An article regarding the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code commencing today.
I believe that the Consumer Action Law Centre is correct in being highly sceptical.
Perhaps the code would be better named Caveat Emptor.
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Iâve seen it suggested that telecommunications including internet are not utilities and not essential services. To have either is a choice, they are an option, and further there is competition between providers? No different to choosing which supermarket to shop at, or opting out and growing your own, really! 
There is little point in suggesting otherwise. That is simply how it appears.
In which instance like any other purchase âCaveat Emptorâ is spot on. Thanks @Fred123 for the thought.
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Whatever happened to personal responsibility? I for one would be really annoyed at having to provide a whole lot of personal financial information to a phone company in order to take up a $40 - $60 per month phone plan, or even a $100 per month phone plan. People ought to be able to work out if they can afford something that costs less than $100 per month. There are unlimited call plans with huge amounts of data these days, so the incidence of bill shock is surely much less than it used to be. Yes, itâs true that a small number of people are not always sold the best plan for them, but rather they are offered the best plan for the seller. Surely regulating the plan information so that it has to spell out in plain English how much it will cost in total, per month, when it ends and if there are going to be excess charges (and what would have to happen in order to incur those charges) would be a better way to go than to ask everyone to undergo a financial check first. We donât do that for utilities, health insurance, council rates, and car insurance, and these things cost more than phone plans.
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My observation is that the educational system, both public, private, and at home has been progressively failing teaching basic life skills, and especially financial matters. There is a school of thought that teaching financial matters in schools is a form of brain washing or clandestine selling and those who subscribe to that (akin to anti-vaxers in my opinion) push back quite smartly at any discussion since it is âthe parental responsibilityâ.
Once upon a time all students were taught the basics of bank accounts and how to budget and to a more or less in-depth overview of what the share market is about, what CDs are and so on. Also a bit of cookery, carpentry and so on, unfortunately usually sex-dependent for the student options.
Many or most parents do not have âthe conversationâ and donât want the schools to have it either, so we have a generation or more of functionally illiterate people as regards various basic life skills. However, even if taught there will always remain those who are ill equipped to understand, deal with, and make their own rational decisions. Hence government has taken the easier way to put the onus on the providers rather than the users in all cases.
That is an interesting observation. In a practical sense there is usually support for utilities, health insurance is technically not necessary in Australia, taxes and council rates I wonât comment on since government prizes those fees above food and shelter, and car insurance is obviously linked to oneâs ability to afford a vehicle so indirectly there is an arms length connection. All that babble being written, I could not imagine that internet/phone service is anything beyond a necessity in these times although a mobile phone service might suffice and be far more reliable than anything NBN when one has fully charged batteries and a usable tower signal.
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The TIO has advised that complaints about Telcos have again increased. They are concerned about these rises (arenât we all or we wouldnât be complaining). It seems a lot of the increase relates to not being able to contact the Telcos and particularly their reliance on Overseas Call Centres. Time to bring them back to Australia perhaps.
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