Commerce Commission assesses Spark 'inertia selling' complaint

Thursday, 13 June 2019

The competition watchdog says it is assessing a complaint against Spark, which was accused off 'inertia selling' wireless home phone services by network company Chorus on Wednesday.

Spark has been contacting customers who buy a home phone service from the company, encouraging them to let Spark move it off Chorus' copper phone network and on to Spark's wireless network.

Unless customers 'opt out' of the technology change, they are being sent wireless home phone kits which they are asked to install or return to Spark, at Spark's expense.

A Commerce Commission spokeswoman said it had received one complaint regarding Spark's initiative.

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'We are assessing this complaint as per our normal screening and prioritisation process. As the commission has not investigated this issue, we cannot comment on it specifically.'

The spokeswoman said that in conjunction with its assessment it would be looking at information in a Stuff report on the controversy on Wednesday.

People who only use home phones and not broadband are more likely to be elderly, and comments from some Stuff readers suggested people believed elderly relatives had felt bounced into switching away from their copper landlines.

Chorus says it has no plans to start turning off its copper network anywhere in the country for at least several years.

But one customer said they had been told by Spark that it had been 'on the news' that closures would begin by 2020.

Chorus spokesman Steve Pettigrew said it was not the source of the complaint to the commission.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says that it is a breach of the Fair Trading Act for companies to send 'unsolicited products or services – when you receive products or services you didn't ask for or order'.

'The only exceptions are electricity and piped gas,' its website says.

But Spark spokeswoman Lucy Fullarton said Spark believed the wireless equipment Spark was sending to customers did not constitute 'unsolicited goods'.

That was because Spark already provided a landline service to those customers and was only modifying how it delivered that service to customers 'so that it is delivered over Spark's 4G network rather than the copper network'.

Chorus says it won't start switching off its copper network anywhere for at least 'several years'.

Unless customers installed the equipment they would stay on their existing home phone plans which were generally more expensive, she said.

Its wireless service had been generally well-received, she added.

'Customers are not required to purchase this kit from us – we provide the kit to them so that they can continue to receive their existing landline service from Spark,' she said on Wednesday.

Spark's letters said if customers didn't need the wireless home phone and associated equipment it was sending them, they should contact Spark and it would arrange a courier for its return, Fullarton said.

Spark has yet to confirm what its view would be if instead of returning the wireless kits customers just disposed of them.