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Spark Customer Complaints and Care Policy

Our commitment to you:

Spark values our relationship with you and we want to ensure it's nothing less than the best.

We want to make sure that we provide you with the best possible service experience. If you're not happy with any aspect of the services we provide, we'd like to hear from you so that we can put things right.

We are proud to be a member of the TDR Customer Complaint Scheme and fully support this industry initiative.

Further information is available at www.tdr.org.nz or by calling 0508 98 98 98

You can find out how to provide feedback or make a complaint to us below.

Your rights as a Spark customer

We will:

  • Treat you with respect, in a fair and courteous manner at all times.
  • Work in a collaborative and constructive manner when engaging with you.
  • Be clear in our communications to you.
  • Deliver on our promises.
  • Always comply with the law.
  • Ensure that you have access to your account information and the services we supply to you.
  • Have copies of our terms and conditions available to you that set out the key rights and obligations for you and Spark. View Spark terms
  • Make sure that information provided to you is accurate, up-to-date and in plain English. This includes:
    • Plan pricing information.
    • Any additional relevant fees/charges relating to a service.
    • Any limitations to a service, taking into account the limitations that are likely to be important to you, such as limitations in the event of a power outage.
    • Principal factors that may affect the performance of a service.
  • Provide services to the standard that is advertised and described in our contracts with you.
  • Define the situations covered under Force Majeure clauses and explain how we'll respond in such circumstances.
  • Take all reasonable actions to provide services to you in a timely manner, acknowledging that there may be delays in providing service in certain circumstances. We will, if delays occur, keep you informed.
  • If authorised by you, work with your support person and/or agent, such as a financial mentor, cooperatively and constructively.
  • Provide accurate invoices. In the event that an error occurs, we will use all reasonable efforts to correct the inaccuracies in a timely manner. You may query or dispute your bill with us. During this process, we'll not claim the payment for the disputed part of the bill while we investigate and confirm whether or not an error has occurred. Find out more information on understanding your Spark bill
  • Fix and/or repair network faults in our network at no charge to you, except in instances where you've caused or contributed to the fault. The financial implications of this scenario are set out in our terms.
  • Set out the conditions under which your service can be suspended or disconnected.
  • Set out how we'll communicate a change to our terms and conditions, price of service, service specifications or a discontinuation of a service. Where changes will disadvantage you, we will give you a minimum of 30 days’ notice. If the change is outside our control, then we'll communicate the change as soon as we can. We will act in good faith and be fair when deciding if a change will disadvantage you.
  • Provide information on how we use your information in our privacy policy. View privacy policy

Credit management

There are occasions when we may need to suspend or disconnect your service. These situations are described in our general terms. View general terms

Understanding overdue accounts and what you can do to keep your Spark services connected is important. Find out about the options available to you if your account is overdue

If we need to suspend your services for credit management reasons, we’ll advise you via email or letter of the consequences of that action, and how further actions may be avoided.

Should that suspension lead to the disconnection of your services for non-payment, we’ll send you another notification outlining the consequences should your debt be referred to a collection agency, including loading of a credit default and any collections costs that will apply over and above your Spark account balance.

If things are getting a little tough for you, we may be able to help. Contact us and we can do a health check on your account to see if we can make things easier. If you’re having trouble with making payments to your account or you can foresee things changing, we can support you further with our hardship policy. View hardship policy

How to let us know if you have feedback or a complaint

If for any reason you are not happy with any aspect of the products or services we provide you, we'd be keen to hear from you as soon as possible. Please contact us using one of the following options:

By phone If you have time to talk to us about your concern, you can use the following numbers:

  • Residential customers: 123 or 0800 800 123 (Mon-Fri, 8am-7pm and Sat – Sun, 8am-6pm)
  • Mobile customers: *123 or 0800 800 163 (Mon-Fri, 8am-7pm and Sat – Sun, 8am-6pm)
  • Business customers: 126 (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)

By post If you'd prefer to write to us about your problem just drop us a line to the address below and we'll call you. Please remember to include your full name, postal address, Spark account number and a daytime telephone number in your letter so we can get back in touch:

Customer Resolutions
Spark New Zealand Trading Limited
PO Box 1473, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Online You can also let us know about your concerns on-line by simply completing our online form

All of this information, and more, is also available at www.spark.co.nz/contactus

What happens next?

Once you've told us about your concern we'll investigate it and discuss a resolution with you. If we can’t resolve it straight away, or if the issue is of a very complex nature, we will give you an idea of how long it will take us to investigate the issue. We'll also let you know who will be managing it for you. Our aim is to get your issue fully resolved within 20 working days.

If you have raised a complaint with us and we have been unable to come to an agreement on how to resolve your complaint, or it's taken longer than six weeks to sort it out, you have the opportunity to take your case to the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Scheme.

This is a free and independent service which helps resolve disputes between customers and their telecommunications companies. You can find more information on the scheme by visiting www.tdr.org.nz or by calling them on 0508 989898.

In addition to the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution Scheme, you may also seek independent advice or assistance from:

  • The Disputes Tribunal
  • The Citizens Advice Bureau
  • Your Community Law Centre
  • The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (for privacy issues)

Important reminder

Like you, we don't want any delays in getting your concerns addressed. If the service you are complaining about is charged to you by another telecommunications provider and not Spark, we'll not be able to investigate it. In this situation, you will need to contact that provider directly and they should be able to investigate for you.