Consumers confused about where to direct complaints, CRTC documents show

It’s a Byzantine complaints system that handles Canada’s broadcasting and telecommunications services. Many consumers don’t know where to turn. That is a dominant theme in thousands of complaints to the CRTC made between April 14 and May 14, 2010, which The Wire Report obtained through access-to-information. A significant number of these complaints were forwarded to other organizations. During the period, for example, the CRTC received many complaints about cellphone billing, which were forwarded to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS). “The problem has always been that the CRTC is more or less a policymaking organization more than an enforcement organization,” Michael Janigan, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said in an interview. “And they have difficulty in dealing with the mechanics of complaints. They’re more like a court that sets out the decisions and it’s up to the parties to enforce them.” In telephony, there are grey areas between issues handled by the CRTC and those by the CCTS. The CCTS was established in 2008 as an independent telecommunications consumer agency to deal with complaints related to billing, contract terms, the unauthorized transfer of services and other related issues. The CRTC handles consumer complaints about services regulated for social or economic reasons. These include payphones, accessibility services, phone services in uncompetitive markets, and 900 or 976-number premium phone services. Phone companies in competitive markets, however, are covered by the CCTS. Janigan said the CCTS has experienced some growing pains but he remains confident that the organization can fill an important niche for consumers. The CCTS is now trying to promote itself. Most telecom service providers link to the CCTS website in their “customer care” sections. They also provide a message referencing CCTS on customer bills, by way of an insert, on a semi-annual basis. “I think there are certainly some teething problems with the new system, and hopefully their advertising campaign gets unwound. As people get more familiar with it, they’ll see an increase of awareness about the organization as a place to complain to and a direction of complaints in the appropriate direction,” Janigan said. One CRTC official told The Wire Report that the differences between the organizations’ mandates aren’t always clear, so often the easiest course of action is to deal with complaints individually and forward them to the right agencies. One complaint to the CRTC, on April 20, said, “Bell Mobility cancelled his cell number before it could be ported to Fido.” It was forwarded to the CCTS. The CRTC, which has a higher profile than the relatively new CCTS, receives a larger number of complaints it has to sort and forward to others. Even organizations with a longer history, such as the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC)—established in 1990 to deal with radio and television broadcast standards complaints—face an uphill battle in the public awareness arena. “When I started in this position many years ago, we probably had less than 10 per cent of people who were coming to us,” Ronald Cohen, national chair of the CBSC, said in an interview. “They logically went to the CRTC. That makes sense, because the CRTC is in the news all the time.” Cohen said the CBSC now receives 2,200 complaints per year, and that 61 per cent are made directly to the organization. The other 39 per cent are forwarded by the CRTC. “I think that we are better known ,” Cohen said. The CBSC handles any programming complaints relating to its 740 private broadcasting members. The complaints are often about content containing what some see as inappropriate language, violence or sex. The CBSC’s members are required to air public service announcements about the organization three times per week. Cohen said that effort has helped raise the organization’s profile and differentiate it from the CRTC. Cohen also said the CBSC’s website, which includes information on television and radio standards, has helped raise its public profile. So far in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the vast majority of complaints made directly to the CBSC—418 in total—were sent through an online web form. An additional 96 complaints were submitted by email, 20 by fax and 59 by post. Adding to consumer confusion, the CRTC sometimes recommends complaining to service providers directly. The documents obtained by The Wire Report, for example, show several complaints about television commercials being louder than programs. The CRTC offers a fact sheet explaining that sound compression techniques can account for the louder volume in advertisements, and that complaints on the matter should be directed to the consumer’s television service provider. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Consumers confused about where to direct complaints, CRTC documents show

Broadcast | June 25, 2010

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