Customer Service Guarantee
The Customer Service Guarantee Standard (CSG Standard) protects you from poor service. It tells telcos how fast they must connect or fix your landline. It also sets the compensation they have to pay if they miss those timelines.
On this page
- What the CSG standard covers
- Timelines
- Exemptions from the CSG standard
- Compensation payments to you
- Giving up your rights
Note: complain if we don't meet:
- The timelines in the CSG standard
What the CSG covers
The CSG covers phone and internet services as well as appointments at your location including:
- Connecting a service or features such as call waiting and calling number display
- Repairing a fault or service problem
A 'fault' is when:
- Can’t make or receive calls
- Are repeatedly cut off
- Have severe interference that affects the service
- Are unable to use the service or features such as call waiting because of another issue
The standard does not cover:
- Mobile phone services
- Transfer of service to another phone company
- Your equipment, such as the telephone handset/modem
- Services not on our network
- Linked services, such as other equipment and services (PCs/Servers/Plant Equipment) that uses our service to operate.
Timelines
In most cases, the timelines depend on the size and location of your community, but also the information provided by you so we can effectively complete the task.
Connecting a brand new service
| Size of community | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Urban (10,000+ people) | Within 5 working days |
| Major rural (2501 to 9999 people) | Within 10 working days |
| Minor rural (201 to 2500 people) | Within 15 working days |
| Remote (up to 200 people) | Within 15 working days |
- The timeline for all communities is within 20 working days of the request if:
- The community is not close to infrastructure
- The network has no spare capacity
Repairing faults or problems
| Size of community | Operational Period | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Urban (10,000+ people) | 8am-5pm, business days | End of next working day |
| Major rural (201 to 9999 people) | 8am-5pm, business days | End of second working day |
| Remote (up to 200 people) | 8am-5pm, business days | End of third working day |
Connecting to an existing service
Where a phone service already exists, and we are transferring the service away from an existing service provider we will connect your new services within 12 weeks. This is for all communities.
In transferring of services we are often at the mercy of the losing provider and their timelines for accepting your request to migrate, and we have often seen migrations take up to 12 months to complete. We understand, however, that you are choosing us for a reason and we will commit to you that even at cost to our business we will connect our services within 12 weeks.
Attending appointments
When Emutel makes an appointment to connect or fix a service, we must:
- Give you an appointment window of no more than 5 hours
- Keep the appointment unless we give you reasonable notice that they need to change it. Refer to the Community section in the above table for your appointment window. Appointment is missed if Emutel does not attend.
| Community | Window for appointment | Appointment is missed if the telco does not attend |
|---|---|---|
| All locations | 4 hours or less | Within 15 minutes of the appointment period* |
- If the telco must travel a long way in an area of up to 2500 people, they have an extra 45 minutes.
Interim or alternative phone service
Emutel may offer you another service while we are fixing a fault. This could be:
- An interim service such as a mobile phone service at standard landline rates
- An alternative service such as call diversion to a mobile or a second phone service
The CSG Standard does not apply to these services. You can accept or refuse the service as long as Emutel gives you enough information to decide.
Exemptions from the CSG standard
In a few situations, we cannot be held accountable to our CSG Standard. We hold ourselves to a very high standard day-to-day, but there are times where this just isn’t possible.
If there is a mass service disruption
The CSG does not apply if a network outage or disruption is the result of:
- a natural disaster or extreme weather
- planned maintenance or upgrade work that they told you about
- damage to their facility or network by a third party
In the case of a mass service disruption, the telco must follow the rules in the Standard. Within 10 days of the start of the disruption they must:
- Write to everyone who is affected or publish a notice on our status page
Compensation payments to you
If a telco misses a timeline in the CSG Standard, they must pay compensation. You don’t need to ask. It is automatic.
If the network providers do not meet their obligations
The CSG does not apply if the network providers cannot deliver the service within the expected timeframe, and have clearly communicated this fact. There are times there is a network shortfall or delay in technician availability. Our commitment to you is to ensure that we will clearly communicate any delays or appointment information.
Contact us in the first instance if you have problems with an outage. You can raise the issue with the ombudsman if we do not resolve it.
Business customers
Emutel must pay $20.00 for each appointment where a representative of Emutel is missed. We cannot be held accountable for missed appointments of NBN technicians or network provider appointments missed.
| Services delayed | Compensation per working day, 1 to 5 days | Compensation per working day, 6+ days |
|---|---|---|
| Connect or fix a standard telephone service | $20.00 | $30.00 |
| Connect or fix extra features to an existing service | $10.00 | $15.00 |
We must also pay $20.00 for each appointment, where a representative of Emu Tel is missed. We cannot be held accountable for missed appointments of NBN technicians or network provider appointments missed.
- The Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced on 1 July 2000 does not apply to CSG payments.