GATINEAU – The mandate review for the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services (CCTS) kicked off on Tuesday with the body arguing that voluntary participation would make it much more difficult to resolve complaints – and that some consumers could find themselves on the short end of the complaints process.
In addition, the trigger-based system of participation is unruly and hasn’t proven effective in forcing telecom service providers (TSPs) to join the CCTS.
Josée Thibault, assistant CCTS commissioner, noted “there is a real risk that many providers would withdraw from CCTS, creating a situation in which some customers are entitled to recourse to CCTS and others are not.” Other problems could arise as well, she added, pointing to questions of independence, funding and an inability to effectively administer the codes.
“Needless to say CCTS would change dramatically,” said Thibault.
CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais pressed CCTS president and CEO Howard Maker on the membership issue, asking for comments on voluntary participation. In addition to noting that some consumers may be left without recourse to their complaints, the CCTS itself could come under fire for being partisan, he said. “We think there is also the risk that this would impact our independence,” said Maker. “It would provide a bit of leverage for service providers to attempt to perhaps suggest outcomes at the risk of them going elsewhere.”
Blais wondered how the CCTS squared the circle on comments from communication firms’ chief executives on customer service being a critical part to their operations. Maker responded that he believes CEOs believe this, but the problem is getting this message down to the front line staff who deal with customers.
This is where “the rubber sometimes doesn’t meet the road,” he said.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) also picked up on the independence issue in its testimony. Appearing on behalf of two other like-minded organizations – the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) and the Council of Senior Citizens’ Organization of British Columbia (COSCO), the group questioned the ability of the CCTS to remain independent when extraordinary resolution votes are required on funding, budget and business plan issues.
“Therefore, we ask that these types of votes be removed by the Commission, and that, in particular, items such as the annual budget, CCTS business plan and PSP fees and costs be approved by simple majority only. Votes should also be carried out by CCTS’ board of directors as a whole, not by CCTS members,” PIAC legal counsel Alysia Lau said during her opening remarks.
The CCTS also questioned the merit of maintaining the trigger-based system of participation. Waiting until a consumer files a complaint against a particular provider doesn’t work in the most effective manner, said Thibault. While on the surface, it seems like a logical process, in practice, it’s not. For example, resolution of some disputes have taken too long and added significant burden on the CCTS, she added.
“Much of the cost and delay experienced with sign-up under the current mechanism would be greatly reduced if the Commission specifically identified which providers are required to join, and disclosed to CCTS, on a confidential basis, providers’ eligible annual revenues,” argued Thibault.
“This would reduce service provider motivation to resolve complaints quickly, delay resolution for customers and make CCTS less effective and efficient.” – Howard Maker, CCTS
Under questioning, Maker added that the five-day rule – a provider is required to join the CCTS five days after it has been advised of a customer complaint – doesn’t work. On average, it takes 50 days for this type of provider to join, in some cases it can be upwards of 100 days and yet in others, some have still refused to participate.
The CCTS is also opposed to proposals from some parties that participating service providers (PSPs) get additional opportunities to resolve customer complaints before they go to the body for adjudication. SaskTel has proposed such a plan, but Thibault noted that this would only lengthen the complaints process and force customers who have already tried three or four times to have their issue resolved, to go back to their carrier for yet another attempt.
“It effectively makes CCTS the fourth step for many customers seeking to resolve complaints,” she said. “The only thing SaskTel’s proposal would do is to artificially reduce the number of complaints publicly reported and directly billed for each provider. In our view, this would reduce service provider motivation to resolve complaints quickly, delay resolution for customers and make CCTS less effective and efficient.”
Telus was the first of the big providers to testify in the hearing and it has argued the CCTS should stick to its knitting – and that’s to resolve customer complaints.
Eric Edora, director of regulatory affairs at the communications company, noted under questioning that when the CCTS begins to interpret CRTC rulings “that’s when we think the CCTS should step back and realize that its expertise is not in that interpretation role.” He acknowledged that the company raised this issue for a specific case and added if the CCTS sees a code breach, even if it wasn’t raised by a customer, then it has the authority to investigate.
Even in cases where there might be a trend emerging in particular complaints, the CCTS is free to investigate and raise it with Telus, “maybe not specifically to find us in breach of any particular provision, but say we noticed that three complaints came out on this particular thing and so maybe you want to investigate your services and see whether there is some improvement you can make,” explained Edora.
As part of the CCTS mandate review, the CRTC is considering foisting upon the body the added responsibility of handing TV service complaints. The CCTS doesn’t foresee any issues with adding TV to its mandate. Cartt.ca will have more on this later in the week.
Next up in front of the Commission panel, which consists of Blais, telecommunications vice-chair Peter Menzies, commissioner for the Atlantic region and Nunavut Christopher MacDonald, commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories Linda Vennard, and commissioner for British-Columbia and Yukon Stephen Simpson, will be Rogers Communications, SaskTel and CNOC, among others.
