Timeliness

  The majority of complaints we receive are resolved quickly after we refer a consumer to their service provider’s complaint handling specialists. After a consumer contacts us, we send an email to the service provider with the details of the complaint, and it has 10 working days to respond to the consumer. We assume that the complaint has been resolved through this process if a consumer doesn’t contact us again after that timeframe, and the case remains closed.

closed after referral - 88.3 per cent  		      
   When we conciliate or investigate a complaint we have longer timeframes for service providers to negotiate a solution with their customers or for the TIO to assess evidence about a complaint.

Closed in 0-76 days – 8.8 per cent”, Closed in 77-172 days – 3.6 per cent” and “Closed in more than 172 days – 0.2 per cent		      
   
We expect that new procedures we implemented in 2010-11, such as email referral and conciliation, will assist us to further improve closure rates in 2011-12. However, these rates also depend on cooperation by service providers, a willingness to negotiate on behalf of the consumer and the nature of individual complaints.		      

Related link

Focusing on conciliation

Transitioning to email correspondence