The Systemic Insight “Sales Practices Driving Consumer Debt”, shares the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman’s recommendations on how providers could improve their selling practices to reduce consumer financial over-commitment and debt.
The report makes practical recommendations in four areas that providers can adopt in selling post-paid plans and devices:
- Assessing a customer’s actual capacity to pay
- Training sales staff to recognise vulnerability
- Increasing safeguards for additional or multiple post-paid plans
- Restricting how plans are sold to customers’ authorised representatives.
The publication acknowledges that some of the recommendations in this report will be supported by the upcoming revision of the TCP code, and that some providers are already taking positive steps to address the concerns raised in the paper.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman encourages providers to improve practices in this area.
By raising awareness of issues and recommending changes, the Ombudsman is working with providers to improve the delivery of telecommunications services and achieve better outcomes for consumers and the telecommunications industry.
Read the report – PDF
Read the report – Doc