‘We’re repeating it again’: CCTS sees complaints jump nearly 60 per cent

The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) saw a “rapid” and “significant” spike in telecom and TV complaints this year –– a figure that jumped nearly 60 per cent for 2017-18, according to its annual report released Tuesday, which also showed Wireless Code breaches up 30 per cent. The CCTS accepted 14,272 complaints across all categories between August 1, 2017 and July 31, 2018, up 57 per cent from 9,097 the previous year -- more than the organization anticipated. It's a marked difference compared to the second half of 2016, when complaints continued a downward trend from previous periods. Around the same time last year, the CCTS released a report that showed a comparatively paltry 11 per cent increase in accepted complaints. CCTS commissioner Howard Maker said in a phone interview there was a “significant and substantial increase in complaints this year,” which placed some strain on the organization in the first part of its fiscal year while it moved to increase its staff ranks, although he added the CCTS “successfully resolved 92 per cent of those complaints, the bulk of them in 30 days.” The large jump in overall complaints to the commission comes a month after the CRTC’s sales practices hearings that drummed up rounds of negative headlines for telecom companies. But Maker said there’s a problem with reading too much into an increase in complaints to his organization and the state of industry practices, and suggested it could stem from a number of factors, such as greater awareness of CCTS. “I think we have to be cautious about attributing the number of complaints and attributing a direct relationship between that and the nature of the industry or what’s happening in the industry,” he said. “Any small issue that happens in the marketplace can actually have a severe impact on the number of complaints.” However, Maker said a 170 per cent increase in complaints related to internet services over the past five years is concerning. “By way of comparison, the bulk of the complaints we get are about wireless…In the last five years, the number of issues we’ve seen about wireless has gone up about 25 per cent. In the same period, the number of issues we’ve seen about internet has gone up about 170 per cent,” he said. “I think that’s a red flag.” “We don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we’re repeating it again.” Overall, wireless services made up the bulk of complaints, at 41.5 per cent, followed by internet at 29 per cent. TV, which was added to the CCTS’s mandate in September 2017, barely moved the needle, with those complaints making up fewer than 5 per cent out of the total for the year. Not disclosing terms or misrepresenting them was the number one complaint raised by consumers across all services, followed closely by billing problems – each making up nearly 15 per cent of complaints respectively. BCE Inc. made up 38 per cent of all non-disclosure complaints, followed by Rogers Communications Inc. at just under 10 per cent. The report said non-disclosure issues appear to be a more common problem for wireless than other services –- with half of those complaints overall stemming from wireless customers. “We find this troubling given the myriad requirements contained in the Wireless Code aimed at ensuring clear and disclosure of information by service providers to their customers,” the report said. The commission reported a nearly 30 per cent increase in Wireless Code breaches, up this year to 111 breaches CCTS confirmed out of 3,539 complaints alleging a breach. Of those, the most common violations were failing to properly apply data overage caps, failing to provide contract documents or disclose key terms and conditions, and failure to provide proper notice before disconnection. A team of University of Ottawa researchers has been working on tools to help consumers better understand their rights under the Wireless Code. Rogers Communications Inc. accounted for almost 40 per cent of all confirmed breaches of the Wireless Code in that time frame – a 76 per cent increase. BCE Inc. saw a 21 per cent increase, making up almost 21 per cent of all confirmed code breaches. Bell flanker Virgin, Rogers flanker Fido, and Telus Corp. made up about 26 per cent together. While Telus was down from last year, Virgin jumped by 233 per cent and Fido by 200 per cent. Looking at complaints overall by provider, a number of service providers went up significantly. Six saw higher than 100 per cent increases year-over-year. Complaints CCTS accepted about Cogeco Inc.’s Cogeco Connexion increased by 359 per cent to 546 this past year. Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom mobile jumped 185 per cent to 850, while Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron jumped by 114 per cent to 740. The CCTS report also notes there was one “unusual” case this year, when Telus Corp.’s Public Mobile had cancelled a plan which it had promised not to remove. CCTS got an ear full, and there might have been more complaints lodged if it hadn’t responded quickly. “Needless to say, all heck broke loose on social media,” Maker said, “And we got in about 36 hours…we had about 1,600 people trying to contact us to complain about that. So having been in touch with Public about it, they changed course and reversed their decision and fortunately that problem was dealt with promptly and effectively.” The CCTS only accepted 142 complaints about Public Mobile last year. — With reporting by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

‘We’re repeating it again’: CCTS sees complaints jump nearly 60 per cent

News | November 27, 2018

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‘We’re repeating it again’: CCTS sees complaints jump nearly 60 per cent

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