Rogers registers highest customer complaints, CCTS says

Consumer complaints about Rogers Communications Inc. more than doubled during the past year, ranking the company as the country’s most complained about telecom provider, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said in an annual report. The CCTS said in the report released Thursday that Rogers was cited in 2,881 of the 11,986 complaints it received between Aug. 1, 2011 and July 31, 2012, and that the company was the subject of about 26.58 per cent of all complaints. At the same time a year earlier, Rogers was the subject of 1,355 consumer complaints to the CCTS, or 16.92 per cent of the 8,007 total complaints received that year. Total complaints about Rogers’ discount wireless subsidiary, Fido, increased from 657 in 2010-2011 to 824 in 2011-2012. Fido’s share of all CCTS complaints fell from 8.21 per cent to 7.6 per cent during that period, the report said. Rogers spokeswoman Carly Suppa-Clark said in an emailed statement that the rise is likely due to Rogers' size as a communications company and the largest wireless carrier in the country. “hese complaints represent approximately 0.03 per cent of our base,” she said. “e do take these complaints and issues seriously and work to better the customer experience through policy and process changes.” Suppa-Clark said Rogers made significant changes in the past year “that deal directly with some of the issued raised in the CCTS report.” Those efforts included helping customers better understand their bills and what they are being charged for, she said. The company now allows customers to block premium text message services that can lead to unexpected charges, she added. The CCTS does not provide a detailed breakdown of the types of complaints filed against each company. Suppa-Clark said Rogers has an ombudsman to review unresolved complaints and directs customers to the CCTS from the company's web site “in the event they do not receive a resolution that is satisfactory.” Complaints against BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Canada, the target of the highest number of consumer complaints to the CCTS in 2010-2011, fell from 29.32 per cent of all complaints last year to 25.36 per cent this year, even as the total number of complaints about the company increased from 2,348 last year to 2,748 in 2011-2012. Bell’s Virgin Mobile wireless subsidiary saw complaints fall from 637 in 2010-2011 to 491 in 2011-2012. The CCTS mediates and investigates consumer complaints about Canadian service providers that offer landline, long-distance, wireless or Internet telecom services. It does not cover complaints related to television services. In its report, the CCTS said complaints about wireless services represented 60.2 per cent of all complaints in the 2011-2012 year, followed by complaints about Internet services (18 per cent), and local landline services and voice-over Internet protocol services (17.1 per cent combined). Complaints about incumbent telco Telus Corp. fell from 1,387 in 2010-2011 to 1,211 in 2011-2012. Ted Woodhead, Telus’ vice-president of telecom policy and regulatory affairs, said the declining number of complaints about the company reflected a “top-down” emphasis on customer service. He said the company added about 1,000 call centre positions to support its wireless business over the past year and that it has taken steps to ease consumer concerns relating to billing and contracts. “We have put a great deal of effort into customer escalations and first-call resolutions so we’re not bumping customers around,” he said in a telephone interview. “We still have 1,200 complaints, so there’s still work to do here, but we’re heading in the right direction.” The CCTS said complaints about mobile billing errors and contract disputes with wireless carriers continued to be the most frequently cited consumer concerns, representing 32.8 per cent and 18 per cent of all complaints in the 2011-2012 year, respectively. The most frequently cited billing issues were policies that require consumers to provide 30 days' notice before cancelling services, monthly price plans, premium text message charges, and data charges, the CCTS said. Others were contract cancellation fees, misleading contract terms and conditions, and spotty Internet services. Complaints about Videotron, a new entrant carrier that operates in the Quebec market, rose from 153 (1.91 per cent of all complaints) in 2010-2011 to 242 (2.23 per cent) in 2011-2012. Complaints about Shaw Communications Inc., which offers Internet and telephony services in Western Canada but not mobile services, rose from 58 (0.72 per cent of all CCTS complaints) in 2010-2011 to 264 (2.44 per cent) in 2011-2012. The CCTS, which is financed by industry, said it resolved 90 per cent of the complaints it received in 2011-2012 to the complaining customer’s satisfaction, up from 87 per cent a year earlier. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Rogers registers highest customer complaints, CCTS says

News | 10/25/2012 9:13 pm EDT

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