I knew the number. 0800 022 022. It was 2degrees, calling me on a Sunday morning.
I had a problem with the company, and it all started when my son had an accident while kayaking in March.
He sliced his foot open climbing out of the lake, which resulted in days and nights in Starship Hospital.
Of course, we needed data to pass the time.
So I purchased an “add on data pack” for $50 in the middle of March. There were two words next to it in the app: 'auto renewal.' I thought very little about it. I was happy I wouldn’t have to worry about burning through data while we waited for another surgery. (I have since learned of 2degrees' data clock where you can get a free hour of wifi, but at this stage I was a data-buying newbie).
The trouble started about three weeks later. I got a text. “Hold tight, we’re working on your 15GB National Data request and will let you know when we’re done.”
So I texted to STOP the renewal. I didn’t want this data.
Next text: “The auto renewal of 15GB Data Pack has been stopped.”
And yet, I was then charged for an additional data pack in April, and then also in May. All up, an extra $100.
I thought ‘OK, I screwed up the April one, I will take it on the chin’. But May as well? I don’t think so.
So I sent an email to 2degrees. After some tooing and frooing to “authentic my account” via email, Jackson emailed me back.
He hoped I understood, but because I had already used the data in the data pack in May that I never wanted and didn't have enough data to “return the data in full”, it couldn’t be refunded.
Too bad, so sad. So I took to the phone.
After waiting for about 40 minutes (I never want to listen to Sway by Bic Runga ever again), I had a real person on the line.
He was no more sympathetic, and like Jackson, didn’t accept for one second that it was unfair or misleading to automatically charge someone for three months of data after they purchased one data pack.
According to the 2degrees phone rep, because I hadn’t stopped the data pack from rolling over once, I had actually agreed to buy it for a further two months. Buy one, pay for three. What a deal (for 2degrees).
Nothing I said sank in.
I mentioned the Fair Trading Act, Consumer Guarantees Act, I pointed out there were only two words on the app “auto renewal”. How could charging me for three months after buying one pack possibly be fair?
I copped to not stopping it before the April pack rolled over within a month. But come on, what about May? I wanted my $50 back.
He insisted I had signed up to a billing cycle that 2degrees hadn’t told me about, and when I stopped the pack in April at that point I had actually agreed to also pay in May because the cycle rolled over on the fourth of the month.
We went round in ever-decreasing circles, both annoyed. After putting me on hold for what felt like an age after I channeled my alter ago, Karen, and asked him to kick my moan up the chain, he offered me $25. The maximum amount his manager was approved to offer. That was it.
He wouldn’t, or couldn't, tell me what to do with my complaint since I was unsatisfied with 2degrees' response.
He wouldn’t give me a complaint number.
He was rude and dismissive. He wanted me off the line. Everyone else was still waiting for ages as I had, why wouldn’t I just give up and go away, so he could pick up the next call and tell them to rack off, too?
He did have one piece of good advice. The way to stop 2degrees ripping you off, everyone, is to add your own spend control limit via the app, allegedly. Not a totally wasted hour of my life, then.
So I took NZ Telecommunications Forum (TCF) chief executive Paul Brislen’s advice and took my issue to the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Service (TDRS), the industry's own dispute scheme.
I filled out a basic online form, uploaded an image. Done.
Within a few days I had a long apology from Freya at 2degrees. My bill for June was paid, and a credit applied. $100 in total.
How often does 2degrees do this? Who knows. They never replied to my email asking them to explain.
Brislen says it is far too hard for consumers to complain to their mobile phone or internet provider.
It takes too long; these are communications companies. Why are they so bad at answering the phone?
A 2021 review by the fairly fresh Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson found the TDRS could be improved.
The TCF, Brislen says, has taken on board all of the feedback, and even gone further than the Telecommunications Commissioner suggested. It has a new customer code of conduct (for example, 2degrees should have been able to tell me to head to the TDRS when I said I wasn't satisfied with its response rather than asking me to hang up), it is spinning out the scheme so it is a standalone entity, with its own chair and board.
It would be great not to need dispute resolution schemes. Consumers shouldn’t have to fight for weeks and hours with their mobile provider, or internet company, for basic fairness.
It is simply not fair, and predatory, to charge someone for three months of a service after buying one.
I am grateful there is a dispute resolution scheme. Take note of those who don't belong.
In late 2022 the Commerce Commission published its 'naughty or nice' list, of telecoms firms in the TDRS, and those on the outside, such as provider Voyager.
The Commission said Contact Energy, InspireNet and Lightwire also didn't belong.
They argue, via the Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand, that TDRS membership doesn't correlate with superior customer service (fair), and they say consumers have plenty of options such as the Consumer Guarantees Act and Disputes Tribunal. A Dispute Tribunal complaint would not have been as fast and easy for me as using the scheme. It would have cost $45 to even lodge a claim, and then the tribunal aims to hear your case within six weeks.
They also don't want to pay for the scheme, and say its costs are "unfairly biased in favour of large providers".
Brislen dismisses those arguments. He says those companies aren't reporting and measuring their complaints, how would we know they have great customer service? And he says, if a telecommunications or internet company can't afford about $6000 to belong, their customers "have bigger problems".
The number of people using the TDRS has risen, with more than 3,000 people using the scheme in 2022. In the second half of 2022, TDRS says it had as many complaints as in the entire previous year.
And if you are forced to use it like I was, the results are pretty good. TDRS says about 3% of the complaints made to it needed more formal dispute resolution assistance such as facilitation or mediation, or for TDR to make a decision on the complaint.
When my phone rang on Sunday, it was after Freya had emailed, and after the credit had been applied to my account.
2degrees also followed up with an email on Monday.
They’re happy to look into my complaint. All I need to do is answer these security questions, and my email will be authenticated...
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