Customer complaints down 18%, CCTS says

The number of complaints about telecom services has declined for the third straight year, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said, adding it expects complaints arising from confusion about the rules to drop amid clearer regulations from the CRTC. The CCTS released its annual report on customer complaints for communications services Thursday. It showed complaints were down 18 per cent this year, continuing a downward trend, which the agency attributed to its own efforts to publicise the issue. “Largely as a result of the publicity generated by CCTS publicly reporting the number of complaints received from customers of each service provider, the companies have become motivated to reduce the number of complaints that CCTS receives from their customers,” CCTS commissioner and CEO Howard Maker, said in a press release. Other reasons cited in the report for the decline in complaints include improvements in customer service and an “increased willingness by providers to resolve certain types of complaints ‘in-house.’” The CCTS said in the report that it resolved 7,431 complaints out of 8,323. In a phone interview, Maker said that “89 per cent of them got resolved amicably between the provider and the customer once we got involved, and most of those very promptly.” He added, however, that there is still room for improvement. Complaints about Internet services, particular concerning notice of cancellation and charges after disconnection, increased by 54.7 per cent and were up 19 per cent on local phone service. Some of that had to do with confusion about regulations, which Maker said in a phone interview has now been clarified by the CRTC. For example, the CRTC said customers must be refunded for any charges between cancellation and the end of the billing cycle. He said he expects the chunk of complaints related to such charges to drop in next year’s report. "Service providers tend to follow the regulatory requirements and I expect that we won't be talking about this when next year's annual report comes out, because I think they'll deal with it,” Maker said. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) weighed in on the report in a Thursday news release, saying service providers “continue employing practices that violate the spirit of the Wireless Code of Conduct,” implemented in Dec. 2013. PIAC added that it “encourages the CCTS to regularly assess its participants’ compliance with promotional obligations.” Another issue outlined in the report was related to wireless customers being disconnected without notice. However, the report noted that since the CRTC addressed the issue, consumers have raised it 25 per cent fewer times this year compared to last. There were 246 confirmed breaches of the Wireless Code over the year, according to the report. The CRTC will hold a hearing to review the wireless code in February. The wireless segment made up 50.3 per cent of complaints, though the number of those complaints has declined for a second year in a row. Internet service was second with 26.5 per cent and landlines were third with 19.6 per cent. Billing-related matters led all complaints, making up 41.1 per cent, following by contract disputes at 31.5 per cent and service delivery at 22.8 per cent. BCE Inc. ranked first by complaints with 2,940, down 18.3 per cent from the year before, and was responsible for 35.9 per cent of total complaints. Rogers Communications Inc. was second with 861, but down 52.5 per cent from last year, and Telus Corp. rounded out the top three with 570, up 22.3 per cent from last year. The CCTS mandate will be expanded to include complaints related to TV services come September 2017. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Customer complaints down 18%, CCTS says

News | November 24, 2016

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Customer complaints down 18%, CCTS says

News | November 24, 2016

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