Complaints against telcos surged last year: report
TORONTO • Canadians logged more official complaints about their telecom services last year after three years of decreasing complaints, according to the independent telecom watchdog’s annual tally.
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services dealt with just over 9,000 complaints about their wireless, internet and telephone services from 2016 to 2017, an increase of 11 per cent from the previous year, according to the CCTS annual report released Tuesday.
BCE Inc. received the most complaints with 35.7 per cent of the total, followed by Rogers Communications Inc. at 11.8 per cent and Telus Corp. at 6.9 per cent.
The top three complaints revolved around incorrect charges, non- disclosure of terms or misleading information about terms and intermittent or inadequate quality of service. The CCTS resolved 91 per cent of complaints, resulting in payouts of $2.3 million.
The volume of complaints represents a fraction of consumers in a country with more than 30 million wireless subscriptions, 15 million land lines and 12 million internet connections. But CCTS Commissioner Howard Maker said the numbers show companies continue to flub bills and mislead consumers about what exactly they’ve purchased.
“Billing i ssues, t hat’s where the rubber hits the road for most customers,” CCTS commissioner Howard Maker said in an interview.
Maker attributed the overall increase in complaints in part to higher consumer awareness of the CCTS due to media attention on the wireless code and the new TV code. The CCTS started taking TV complaints as of Sept. 1. He noted a significant decrease in breaches of wireless code, indicating service providers try to avoid flouting the rules.
“Service providers, particularly the larger ones, are very mindful of their CCTS numbers and the public impact of the numbers we release about them. They take these things very seriously.”
Wireless continued to cause the most headaches, with nearly half of complaints ( 46 per cent) revolving around mobile services.
But the sharp increase in internet complaints was more cause for concern, Maker said, noting they jumped for the seventh year in a row to hit nearly one third ( 31 per cent) of complaints.
“Internet service providers need to think about why that’s happening,” he said.
Bell customers raised 47 per cent of all internet complaints, a disproportionate number considering Rogers and Telus only accounted for 9 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively.
The CCTS noted a sharp increase in complaints about internet service providers making material changes to contracts, with or without notice. Seventy- five per cent of these complaints were from Bell customers. Much of this activity apparently stemmed from Bell’s February 2017 price increase to phone, internet and television services.
Bell customers also registered 70 per cent of internet complaints about bill accuracy.
Bell is under increased scrutiny after a CBC Go Public report alleged its call centre employees use highpressure sales tactics to sell people products they don’t need.
Maker said the CCTS report doesn’t shed light on Bell’s practices, but he noted that non- disclosure or misleading terms is always a huge driver of complaints.
“I wouldn’t find it surprising that telecom providers incent their sales people to sell. We see that in every mass consumer product. There’s no secret that telecoms do that too,” he said.
In a statement, Bell spokesman Marc Choma noted that at 10.4 per cent, Bell had the lowest increase in complaints relative to its major competitors.
Rogers saw the highest increase (25.2 per cent) in complaints this year, but spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt noted they’ve dropped 70 per cent over a five-year period.
Telus saw its complaints rise 10.7 per cent, but spokeswoman Donna Ramirez noted it has the fewest complaints of any national carrier.
BILLING ISSUES, THAT’S WHERE THE RUBBER HITS THE ROAD.