Three telecommunication providers have been fined $121,500 by the Commerce Commission for billing customers after the end of their contracts.
This is the third case dealt with by the Commerce Commission on instances where a telecommunications company had overcharged their customers.
Spark had been fined $675,000 for misleading costumers over invoices in March, followed by Vodafone being fined in May for also billing customers after contracts finished.
Nearly 6000 customers were over charged $132,000 from January 2012 to March 2018.
CallPlus Services (Slingshot), Flip Services and Orcon Limited are all subsidiaries of Vocus New Zealand Holdings Limited.
All three companies' terms and conditions state the charges for internet and/or landline services end a month after the customer gives notice, however customers were issued invoices that included charges beyond the one-month period.
Described by Judge Gibbs as 'highly careless", the companies all pleaded guilty to 13 charges under the Fair Trading Act.
The Commerce Commission found the companies had 'misrepresented their rights to payments' as customers only owed the telecommunications companies until one month after the termination of their contracts.
Commerce Commission chair Anna Rawlings says while each company had instructions of staff to adjust contracts manually, the instructions were placed inconsistently.
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