Financial Hardship
Pivotel is committed to assisting customers facing Financial Hardship to maintain access to telecommunications services. This policy is intended to help those in a situation of Financial Hardship who are willing to pay their bill, but unable to do so within the prescribed time.
We offer our Selfcare secure online facility at www.pivotel.com.au/selfcare that enables you to monitor your billed and unbilled usage at any time. You should use this facility to ensure that your ongoing use of our services remains consistent with your ability to pay for them.
However, we recognise that sometimes unexpected events in your life may affect your ability to pay us for the Pivotel services you have used. Pivotel has established a Financial Hardship policy to cover these unforeseen circumstances or unexpected situations that may impact our customers’ current financial commitments.
Unforeseen or unexpected circumstances may include loss of employment, relationship breakdown, injury, illness or hospitalisation, loss of a family member, natural disaster or any other reasonable cause.
Pivotel provides a range of payment and service options so you can stay connected now and in the future.
These include:
- Spend controls
- Restriction of service
- Transferring to a pre-paid service or a lower cost service where available
- Payment arrangements
- Waiving late payment fees
- Waiving cancellation fees
You can contact us on 1300 882 448 during office hours (7:00am to 7:00pm AEST Monday to Friday) to discuss our Financial Hardship policy or your individual situation. Please ask to discuss your payment options.
A trained staff member will work with you to understand your situation, and to develop an appropriate payment solution that will help you manage the payment of an outstanding amount you may have, or a Pivotel bill that you are expecting in the near future. We will also assess the level of your telecommunications usage to ensure that you are aware of your service options, and are able to control the amount of your future bills.
We assess each customer’s application for Financial Hardship assistance based on their own individual financial circumstances. To make a Financial Hardship assessment for you, we may need to ask you some questions about your situation, such as your current financial circumstances, income details, whether this situation is temporary or not, and the types of Pivotel telecommunications services you need to use.
When the terms of a Financial Hardship assistance arrangement are agreed, we will confirm these details to you in writing and also outline your rights, obligations, and the consequences of failing to adhere to the Financial Hardship assistance arrangement. The Financial Hardship assistance arrangement cannot commence until you have formally accepted the terms of the Financial Hardship assistance arrangement.
If you need more assistance, you can call the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 to get free and independent advice from a financial counsellor over the phone. They are available between 9.30am-4.30pm from Monday to Friday. You can also find a financial counsellor in your local area online.
If you are not happy with the outcome of your application for financial hardship assistance, you can provide feedback by lodging a complaint with us.
To view our Complaint Handling Policy or make a complaint click https://www.pivotel.com.au/knowledge-base/resources/consumer-complaint-handling-policy.html.