Financial Hardship Policy
This policy explains how we help customers who are in financial hardship and cannot pay a telecommunications bill we have issued. It is written for the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard. It applies to eligible direct customers. If you buy through a reseller, ask the reseller first. We will still consider a hardship request that relates to a bill we issued.
Contents
1. What financial hardship means
You are in financial hardship if you want to pay your VoxaLink bill but you cannot reasonably do so because of a change in your situation. That can include illness, unemployment, reduced work, family breakdown, domestic or family violence, a natural disaster, or another reasonable cause.
This policy is for amounts you owe us for services we supply. It is not a general lending product and it does not write off usage you continue to generate unless we agree a specific arrangement.
2. How to apply
Email hardship@voxalink.cloud from an authorised account contact. Tell us who you are, which account and services are affected, why you cannot pay, what you can pay, and what help you want (for example more time, a payment plan, or a temporary restriction of spend).
You can also ask support@voxalink.cloud to put you through to hardship. You may use an advocate. We will not charge you to apply.
If the hardship is connected to domestic or family violence, say so if you are comfortable. We will handle that request with extra care, limit who can see it, and will not require you to deal with a person you have told us not to deal with.
3. What we will do
We will acknowledge the request promptly and assess it in good faith. We may ask for reasonable evidence (for example a letter from a financial counsellor, a medical certificate, or a statement of your position). We will not ask for more evidence than we need.
Help we may offer includes extra time to pay, a payment plan, postponing a collection step, reducing spend by restricting outbound usage or premium destinations, or another arrangement that is fair in the circumstances. We will tell you the outcome in writing.
We will not disconnect a service for non-payment while we are assessing a complete hardship request, except where fraud, legal obligation or network harm requires it, or the service is not the service the hardship request is about.
4. Your part
You must keep talking to us, stick to an arrangement once you have agreed it, and tell us if your situation changes. An arrangement does not let you keep generating unlimited new usage without paying. We may set a spend cap as a condition of keeping the service connected.
If you do not meet an agreed arrangement and you do not contact us, we may resume ordinary credit management, including suspension after notice.
5. Complaints about hardship
If you are not satisfied with how we handled a hardship request, use the Complaints Handling Policy. A hardship-related complaint may be urgent. Eligible customers may also contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman at tio.com.au or 1800 062 058.