Slammed Telecom Account

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#632239 29-May-2012 20:57

Cookie67: Nope, apparently it is not legal. Telecom have told me that the wholesaler (Chorus) will not release the details of who has taken the account due to the privacy laws. I'm no legal expert but surely it is my privacy that has been breached here and as such, should be entitled to know who has done the breaching??

It's not legal, but as you found out you can't get any information about the company taking over your services either because of "privacy" - even though it's your own account...

I really want to see someone taking the companies doing this to the courts one day.

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MikeB4

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#632240 29-May-2012 20:59

You entitled to the information under principle 6 of the Privacy act 1993

Cookie67

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#632247 29-May-2012 21:13

KiwiNZ: You entitled to the information under principle 6 of the Privacy act 1993

Thanks KiwiNZ i will most certainly be quoting that at them tomorrow!!

nitrotech

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#632248 29-May-2012 21:14

I've had this happen before, we couldn't make toll calls for about a week - rang telecom at the time who said our tolls had been changed to another provider. As above they wouldn't/couldn't tell me who had taken it but they did manage to sort it out in the end - took a few days from memory and never did find out what happened.

kiwiharry

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#632253 29-May-2012 21:25

Wonder if there is any benefit in calling Chorus directly to get the new provider information.

If you can't laugh at yourself then you probably shouldn't laugh at others.

jcb21

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#632254 29-May-2012 21:28

The people you're speaking with at telecom couldn't tell you who you're being slammed by even if they wanted to, they don't have access to that information it's only chorus who can see that sort of thing.

Cookie67

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#632257 29-May-2012 21:34

I have been speaking with a woman from Telecom based in Wellington. She is going to call me again tomorrow it to let me know if she has been able to get any information out of Chorus. She is unable to stop the slamming that is booked in tomorrow from happening so I find it unlikely she will have much luck there. I have emails ready to send to the Commerce Commission, Fair Go, the Privacy Commissioner and if all else fails, then will call the Police as a fraud has been committed and surely the privacy act breached. Ha so much for an early night!

cisconz

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#632284 29-May-2012 22:14

Have a quick read through this, Chorus will probably quote Principle 11 as their reason for not giving out the information. What complicates it further is who's name the new connection is in, if it is not in your name then you have little to fall back on. Hiowever if you own your house then you can cancel any service terminating to your address, if not then it is up to your landlord if it goes that far.

I would request an account number change at Telecom to prevent it happening again.

Hmmmm

mattwnz

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#632286 29-May-2012 22:21

Cookie67: I have been speaking with a woman from Telecom based in Wellington. She is going to call me again tomorrow it to let me know if she has been able to get any information out of Chorus. She is unable to stop the slamming that is booked in tomorrow from happening so I find it unlikely she will have much luck there. I have emails ready to send to the Commerce Commission, Fair Go, the Privacy Commissioner and if all else fails, then will call the Police as a fraud has been committed and surely the privacy act breached. Ha so much for an early night!

Would make a good fair go story, but I think target would be better, as it is a far better program.

tdgeek

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#632288 29-May-2012 22:23

jcb21: The people you're speaking with at telecom couldn't tell you who you're being slammed by even if they wanted to, they don't have access to that information it's only chorus who can see that sort of thing.

Correct. The winning provider has full visibility of the new connection, as to them it is a connection for one of their customers. BAU. The losing provider has no visibility and won't know anything until the network provider, Chorus disconnects the line. Because of the need for confidentiality of changes of provider, you can imagine that you cannot just call in and say stop this. A pity, but understandable. But agree with MF, their needs to be a serious outcome for this behaviour. No doubt the "reason" will be a case of a "mistake" rather than a black and white fraud. But you would imagine that a set of rules can be put in place to ensure that the customer authorises the change. Then it can be black and white

plambrechtsen

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#632293 29-May-2012 22:37

Could you email me at pl at telecom dot co dot nz with all your detailed information including your account number and the affected phone number a daytime contact number such as a mobile so we can speak with you.

I would personally recommend you go to the police station and make a formal report there too. As that way you have made a legal declaration in front of a sworn officer that this was not an authorized action. Again this is my own personal recommendation not official telecom line.

21brandon21

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#632299 29-May-2012 22:42

Ask for compensation. Get some money for illegally changing providers without your consent. Seek advice from a Lawyer.

insane

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#632302 29-May-2012 22:43

Back when I was on a helpdesk I had little problem getting the details out of the chorus provisioning team.

I would just call them and start listing off the major providers and they'd tell me to stop guessing when I picked the right one. Guess they thought they weren't actually telling me directly.

Oh, and I did it many times as it happened fairly often.. was nearly always the door to door sales people.

mattwnz

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#632316 29-May-2012 22:58

It could just be an administration error too I guess, as human do make errors.

Talkiet

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#632319 29-May-2012 23:05

There _IS_ an official process for any retail ISP to follow to sort out this situation. It probably won't help you tonight, but if you get someone on the helpdesk saying they can't help, ask for their supervisor. There IS an official, documented process for this. Note that I don't know if this process includes telling the end user exactly what happened - all I know for sure is that it involves sorting out the mistake.

This process is not just available to Telecom Retail, it's available to all retail ISPs.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

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