Billing errors, contract disputes, top telecom consumer complaints

Mobile wireless service complaints continue to increase, reaching 62.3 per cent of all complaints in 2010-2011, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services' annual report says. Those complaints about mobile wireless services are up from last year’s rate of 51.7 per cent of all complaints spanning telephone, mobile wireless and Internet services. “This trend shows no sign of subsiding, reflecting the increasing availability of wireless services to Canadians, as well as the increasing complexity of those services,” the report, released Friday, said. Internet services complaints were second, representing 16.7 per cent of all complaints, up from 15.2 per cent last year. The CCTS report said 80 per cent of all complaints in 2010-2011 related to billing errors and contract disputes. Billing errors made up 45 per cent of complaints received by the commissioner while contract disputes made up 34 per cent. The report set other complaints related to service installation (including repair and maintenance) at 19 per cent and the unauthorized transfer of services at 2 per cent. In a breakdown per company, the highest percentage of telecom complaints were about BCE Inc., at 29.32 per cent, the report said. Telus Corp. was second with a complaint rate of 17.32 per cent and Rogers Communications Inc. followed with 16.92 per cent of complaints. Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said in an email statement that the company "is by far the biggest telecom company in Canada with more than 20 million wireless, landline and Internet customer connections. It’s also worth noting that the CCTS does not handle complaints about TV service for cable or telecom companies, which uniquely increases Bell’s totals." She said all of Canada's major carriers saw increases in the number of complaints, but Bell's "grew by the smallest amount of all major providers, even with the TV complaints that the CCTS only measures for Bell." In its report, the CCTS said most wireless complaints related to data usage charges. John Lawford, counsel with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said factors such as roaming fees, which only occur on wireless, are contributing to the amount of complaints. “There’s going to be a transitional period where people will realize they only have a certain amount of data that they can use in their phone without getting a whacking bill,” he said. Lawford said companies don’t do a very good job of telling customers when they've reached their data limits. He said the industry should consider moves in Europe to cut people off when they reach a pre-determined threshold. “If that’s something you have to call up and say, ‘What’s going on?—it may be the price you have to pay for not getting a $1,000 bill at the end of the month,” he said. In most complaints, the CCTS said, customers expressed concerns about charges they incurred for exceeding their monthly data caps and not being aware of the amount of data they were consuming. “They did not understand what exactly a gigabyte or a megabyte represented,” the report said, “nor did they understand how much data is typically consumed when sending emails, web surfing or downloading content from the Internet.” Other complaints related to customers not believing they had used the amount of data that they had been charged for, or believing the tool used by the service provider to record data usage was inaccurate, the report said. Ken Engelhart, Rogers’ vice-president of regulatory affairs, said in an interview that the total volume of complaints is still small compared to the total number of telecom users in Canada. Engelhart said Rogers recognized some time ago that it is important to inform customers about their data usage. He said Rogers now provides alerts to customers when they reach 75 per cent and 100 per cent of their data caps for wireline Internet and mobile services. The CCTS received a total of 8,007 complaints in 2010-2011, representing an increase of 114 per cent over the previous year, with the province of Ontario reporting the highest amount of complaints at 3,314. Ontario was followed by Quebec with 2,198 complaints and British Columbia with 1,174. The CCTS said that, out of a total of 8,007 complaints, the commissioner resolved 5,203 at a pre-investigation stage, up from 2,297 last year. The amount of complaints resolved at an investigation stage was 1,535, up from 663 in 2009-2010. “Over 87 per cent of complaints concluded this year were resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both consumers and their service providers,” the report said. Howard Maker, the telecom complaints commissioner, deals with customer complaints about telecom services, including home telephone, wired and wireless Internet, directory assistance, long distance telephone, and mobile wireless services. Lawford said consumers are still learning about the CCTS and that PIAC expects the number of complaints to continue to grow over the next few years. Engelhart also attributed the increase in complaints to publicity and increasing awareness about the CCTS. In a release Friday, PIAC said that, as a result of the CCTS report, four major Canadian consumer organizations, in a collective called the Canadian Consumer Initiative (CCI), are calling on the government and regulators to conduct a review of the source of consumer complaints. A CCI information document says the coalition is calling on the federal government and the CRTC to "impose stricter rules on service providers regarding customer service and disclosure information, to rescind the 2006 Directive issued by Cabinet to the CRTC to rely on market forces rather than regulation, as well as create an advisory committee to examine the policy framework of telecommunications, along with consumers’ associations." dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Billing errors, contract disputes, top telecom consumer complaints

News | 11/04/2011 8:20 pm EDT

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