Anyone can experience vulnerable circumstances at some stage of their life so it is important that telcos take extra care when dealing with these customers.
We conducted an audit to look at how telcos are meeting their obligations under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code for dealing with disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers. These obligations include requirements that telcos ensure that their sales representatives sell products in a responsible manner and interact appropriately with vulnerable consumers.
Our audit included collecting information from a small cross-section of telcos, including a number of market leaders, about how they identify consumers in vulnerable circumstances and how they train and monitor the conduct of their sales representatives when promoting and selling products to disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers.
Protecting vulnerable telco customers is one of the ACMA’s compliance priorities for 2021–22.
