From midday Telstra’s chief executive and senior executives will be questioned at a Senate committee about the recent disruptive outage that put lives in danger when intermittent faults meant customers could not contact emergency services.
One of the key questions will be about potential compensation.
Already Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan flagged Telstra would match compensation given to stranded regional rail passengers:
“Telstra should compensate Victorians and help make sure it never happens again.
“To start with, V/Line will reimburse regional rail passengers who incurred extra costs.
“I expect Telstra to match it, dollar for dollar.”
But the biggest impact is with individual business.
This great article from colleagues Lin Lin and Ahmed Yussuf lays out some of the issues.
Under Australian Consumer Law, services that cost less than $100,000 are generally covered by consumer guarantees, including a requirement that they be provided with due care and skill.
The protections can apply to individuals and small businesses and cannot be excluded by contract.
Compensation is not guaranteed, but affected customers can still make a claim, and Telstra has published online complaint forms for residential and small business customers.
Businesses claiming direct financial losses must explain the impact, estimate the amount sought and provide evidence such as booking records, invoices, EFTPOS reports, accounting records or comparable sales.
Last week, chief financial officer Michael Ackland said complaints would be handled on a “case-by-case basis”.
He’s on the list for questioning from midday today.
Let’s see how that line holds up.
