Telecommunications (Consumer Complaints Handling) Industry Standard 2018
Part 6Reasonable assistance
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Part 6—Reasonable assistance
23 Carriage service providers must provide reasonable assistance
Where:
a carriage service provider (the first carriage service provider) supplies a carriage service; and that carriage service is involved (directly or indirectly) in the supply of another carriage service (the retail carriage service) by another carriage service provider (a retail carriage service provider) to consumers;
the first carriage service provider must provide reasonable assistance to:
the retail carriage service provider; and any other carriage service provider who supplies a carriage service that is involved (directly or indirectly) in the supply of the retail carriage service;
in managing and resolving any complaints received by the retail carriage service provider in relation to the retail carriage service.
24 Carriers must provide reasonable assistance
Where:
a carrier is responsible for a network unit; and that network unit is used by a retail carriage service provider to supply a retail carriage service, or to supply a carriage service that is involved (directly or indirectly) in the supply of a retail carriage service;
the carrier must provide reasonable assistance to:
the retail carriage service provider; and any carriage service provider who supplies a carriage service that is involved (directly or indirectly) in the supply of the retail carriage service;
in managing and resolving any complaints received by the retail carriage service provider in relation to the retail carriage service.
25 Requests for reasonable assistance
A retail carriage service provider must:
promptly upon receiving a complaint and before making a request for reasonable assistance under this Part:
assess the cause of the issues that are the subject of the complaint, including, if appropriate, by contacting the complainant to determine if any third party equipment at their premises is causing those issues; and determine if a first carriage service provider mentioned in section 23 or a carrier mentioned in section 24 is required to provide reasonable assistance under this Part to manage or resolve the complaint; and
ensure that any request for reasonable assistance it makes under this Part:
is made promptly after making a determination under subparagraph (a)(ii); includes an explanation of the key issues that are the subject of the complaint and, where possible, its assessment of the cause of those issues and how they can be fixed; if requested by the first carriage service provider or carrier – describes the steps that it took under subparagraph (a)(ii) to determine that the first carriage service provider or the carrier is required to provide reasonable assistance to manage and resolve the complaint; identifies each of the relevant timeframes that it is required to meet under this instrument in relation to the complaint; if appropriate, set out any proposals about how the first carriage service provider or the carrier might provide reasonable assistance to manage and resolve the complaint within the timeframes identified under subparagraph (iv).