OTTAWA – Canadians’ complaints over their telecom and Internet services continue to fall, but breaches of the country’s Wireless Code of Conduct are on the rise now that more Canadians fall under it, says the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
In its first ever mid-year report released Thursday, the CCTS said it accepted 5,468 complaints between August 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015, down 8.5% from the same period a year earlier. Last year’s annual report showed a 17% year-over-year drop in complaints.
The report says that billing errors continue to be the most commonly raised issue (12.8% of all issues), followed by complaints about non-disclosure of contract terms at 11.9% and intermittent/inadequate quality of service at 7.3% of all issues. Despite the decrease in complaints, consumers have been raising both issues more frequently, the CCTS said.
The CCTS also reported more violations of the Wireless Code (328 confirmed breaches versus 30 in last year’s report), but as CCTS Commissioner Howard Maker wrote earlier this week in Cartt.ca, the Code now applies to more Canadians as they sign new wireless contracts, and as the CCTS becomes increasingly expert at understanding and interpreting the Code.
“CCTS is certainly concerned about the increase in confirmed breaches, but we expected to see an adjustment period while providers and consumers learn to understand the Code’s full impact, and we think that’s what’s happening here”, said Maker, in the report’s news release.
Bell topped the list of the 84 service providers about which the CCTS received complaints in the six month period with 1,989, followed by Rogers with 1,240 complaints. Wind Mobile took third spot with 361, followed by Bell flanker brand Virgin Mobile with 312, and Rogers’ Fido with 306 complaints.
Telus was again the best performer of the ‘Big Three’, logging 243 complaints, a 46% drop from mid-year 2014, which it attributed to its “relentless focus” on customer service.
“Canadians should expect more from their telecom providers,” said David Fuller, Telus’ president of consumer and small business solutions, in a press release. “Five years ago we decided to make an improved customer experience our number-one priority at Telus, and since then we have led the industry in making positive changes that put our customers first. We are pleased to see our relentless focus has again delivered a sizeable reduction in customer complaints to the CCTS, but would say with equal conviction, that we will not be satisfied until we have driven the number of complaints down to zero.”
The report also said that CCTS resolved 87.4% of complaints during the period to the satisfaction of both the customer and the service provider.
“This first Mid-Year Report is primarily a transparency initiative,” added Maker. “As Canada’s independent and impartial telecommunications ombudsman, we feel it’s important to provide information about the complaints we are seeing and the issues that they raise more regularly to customers, industry, and regulators.”
