Authorised Representative Policy
About this policy
This is our Authorised Representative Policy (policy). It is prepared for the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code (C624:2019) (the TCP Code) and considers the Industry Guidance Note (IGN017) Authorised Representatives and Advocates.
In this policy the words ‘we’, ‘our’, ‘us’ and ‘Swoop’ are all references to Swoop Telecommunications Pty Ltd ABN 87 109 931 731 and its related bodies corporate.
This policy is accessible on our website and is made available without charge to individuals and businesses that are our current or former accountholders or potential customers (together, customers, you and your). Following your request or enquiry, we will provide this policy to you as soon as practicable.
Who can you appoint to be an authorised representative?
The TCP Code defines an authorised representative as ‘the person who has authority from a consumer to deal with a supplier, including to discuss or make changes to a customer’s account without that customer being present, on behalf of that consumer.’
An authorised representative is often a person who has power of attorney, guardianship, trusteeship, legal representative, executor of estate, or similar circumstances on behalf of a customer, a long-term carer, financial counsellor, family member, close friend, co-occupant or trusted neighbour who may help the accountholder or act on their behalf when they are unavailable or unable to act on their own behalf. This may include when you are travelling overseas or when you are otherwise not available.
An authorised representative can act on the account holders behalf when the account holder is not present. This differs from an advocate, who can make enquiries on the account holders behalf, but not make changes. For more information about advocates, please click here to view our Consumer Advocate Policy.
Authorised representatives appointment
You are entitled to appoint an authorised representative to act on your behalf when dealing with matters relating to your account at any time. You can appoint, revoke and extend appointments of authorised representatives and/or revoke or enable your authorised representatives access rights by phone to our customer support line at 1300 66 55 75 (during our operating hours: 8am-9pm Mon-fri, 9am-6pm Sat, 12pm-6pm Sun) or via our customer portal. You can also make an enquiry or reverse an action made by an authorised representative using the above avenues.
We will need to verify your identity when you are appointing a new authorised representative to your account. When you request to appoint an authorised representative, on our request, you must provide a authorisation letter signed by you or an appropriate form that evidences the authority and identity of the authorised representative. Such forms can include:
- certified copy of the power of attorney
- a guardianship order
- forms from legal aid and financial counsellors, or
- other reasonable authorisation forms as long as they contain relevant information that we reasonably require.
Together, the ‘documentation’.
The documentation must set out the name, address, email address, mobile number, registration or licence number (if the authorised representative is a professional) and other authorised representative relevant contact details and the duration of the appointment. We may notify you at any time during this process that we require a statutory declaration to establish your authorised representatives identity, as well as to record your intent to appoint the authorised representative. Statutory declarations must be witnessed by an eligible witness for the purposes of the Statutory Declarations Regulations 2018 (Cth).
If we notify you that we have approved the authorised representative appointment, your authorised representative will have the authority to act on your behalf as though they were you as the accountholder, unless you have specified restrictions to their access in the appointment that you have provided to us in writing. We will notify you and the authorised representative about the level of access the authorised representative has on the account and the options you have for setting the level of access.
Access rights
Authorised representatives are able to have various levels of access such as:
- receiving communications and notifications from us
- make billing enquiries and payments
- change product and service plans
- update service and account details including contact numbers and email addresses
- apply for new/additional products and services
- reset account details or email passwords, and
- log a fault with the service,
Together, ‘access rights’.
During your authorised representative appointment, we will require you to nominate a primary contact and an exclusive point of contact and the communications type that will go to the primary contact and which are to go to an exclusive point of contact. Types of communications include: bills, automatic use notification, account alerts, sales calls and other communications.
If you wish to specify other access rights that your authorised representative have, you can make this request in writing to us, or set certain permissions via our customer portal. If you want to appoint someone who can make enquiries on your behalf but is restricted from making changes, you may consider adding the individual as an Advocate instead. Please see our Consumer Advocate Policy for more information.
Authorised representatives obligations
You must ensure that any authorised representatives that you appoint:
- Comply with applicable law and to abide by the service terms, acceptable use policy and all other policies that apply to the applicable services selected by you.
- Abide by our reasonable directions, including to produce any documents or identification that we may require from time to time.
- Interact with our team members in a civil manner, and not engage in abusive, profane, explicit, racist, threatening or violent behaviour.
Failure to comply with the above obligations may result in an authorised representative’s access being terminated.