Industry should know Canadians concerned about sales practices: Bains

OTTAWA — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Thursday afternoon that he heard directly from both consumers who say they experienced aggressive sales tactics by telecoms and industry sales people who felt pressured by their management. “That's why I ordered CRTC to conduct a public inquiry to get the facts and to be able to determine what recommendations are required to deal with these high pressure sale tactics,” he told reporters in a scrum on Parliament Hill. The government has told the CRTC to get back to it by Feb. 28, 2019 with a report concerning high pressure sales tactics allegedly used by Canadian telecom providers, according to an order-in-council announced on Thursday. Bains said the message to telecoms was clear: Canadians are concerned about these practises. While such investigations are rare, the last time one occured, he said, the Wireless Code was the result. Bains also told reporters that protecting consumers was a collective responsibility between government, industry and the regulators. NDP innovation critic Brian Masse didn’t pull his punches. “There’s no doubt ,” he told The Wire Report in an interview. “This is basically the last failed stop-gap to look at predatory practices.” In April, Masse and NDP public safety critic Matthew Dubé tabled a motion to create a digital bill of rights. It aims to provide a lens through which government — and industry, through regulatory and legislative amendments — would perform its activities to ensure compliance with principles of digital privacy, transparency and data rights. “So what's happening here is that the minister's responding to a particular element,” said Masse speaking to the need for more of a broad approach. “We're still doing crisis management, we're going from fire to fire.” Bains also penned a letter addressed to interim Competition Bureau commissioner Matthew Boswell, published online on Thursday. “There are reports that these practices exploit the unequal level of information possessed by sales agents relative to consumers and that vulnerable Canadians are more likely to be harmed,” wrote Bains. According to a press release, the Bureau will assist in the investigation. The order-in-council specifically asked the CRTC to look into the information provided by carriers to consumers, the steps providers take to stop wrong or unclear information from being given to the consumer, the current protections in place to promote fair treatment of consumers and ways to strengthen those protections. When reached for comment, CRTC spokeswoman Patricia Valladao wrote in an email that the CRTC acknowledged the order to investigate the sales practises. "We understand that there are growing concerns about this issue. We will announce next steps in due course," she said. Earlier this year, consumer groups asked the CRTC to step and in determine the extent of the problem and find solutions. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) cited news stories published by CBC/Radio-Canada late last year on alleged high pressure sales tactics required by BCE Inc. The company said the claims that its agents provided misleading information were untrue and unfounded, according to the CBC report. PIAC said a formal inquiry into industry-wide sales practices is necessary, because it would be surprising “given the nature of the markets and market players involved, if these practices were not widespread across the industry, rather than being the property of one provider.” In a letter denying PIAC’s request, CRTC Chairman Ian Scott wrote that Canadians who “consider that their wireless, Internet, home phone or TV service provider has not provided clear and accurate information to them about their contract(s),” can turn to the Competition Bureau or the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-related Services (CCTS). Masse wasn’t satisfied with the recommendation from the CRTC to bring issues to the Competition Bureau. “I've been industry critic for a number of years and the Competition Bureau has literally come at different times identifying in front of committee: they don't have the resources for this,” said Masse. “They have some very good staff there, they have some very good initiatives and they have some very good work that they have done, but it's far outdated in terms of their capabilities of modern consumer protection,” he continued. In a press release following the CRTC’s decision, PIAC’s executive director John Lawford took issue with the telecom regulator’s suggestion that Canadians turn to the CCTS, with the release saying that the CCTS generally doesn’t cover sales practises. “Sending Canadians to these bodies to try to extract themselves from poor deals after the fact instead of proactively investigating them and restoring the public trust in the market is a major abdication of responsibility by the CRTC,” Lawford said at the time. Lawford said in a release Thursday that PIAC is “pleased that the Minister has reversed the CRTC’s previous refusal to inquire into these shocking sales practices and we hope that public trust in this industry can be restored as a result.” Rogers Communications Inc. said in a statement that the company strives to “deliver the best possible experience for our customers with products and services that best meet their needs and budget, and we will participate and share how we work to be clear, simple and fair with our customers every time they contact us.” BCE Inc. also said it is “happy to talk with the government about customer service. Bell’s success depends on delivering the best customer experience and we’re seeing consistent growth in both customer satisfaction and subscriber growth.” Telus Corp., meanwhile, moved to set itself apart from its competitors, pointing out in a statement from Johanne Senecal, senior-vice president of government and regulatory affairs that the company “was not included in the critical coverage about the industry.” She said that since 2012, Telus “maintained a significant customer service lead over our competitors, as evidenced by customer complaints to the CCTS. Despite being one of Canada’s largest telecom providers, Telus accounted for less than seven per cent of industry complaints to the CCTS in 2017.” Senecal added: “We look forward to participating constructively in the CRTC’s review and are optimistic it will help to elevate and standardize best practices across the industry.” — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Industry should know Canadians concerned about sales practices: Bains

News | June 14, 2018

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Industry should know Canadians concerned about sales practices: Bains

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