Our call centre handles around 940 calls each day as well as fielding calls for three other EDR schemes:
- Credit Ombudsmen Service Limited
- Financial Co-operative Dispute Resolution Scheme, and
- Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.
Consumers can call 1300 78 08 08 from anywhere in Australia for the cost of a local call*. Our call centre is open between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday AEST.
This pie chart Calls 2008 - 2009 shows that the proportion of calls that were for the Financial Ombudsman Service.
This graph Initial enquiries we received shows the number of initial enquiries we received.
* Calls are charged at local rates from landlines and at the applicable rate if calling from a mobile.
In March 2009 the Banking & Finance group began trialling a system of ‘registering’ a dispute with a member within one working day of our receiving the dispute. We also notify the consumer that the member has been advised of the dispute. This is to promote further contact and encourage a resolution with the financial services provider.
The new process aims to save both time and money for members, while helping to promote better relations with their customers. For consumers, it offers the chance to resolve disputes as early and as quickly as possible using the members’ own internal dispute resolution (IDR) processes.
The registration process is a precursor to the new TOR requirement which requires us to refer consumers to their financial services provider where the consumer has not utilised the provider’s IDR process. We are currently looking at ways in which the process can be improved following the trial.<
There were 3,285 enquiries 'registered' at 30/06/2009.