Of the big three telecom companies, Telus Corp. saw the greatest increase in the number of complaints.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
The number of complaints that Canadians lodged with the federal telecom and television ombudsman climbed 35 per cent to an all-time high, with issues around wireless service drawing the bulk of the gripes.
The federal Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said that, for the 12-month period ended July 31, customers submitted nearly 19,300 complaints about their telecom and TV providers. That’s the highest number of complaints that the organization has seen in its 12-year history.
The Ottawa-based agency aims to resolve customer complaints about wireless, internet, home-telephone and TV services. Although the CCTS receives funding from the industry, it acts independently of it. The latest annual report, published Thursday, is the first that includes a full year of data on TV complaints, as they were not part of the organization’s mandate until September, 2017.
The rise in complaints comes amid broader industry expansion, as the number of customers and service providers grows. The CCTS, for example, added 29 new service providers in its most recent fiscal year.
CCTS commissioner Howard Maker said that greater consumer awareness about the organization and its complaint-resolution process may also be partly responsible.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission did some consumer research, Mr. Maker said, “and the evidence is that awareness of CCTS is growing significantly. To me, that’s probably the number one driver of the increase in complaints.”
The service that drew the most complaints was wireless, with 19,467 issues raised – up 53 per cent from the previous year. Internet service followed at 12,000 issues, an increase of 34 per cent.
“Part of it is that it’s a more complicated business,” Mr. Maker said of wireless service. “The options, the plans, the add-ons, the extras – it’s much more detailed and much more complicated than the other services."
Service providers compete aggressively for wireless customers, he added, and the aggressive marketing campaigns can sometimes lead to dissatisfied customers.
Billing problems were the top issue cited across all services, followed by issues related to the disclosure of important information about the service.
Of the big three telecom companies, Telus Corp. saw the greatest increase in the number of complaints, which rose by more than 70 per cent to 1,610. In total, Telus accounted for 8.3 per cent of all the complaints accepted by the CCTS.
Tony Geheran, Telus’s executive vice-president and chief customer officer, said some of the increase was owing to ambiguous language in the contract terms for customers on a specific type of plan. Mr. Geheran said Telus has resolved those complaints and made the contract terms more transparent and easy-to-understand.
“We think that particular spike will not reappear, as a result of those changes," Mr. Geheran said.
He added that the recent shift to unlimited wireless plans – where, instead of receiving data overage fees, customers have the speed of their service limited when they hit their data limits – is expected to reduce the number of wireless complaints going forward.
BCE Inc.-owned Bell Canada saw its complaints increase by 24.2 per cent, while the number of gripes by Rogers customers rose by 26.5 per cent.
In total, Bell was the subject of 31 per cent of all complaints, while Rogers drew 9 per cent and Telus had 8 per cent.
ccts complaints
Total complaints accepted, 2016-2019
19,287
14,272
9,097
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
Five-year view of issues
Number of issues by type, 2014-2019
20,000
Wireless
15,000
Internet
10,000
TV
Phone
5,000
0
2014-
2015
2015-
2016
2016-
2017
2017-
2018
2018-
2019
NOTE: Complaints can be about multiple issues. TV complaints
were not in the CCTS mandate until September 1, 2017.
Top 10 participating service
providers by complaints
Number complaints accepted, 2018-2019
Bell Canada
5,879
Rogers
1,833
Telus
1,610
Virgin Mobile
1,253
Freedom Mob.
1,147
Cogeco
1,039
Fido
917
Koodo
755
Videotron
690
Shaw
659
JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: ccts
ccts complaints
Total complaints accepted, 2016-2019
19,287
14,272
9,097
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
Five-year view of issues
Number of issues by type, 2014-2019
20,000
Wireless
15,000
Internet
10,000
TV
Phone
5,000
0
2014-’15
2015-’16
2016-’17
2017-’18
2018-’19
NOTE: Complaints can be about multiple issues.
TV complaints were not in the CCTS mandate until September 1, 2017.
Top 10 participating service providers
by complaints
Number complaints accepted, 2018-2019
Bell Canada
5,879
Rogers
1,833
Telus
1,610
Virgin Mobile
1,253
Freedom Mob.
1,147
Cogeco
1,039
Fido
917
Koodo
755
Videotron
690
Shaw
659
JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: ccts
ccts complaints
Total complaints accepted, 2016-2019
19,287
14,272
9,097
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
Five-year view of issues
Number of issues by type, 2014-2019
20,000
Wireless
15,000
Internet
10,000
TV
Phone
5,000
0
2014-2015
2015-2016
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
NOTE: Complaints can be about multiple issues.
TV complaints were not in the CCTS mandate until September 1, 2017.
Top 10 participating service providers by complaints
Number complaints accepted, 2018-2019
Bell Canada
5,879
Rogers
1,833
Telus
1,610
Virgin Mobile
1,253
Freedom Mobile
1,147
Cogeco
1,039
Fido
917
Koodo
755
Videotron
690
Shaw
659
JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: ccts
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