The owner of a small business contacted TDR about the service issues they experienced when trying to install broadband at their premises.
After two months of unsuccessfully attempting to connect to broadband with the provider, in frustration, the owner moved to a new provider. The owner said they had spent countless hours with their original provider trying to fix the issue. They felt their time had been wasted with poor communication and repeated requests for the same information.
The provider said the connection issues arose from the unique installation set-up and it was outside the scope of its responsibility to fix this.
When the owner transferred to their new provider, they moved both their broadband and phone contracts. Their phone contract with the original provider required them to pay for mobile phone handsets. The owner had not made the required repayments and the debt had been sent to a third-party debt collection agency.
TDR arranged a mediation where the practitioner facilitated a conversation and talked with both parties about TDR’s jurisdiction, the installation, the service provided, and the phone costs.
The owner and provider reached an agreement together. The owner accepted that they needed to pay for the cost of the phones and together with the provider, they agreed to a repayment plan for the phones. The provider agreed to waive the debt collection costs and unpaid broadband charges.