Case notes involving disadvantage and vulnerability.

The complaint:

The TIO was approached by a legal aid representative on behalf of Jean*, a middle-aged Indigenous woman with an intellectual disability. After asking the legal aid representative to arrange for Jean to complete a third party authority form (which confirms a third party’s authority to act on a complainant’s behalf), the TIO dealt with the representative, rather than Jean directly. Jean was disputing a series of high bills for reverse charge phone calls which she claimed had been accepted by her nephews and other young family visitors to her house. She claimed that without her knowledge, these young people would arrange for friends to call them at her house when they visited her, and to reverse the charges.

TIO response:

Such a situation may be indicative of the sorts of challenges sometimes faced by older more vulnerable females in a household of younger people whose behaviour cannot be controlled. The TIO raised the billing complaint with the provider.

The outcome:

The provider agreed to waive the charges in this instance, as it had on previous bills for the same reason. However, it claimed that its system did not allow it to block these reverse charge calls on a permanent basis, and said it would not waive the charges again if the situation recurred. Jean was advised of the resolution, which she accepted.

* The name of the complainant has been changed in the interests of their privacy