CONNECTED FARMS’ PAYMENT ASSISTANCE POLICY 

The Connected Farms Payment Assistance Policy provides information to customers who are facing financial hardship. Financial hardship means being unable to discharge your financial obligations to Connected Farms due to personal or household illness; unemployment; low or insufficient income (including reduced access to income); being a victim survivor of domestic or family violence; death in the family; change in personal or family circumstances; natural disaster; unexpected events or unforeseen changes such as crop failure, flooding or drought that have impacted the customer’s income or expenditure; or other reasonable causes. 

You have a right to make an application for assistance. To do this, you can email us at customersupport@connectedfarms.co 

or call us on 1800 497 148.  

Depending on your circumstances we will consider several options for assistance. These may include temporarily postponing, extending or deferring the time for paying a bill; discounting a bill charge; applying a credit to your account; waiving a debt; introducing spend controls, or payment plans tailored to your ability to pay; or transferring you to a product more appropriate to your circumstances. 

Customers can contact financial counselling services through the National Debt Helpline at 1800 007 007, Mon-Fri 9.30-4.30pm.   

If you are dissatisfied with our decision on your application, you can contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman at www.tio.com.au. 

 

CONNECTED FARMS’ PAYMENT ASSISTANCE POLICY  

If you are a Connected Farms customer and you believe you are facing financial hardship you have the right under the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 to apply for assistance. Connected Farms is committed to helping our customers who may be in a financial hardship situation to stay connected. Our help will be free of charge and will depend on your individual circumstances. This will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. This means we use service disconnection only as a measure of last resort and we will work with you to ensure this does not occur. 

 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA 

As our customer, you are eligible for financial hardship assistance from Connected Farms if you are unable to discharge your financial obligations as a result of personal or household illness; unemployment; low or insufficient income (including reduced access to income); being a victim survivor of domestic or family violence; death in the family; change in personal or family circumstances; natural disaster; unexpected events or unforeseen changes such as crop failure, flooding or drought that have impacted your income or expenditure; or other reasonable causes. 
 

GETTING STARTED  

To make an application for assistance, you can either: 

• Email us anytime at customersupport@connectedfarms.co with a description of your financial hardship, your service type and the assistance you are requesting. 
• Speak to us directly by phoning 1800 497148. Mon-Fri 8am-8pm.  

We may require proof of financial hardship from a customer if it appears that the arrangement will need to be for long term assistance (more than 3 billing cycles) and the amount to be repaid is more than $1,000; the customer has been a Connected Farms customer for less than 2 months; or we reasonably believe there is a possibility of fraud. Customers seeking short term assistance (3 or fewer billing cycles) or who are victims of domestic or family violence are not required to provide evidence to support their application. We encourage these customers to contact us early so that we can expedite assistance. Any Connected Farms customer who is the victim of domestic violence, or people with disabilities or diversity will not be disconnected from their service.  

Information you provide us during this process will be treated as strictly confidential and stored securely. We may not be able to assess your eligibility if you do not provide the requested information.  

 

HOW WE HANDLE YOUR APPLICATION 

We will consider several options for assistance depending on your circumstances, including temporarily postponing, extending or deferring a bill payment time; discounting a bill charge; applying a credit to your account; waiving a debt; introducing spend controls or payment plans tailored to your ability to pay; or transferring you to a more appropriate product for your circumstances. 

We will complete our assessment of your application within 5 business days of receiving your application. We will then communicate the outcome of our assessment within 2 business days after completion. You will be advised immediately if you don’t meet the eligibility criteria. Any information you provide us is treated as strictly confidential.  

You can call or email us to check on the status of your application.  

GOT A COMPLAINT 

If you disagree with the outcome of your application, you can lodge a complaint with us at customersupport@connectedfarms.co. You may also contact the TIO on www.tio.com.au. Please note that by making complaint you are not excluded from agreeing to an arrangement for financial hardship assistance. 

FINANCIAL COUNSELLOR ASSISTANCE 

You may also like to seek free and independent advice from a financial counselling service in your community. You can talk to a Financial Counsellor by calling the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 between 9.30am – 4.30pm Monday to Friday.