customer yet is an absolute load of crap. That’s like saying I can’t make a complaint about a shop I walk into because I didnt buy their product.
I also posted a random review about their customer service when requiring tech help and it confirms my experience.
I really hope this is the end of our communication.
I have actual experience with Flip customer support having been an actual customer for several years. I have made use of their tech support on several occasions and my experience is that their customer service is about average for cheap telcos. I was slightly frustrated one day to call them because my internet was down, to be told by them there was no problem at their end, but then to later learn that my whole suburb was down - but that is more a problem of the NBN and not Flip as a retailer.
I understand that you are frustrated and want to feel better about the difficulty that you experienced (which if I read correctly was caused by you blocking your own credit file?).
It is unclear what you want - just to complain about the problem and be heard, or to actually get connected to the NBN?
It does seem that you are correct and have the right to complain because the Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard requires companies to have a complaints process for “consumers” (not just “customers”) where a consumer is defined as “an individual who acquires or may acquire a telecommunications product for the primary purpose of personal or domestic use and not for resale”. I can see how consumer and customer could be confused. See How the law protects telecommunications customers| ACMA for more information.
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It’s true that we cannot be dissatisfied with a particular product if we didn’t purchase it and experienced poor quality/ performance etc. but in this case the complaint is about Service even before there’s been a purchase. You could email your complaint to ‘enquiries@flipconnect.com.au’ as the call centre has proved useless to you. Other options are to submit via online reviews, community forums…
And yes, you should feel lucky to have found out what that company is really like before you joined in.
This is interesting because they seldom reveal their true colours so far in advance, which brings me back to your ban on your credit file. We, or our agents, really should remove any credit bans on our files before applying to any service which needs to do a credit check on us. With respect, that was a mistake on your/your agent part and IMHO it is the reason of their disinterest in any follow up with you. A ban can be asked to be applied if we’ve been or are likely to be victims of fraud. (I remember that one of the credit agencies asked for my Police report number) If a credit provider asks for a credit check during the ban period they will be alerted of the possibility of fraud.
A company that as you’ve posted has a lot of bad reviews already would be more likely to let a customer go rather than face problems, because even if a ban is lifted the potential problem would still exist.
But, even though it makes sense to me it’s still a conjecture and could be way off the mark.
Anyways, @lissimmo Just hope you’ll soon get a better company than Flip and have a much nicer experience.
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