Customer Service Guarantee Overview

In line with ACN’s commitment to provide customer service excellence ACN has an obligation to uphold and enforce the Australian Communications Authority Telecommunications Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) 2000.

The objective of the CSG is to encourage improvements in service and guard against poor service.

The CSG Overview below provides a summary of the key features ad rights to you as a consumer in regard to our delivery of telecommunications services.

A complaint about a breach of the CSG should first be directed to ACN. For more information on the CSG please visit the Australian Communications Authority website www.acma.gov.au

Customer Service Guarantee 2000 (CSG)

In line with ACN Australia’s commitment to provide customer service excellence, ACN has a responsibility to uphold and enforce the Australian Communications Authority Telecommunications Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) 2000. The objective of the CSG is to encourage improvements in service and guard against poor service. The following is a summary of the key features of the CSG and rights to you as a consumer in regard to our delivery of telecommunications services. A complaint about a breach of the CSG should ﬁ rst be directed to ACN. For more information on the CSG please visit the Australian Communications & Media Authority website www.acma.gov.au

Scope of the CSG

The CSG applies to all ﬁ xed telephone companies and covers the Standard Telephone Service (STS) and ﬁ ve speciﬁ ed Enhanced Call Handling Features (ECHF).

These features are:

Call Waiting - enabling a customer to receive a second call on a telephone service while engaged on a call;
Call Forwarding - causing a call directed to a number to be re-directed to a stored number;
Call Barring/Control - enabling a customer to control access to some, or all, network numbers before a call is established (this does not include network barring arrangements);
Calling Number Display - enabling a customer to identify the number of a calling party; and
Calling Number Display Blocking - enabling a customer to prevent the display of his or her number to a called party.

What is covered?

The CSG applies only to customers with no greater than ﬁ ve Standard Telephone Services.

The CSG Standard applies to:

Connections and fault repairs of Standard Telephone Services and the ﬁ ve speciﬁ ed Enhanced Call Handling Features; and
Appointments associated with these activities.For connections, Standard Telephone Services are eligible regardless of what is connected at the end of the service eg. Internet or fax. However, for repairs, only voice telephony faults are covered. This means that non-voice faults such as Internet access or fax faults are not covered by the CSG.

Deﬁnitions of customer service locations

Service location	Community size
Urban	More then 10,000 people
Major rural	Between 2,500 and less then 10,000 people
Minor rural	Between 200 and less then 2,500 people
Remote	Less then 200 people

Appointments

For the purposes of connecting a speciﬁ ed service or rectifying a fault or service difﬁ culty:

a customer of a carriage service provider may make an appointment with the carriage service provider; and
a carriage service provider may make an appointment with a customer of the carriage service provider.

An appointment is considered kept if an ACN representative is present at the service location within the applicable grace period

Appointment Guidelines
Location	Appointment Period	Grace Period
All locations	Less then or equal to 4 hours	15 minutes
Urban and major rural locations	Greater the 4 and less then 5 hours	None
Minor rural and remote locations	Greater then 4 and/or equal to 5 hours	45 minutes

Type of connection

Type of Connection	Connection Time
In Place
All service sites with an in-place connection	Within 2 working days
Close to available cabling or other infrastructure
Urban	Within 5 working days
Major rural	Within 10 working days
Minor rural	Within 15 working days
Remote	Within 15 working days
Not close to accessible infrastructure
Urban	Within 1 month
Major rural	Within 1 month
Minor rural	Within 6 months
Remote	Within 12 months

Faults - Time for Repair

Situation and Location	Time for Repair
No external or internal plant work required, no customer site visit required, or disconnection due to administration error
Urban	End of next working day
Rural	End of next working day
Remote	End of next working day
Any other situation
Urban	End of next working day
Rural	End of 2nd working day
Remote	End of 3rd working day

Faults - Time for Repair

	For the first 5 working days or delay outside the standard (per working day)	After the fi rst 5 working days of delay (per working day)
Delay in connecting or repairing the standard telephone service
Residential or charity customer	$12.00	$40.00
Business customer	$20.00	$40.00
Delay in connecting or repairing an enhanced call handling feature to an existing telephone service
Residential or charity customer	$6.00	$20.00
Business customer	$10.00	$20.00
Delay in connecting or repairing two or more enhanced call handling features to an existing telephone service
Residential or charity customer	$12.00	$40.00
Business customer	$20.00	$40.00
Not keeping an appointment	Per missed appointment
Residential or charity customer	$12.00
Business customer	$20.00

The CSG Standard does not apply in certain circumstances, including the following:

When the customer accepts a reasonable offer and supply of an interim service, while waiting for his or her permanent telephone service to be connected or repaired.
When the customer does not accept the reasonable offer of an interim service.
Where delays are due to circumstances outside ACN’s control such as: damages to the facilities of ACN’s network provider; natural disasters or extreme weather conditions or where delays are caused by ACN’s network provider needing to move staff or equipment to an area affected by circumstances beyond the control of the network provider.
Where the compliance with any law of the Commonwealth, State, Territory or Local Government prevents compliance with the CSG.
Where a missed appointment occurs over a period of connection or repair delay for which a CSG liability already applies.
Where the customer is connected by another carriage service provider to a Standard Telephone Service and requests ACN to supply that service, the CSG Standard does not apply in respect of the connection timeframe.
Where customer has agreed to waive his/her right to CSG eligibility under the CSG Standard.
Where Enhanced Call Handling Features are not available due to existing network limitations.
Where the customer is able to activate the Enhanced Call Handling Features from his/her telephone handset or customer equipment.
Where the customer requests connection of his or her telephone service and ACN has reasonable grounds for believing that the customer would be unable or unwilling to pay the charges for connection or use of the service.
If the customer was disconnected for non-payment of a charge and ACN has not reached agreement for the payment of that charge.
Where it is necessary to withdraw the service(s) in order to maintain or upgrade a facility and ACN’s network provider has given reasonable notice.
If the customer unreasonably does not agree to an appointment offered by ACN or ACN’s network provider.
If the customer fails to keep an appointment with ACN’s network provider without giving at least 24 hours notice.
If the customer unreasonably refuses permission to access to his or her premises.

Note: this document is intended as a guide only. Please contact ACN for more information. For more details on the CSG please see www.acma.gov.au

This page was last updated on 08 February 2005