CCTS complaints continue downward trend

There were fewer complaints accepted by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) in the second half of 2016 than in the comparable time period a year earlier, according to the CCTS mid-year report, released Thursday. The organization accepted 3,995 complaints between August 1, 2016 and January 31, 2017, compared to 4,562 complaints the year before, about a 12.4 per cent decline. In its full-year report, released in November, CCTS said customer complaints were down 18 per cent year over year. There were also fewer violations of CCTS-enforced rules, the mid-year report said. This included 52 confirmed breaches of the Wireless Code by service providers, compared to 120 in last year’s mid-year report, and seven confirmed breaches of the Deposit and Disconnection Code, down from 13 last year. CCTS said it resolved 89.9 per cent of complaints “to the satisfaction of both the customer and the service provider,” compared to 90.6 per cent in last year’s report. BCE Inc. was again the subject of most complaints, with 31.8 per cent of the total. There were 1,258 complaints regarding the company, a decrease of about four per cent, according to the report. Rogers Communications Inc. stayed in the second spot, with 535 complaints (13.5 per cent), up about three per cent from the year before. Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile, which received the third-most complaints last year, dropped out of the list of the five service providers with the most complaints. Telus Corp. stayed in the fourth spot, with roughly seven per cent of complaints in both years, while Bell’s flanker brand, Virgin, moved from fifth place to third, with 7.2 per cent of complaints. Rogers’ Fido moved into the fifth spot, with 5.2 per cent of complaints. The biggest proportion of complaints CCTS accepted were about non-disclosure of terms or misleading information about terms, followed by incorrect charges and intermittent or inadequate quality of service, the same as a year earlier. “Understanding what you are getting when you sign up to receive a service or product is fundamental in a consumer transaction,” Howard Maker, CCTS commissioner, said in a press release. “That can only happen if service providers ensure they present customers with clear information that sets out their rights and responsibilities.” In a separate press release, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) noted that CCTS also received 2,734 complaints regarding TV service, or “more complaints than the CCTS received in relation to wireless, Internet, local voice, or long-distance voice services,” even though TV service won’t be part of its mandate until September. It will be responsible for enforcing the TV service provider code, which governs the companies’ relationship with their subscribers, in September, as mandated by the CRTC last year. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

CCTS complaints continue downward trend

News | April 5, 2017

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CCTS complaints continue downward trend

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