Following from the ACCC’s Service Standards Inquiry, NBNCo has agreed, voluntarily, to offer a $25 rebate whenever they miss an appointment. And there’s no need to go through a lengthy or painful claim process as the process should be automatic.
It’s important to understand that the payment won’t be made to consumers directly by NBNCo. It will be sent to your Retail Service Provider (RSP) as that company is who you are actually dealing with when you provision an NBN service.
The ACCC Chair Rod Sims said: “The undertaking will improve the rebates that NBN Co pays to RSPs for not meeting its service level timeframes for connections, fixing faults and meeting scheduled appointments”.
In a statement, NBNCo said the automatic payment of the $25 rebate for missed activation and fault repair timeframes will me made to its wholesale customers in 100 per cent of instances (up from our current 90 per cent threshold) and that retail service providers will take reasonable steps to ensure that affected homes and businesses receive (in monetary or other form) a fair value benefit of these rebates.
The rebate scheme isn’t new but it has been expanded. The changes to the rebate scheme means:
- NBN Co will pay a $25 rebate to RSPs for every late connection and fault rectification
- NBN Co will introduce a new $25 rebate to RSPs for each missed appointment
- NBN Co will simplify the process for RSPs to receive rebates and remove some conditions for claiming rebates
There’s also been an undertaking to improve how NBNCo reports these issues to RSPs so there’s greater transparency in the process.
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) CEO, Teresa Corbin, said “We have long advocated for reform of existing customer service guarantees for connection times, fault repairs and network reliability. We know that these issues have been a big pain point for consumers”.
With missed appointments and botched installations being, in some people’s opinions, a major issue with the rollout of the NBN, this puts greater focus on ensuring customer needs are met and that there’s a penalty in place should something not go to plan.
In order to get your hands on the $25, you shouldn’t have to do anything. But I’d suggest keeping records of when appointments were promised, when they actually occurred and reminding your RSP about the penalty so you can actually get a discount on your next bill or an upgraded service.
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