We use a recognized definition of financial hardship. The ACIF Credit Management Code defines financial hardship as: “a situation where a Customer is unable, reasonably, because of illness, unemployment or other reasonable cause, to discharge their financial obligations under their contract with the Supplier and the Customer reasonably expects to be able to discharge those obligations if payment and/or Service arrangements were changed. Financial hardship can be of limited or long term duration.”
Customer hardship can arise from a variety of situations. Hardship can be either of limited duration or long term. To illustrate, several of the common causes are listed below. Hardship can result from a number of factors including:
We consider financial hardship a state that involves an ongoing real inability of the customer to pay bills, rather than an unwillingness to do so. In order for Us to apply this policy you must satisfy Us that you are experiencing financial hardship in the meaning of the above definition. The decision of whether you are experiencing financial hardship for the purpose of this policy will be made by Us, in Our sole discretion.
We encourage you to provide us with third party evidence, such as a report from a financial counsellor, or a bank, or Centrelink, to confirm the details of your financial hardship.
You may ask us to deal with a Financial Counsellor on Your behalf.
In order for Us to speak to a Financial Counsellor, the customer must be present, or we must have received prior authority from the customer via Appointment of Authorised Representative to speak with the Counsellor on their behalf.
If the amounts in question are disputed, you will need to resolve the issue through the complaints policy listed here: Compliance
Customers who have chosen to transfer all of their services to another provider but still have an outstanding balance with Us are ineligible for participation in Our Financial Hardship Program.
1. Your account details
2. Details of which Simple Telecom invoices your experiencing hardship with
3. What is the cause of the difficulty
4. Evidence supporting the reasons you have stated which makes you unable to meet your financial obligations.
5. Details of professional assistance your receiving to help manage your situation.
Once all the required paperwork (mentioned above) is received by Us from you, allow Us 7 business days to come to a decision regarding your claim for hardship. You will be notified by Us by email of the decision regardless of the outcome.
A decision cannot be made by Us regarding your hardship claim without all requested documentation.
If the decision agrees with you, that you are experiencing Financial Hardship, We may at our discretion agree to a temporary financial arrangement which is different to the terms which ordinarily apply to You.
The basic principle of any agreed financial arrangement for Financial Hardship is that the repayment made by You should be sufficient to cover expected future use of the service (as adjusted to ensure the customer’s financial position does not worsen over a reasonable period of time) as well as providing continued reduction of debt at a reasonable level (i.e. the customer should not be going into further debt under the arrangement).
You can contact the Financial Hardship team between 9am and 5pm to discuss any aspect of your hardship:
Phone: 1300 858 751
Phone: +617 3123 6322
Fax: 1300 858 752
Email: info@simpletelecom.com.au
Mail: PO Box 10, Coolum Beach QLD 4573
We recommend anyone applying for financial hardship to get professional assistance. We recommend:
QLD | Financial Counselling Services of QLD | (07) 3257 1957 |
NSW | Credit and Debt Hotline | 1800 808 488 |
ACT | Care Financial Counselling | (02) 6257 1788 |
VIC | Consumer Credit Legal Service | (03) 9602 3800 |
TAS | Anglicare Financial Counselling | 1800 243 232 |
SA | Uniting Communities Financial Counselling | (08) 8202 5180 |
WA | Financial Counsellors Resource Project | (08) 9221 9411 |
NT | Anglicare Financial Counselling | (08) 8985 0000 |
Simple Telecom's business ethos is to take away all the complicated telco stuff so you can focus on running your business.
We have a very talented team who have extensive experience in the telco world - and they would love to talk to you so you can experience simple.
If you have questions please call us on 1300 858 751 and we will give you simple answers to even the most difficult questions.
Simple Telecom operates from:
2/1788 David Low Way,
Coolum Beach, QLD 4575
You can contact Simple Telecom on:
Phone: 1300 858 751
Direct Phone: +617 3123 6322
Fax: 1300 858 752
Email: info _@_ simpletelecom.com.au