Small Business Suffering From Poor Telco Service

Are you paying too much for an internet service that is unreliable?

‘A phone line and internet are the main tools a small business needs to function but when Telcos let you down, it can spell disaster.

Anna Willis, founder of Issue.Watch, a consumer watchdog, wants to help owners of small business, who told her that the impact of telecommunications issues are. “Overwhelmingly, that when issues are not dealt with quickly, it costs small businesses money,” she said.

“Then starts the spiral of not knowing what to do next and feeling like you are on the repeat cycle, constantly repeating the issue to the next person you speak to.”

Annette Densham knows too well the impact of not having an internet service that works. With a home-based office, she thought she did the right thing by organising connection at her new address a month in advance.

“Then began the comedy of errors. The telco sent the modem to the wrong address and it took two weeks of calls to get the modem sent to the right address. Then we found out the infrastructure had not been updated for 20 years, and despite living in a new development, we could only get ADSL 1,” she said.

“This made it almost impossible to send large attachments or conduct online video meetings.  Hours and hours were spent on the phone; time away from my business, trying to sort out a better option. I don’t think Telcos really understand the impact not providing an adequate service has on businesses, especially ones like mine that are home-based.”

Annette resolved the issue by using her mobile phone data; it is reliable and fast but not before it cost her 100s of dollars in excess data.

Anna said despite over 20,422 small business complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, in 2017/2018 the problems to small business continue. It took Annette six months to fix her small business internet problem.

“That is six months of frustration, overwhelm and day-to-day stress not being able to do the simplest of tasks. Good telecommunications is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity. Even if you are not running a home-based business or a small business, we rely on good internet for banking, entertainment, communication with family and so many other aspects of life.”

“Small business and consumers impacted by continued disruptions to internet and phone services need a voice to negotiate better services by pushing back and negotiating reduced internet fees where these services are not provided. Issue.Watch the organisation Anna founded, can provide that public voice, and to do that we need consumers to go to the website and tell us about their service problems, so we can found out how big this problem is, and raise the issue with decision makers on behalf of the whole group.

So go to Issue.Watch, a free, and independent site where you can anonymously help us provide a communal voice on issue that matter.

“Issue.Watch collects people’s complaints and aggregates them to add volume and voice to the issue so they are heard as a louder voice.”