A dispute between One NZ and an Auckland woman registered under the 111 Contact Code as a vulnerable customer culminated in her household’s services being cancelled, prompting questions about how the telco provider handled the disconnection.
The woman, who asked not to be named, told the Herald the cancellation risked disrupting a cardiac monitoring device used by her father, which transmits health data to clinicians via their home broadband.
One NZ said it upheld its obligations within the 111 Contact Code throughout the dispute and disconnected the household for “continuously harassing” its staff.
For more than two years, the woman’s father has relied on the device to monitor his heart rhythm.
She said their family doctor warned losing connectivity without a safe exit plan could pose a risk if the system failed to transmit data during an emergency.
“The doctor’s letter clearly states the risk that it will have if it’s been turned off ... Just disconnecting completely and then being without services is a bigger risk,” she said.
The dispute began in May 2025 when the woman contacted One NZ to query a monthly broadband price increase from $70 to $96.
What she described as a routine inquiry developed into a wider disagreement over billing, discounts and account credits.
The woman alleged her relationship with the company took a turn after a monthly mobile discount was removed from her account and she was warned about contacting the company too frequently.
She escalated the matter to the Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR) service after receiving a deadlock letter from One NZ in May, confirming her complaints could not be resolved internally.
Later, the company did a retrospective analysis of her account and notified her of plans to cancel her services with a disconnection notice issued in July.
This disconnection notice was dismissed as the TDR process was already underway, and the woman submitted a separate complaint to TDR addressing the removal of the mobile credits.
A final notice was issued on November 10 after TDR ruled One NZ’s move to disconnect her household was within its commercial rights.
On the second complaint, TDR ruled the company should reimburse the disputed bills and advised the woman to contact One NZ, but the company did not continue engaging.
By that stage, the woman had supplied two doctors’ letters to TDR and one to One NZ. These outlined the medical device’s importance and requested time and a “safe exit plan” for moving to another provider.
However, the woman said no plan or advice had been made, despite the disconnection date being locked in for December 11.
“We just wanted people to help us, and genuinely help us, saying, ‘Okay, we’ll give you this much time. You’ve told us you are moving and we want to work with you’,” she said.
“What I asked for is a safe exit plan, which just gives us enough time without a notice deadline period lingering over our head.”
Although the monitoring device never stopped working, the woman said the dispute caused her significant stress and she has sought to resolve the outstanding billing matters without initiating legal action.
“I just want everything to end. I just want it to end peacefully without having to go to the tribunal.”
When the allegations were put to the telco provider, One NZ disputed her account and said the decision to cancel services followed months of difficult interactions with staff.
“[The woman] has continually harassed our staff for discounts and credits,” One NZ’s head of sustainability and corporate affairs Nicky Preston said.
“She has relentlessly treated our team in unreasonable and inappropriate ways over a prolonged period, so we acted to protect our staff from this behaviour.”
Preston said the company notified her services would be cancelled and advised her to move to another provider, which had since occurred.
“The Telecommunications Dispute Resolution service has found no issues with how we handled the process,” Preston said.
She said the company had upheld “all aspects of the 111 Contact Code” after the woman registered as a vulnerable customer.
Introduced by the Commerce Commission, the 111 Contact Code requires telco providers to ensure vulnerable customers can still contact emergency services if their landline or broadband service fails.
“We gave her a free mobile phone so she could call 111 at all times, ensuring her household could reach emergency services if needed,” Preston said.
The woman has since transferred her household’s telco services to 2degrees.
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