Telcos top targets for complaints

Spark and Vodafone top a Commerce Commission list of the most complained-about companies. The 2016 Consumer Issues Paper shows a quarter of all complaints to the commission were about just 21 companies. Pricing was the most common issue to trigger complaints.

Spark got the most — 140. Fellow telecommunications company Vodafone had 133. Sellers on auction site Trade Me made 121 complaints.

Commission chairman Mark Berry stressed that complaints did not necessarily mean companies had broken the law, saying larger traders were more likely to get them.

“Consumers complain to the commission most about price (26 per cent), goods (23 per cent) and services (22 per cent), while one quarter of our Fair Trading Act complaints relate to just 21 traders,” Berry said.

Spark and Vodafone were quick to respond to the report, saying the result was disappointing.

Vodafone’s Liesbeth Koomen said although it aimed to provide a great service experience, it sometimes fell short and received complaints.

Spark’s Jason Paris said the commission had reported the total number of complaints regardless of whether they were upheld and said none of the complaints about Spark had been taken forward.

Non-bank lenders also featured prominently, with complaints about Harvey Norman Air New Zealand the New Zealand Business Funding Centre Auckland Academy of Learning 67 Foodstuffs Wilson Parking Progressive Enterprises

Tell us

50 non-disclosure, irresponsible lending and targeting of vulnerable consumers. While finance companies make up just 3 per cent of the credit market they accounted for 43 per cent of credit-related complaints.

The three most-complained about industries were telcos (9 per cent), the domestic appliance and electronics sector, and the vehicle industry.

Berry said the report was produced mainly as an internal tool for the commission to help it decide where to focus its efforts, but it believed it also helped others.