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 landlines 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 issues, that’s where the rubber hits the road for most customers,” he said.

Maker attributed the overall rise 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 major decrease in breaches of wireless code, indicating service providers try to avoid flouting the rules.

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.

Bell clients raised 47 per cent of internet complaints, a disproportionate number since Rogers and Telus only accounted for nine per cent and five per cent, respectively.

The CCTS noted a sharp spike 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. Its clients also got 70 per cent of internet gripes about bill accuracy.