Telcos in double dip

MY LATEST landline phone bill on a plan has an additional charge of $ 5.20 for calling 1300 numbers. If everyone is paying extra for 1300 numbers – that must add up to a lot of money.

1300 numbers are supposed to be the Australian business reversed charge network. This means the business with the 1300 number pays for the cost of the customer’s call. A customer can make a call to a 1300 number from any landline in Australia for the price of a local call. Sounds OK so far, right?

Wrong! Most of us are on a plan and it appears the telcos are double dipping.

Telstra ( and other telcos) itemises every 1300 call and charges me separately for them above and beyond my plan which includes every other call I make in Australia.

As a business, when your customer calls your 1300 number, you pay for it, and then your customer will pay for it again as an item charged on top of their plan – mobile as well as landline.

Surely this is double- dipping? After all, when you call a 1300 number:

First the business pays a purchase/ set- up fee and ongoing charges for the 1300 number;

The business is billed ( itemised) for receiving calls on the 1300 number – the business pays the reversed charge cost for the customer to make the call;

The customer pays for all included landline and local calls as part of a plan;

The customer pays a local call cost for outgoing 1300 calls itemised on top of their plan.

This is the only additional charge on my bundle/ plan, and it is extra annoying as all other calls are included, so I pay twice, and the organisation I phoned also pays for the call.

If I called them on any normal landline or mobile number, I would not be charged.

How is this still happening? The telcos were made to fix the unethical double- dipping on 1800 numbers – but somehow this unethical practice remains on 1300 numbers.

What were you charged for your 1300 calls? RHONDA SORENSEN MBA, Queensland.