Canadians complained more about their wireless services, and less about their internet, television and telephone services, according to the 2022-23 annual report of the industry’s consumer dispute arbiter.
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) reported an overall increase of 14 per cent in consumer complaints over the 12 months ending July 31, 2023. But consumer complaints can include more than one issue, and the overall number of issues declined over the past year, (from 29,374 to 28,821) even as the number of complaints rose to 14,617 from 12,790.
Billing issues remained the top issue overall – and among wireless and television customers – while service delivery issues topped the complaints from internet and telephone consumers. Wireless issues rose 6 per cent over the previous years, while the other segments all reported fewer issues.
Among vendors, Rogers was subject to the largest number of complaints for the first time, surpassing Bell. The rise in Rogers’ complaints was led by the widespread service outage that occurred July 8, 2022. Though that incident occurred prior to the current year, the complaints about outages, service reliability and inadequate credits came in the months following the outage. In its Mid-Year report, CCTS noted its call and online chat volumes doubled in the aftermath, overloading its capacity to handle the influx.
CCTS was created in 2007 by the CRTC to resolve complaints from Canadian consumers. Complaint numbers grew steadily, but have been stable recently. Complaints rose in 2020-21 as consumers were dissatisfied with their internet service quality after a large portion of the workforce worked from home during the COVID-19 crisis. Complaints fell in 2021-22, before rising again in the past year.
The report indicated 89% of complaints were resolved successfully, in that both the customers and participating service provider expressed satisfaction with the resolution. This is up from 88% last year.
CCTS is designed to handle complaints that are not resolved with the provider. Although service providers have made multiple commitments to inform customers about CCTS during any complaint, only 10 per cent of complainants said the provider did so (13% last year). Similarly, 17 per cent recalled seeing CCTS information on invoices (16% last year) and 30 per cent saw notices about CCTS on their provider’s web site (31% last year). Also 55 per cent of complainants reported going through three or more levels of complaint-handling with the provider before contacting CCTS.
CCTS also evaluates service provider conduct based on four mandatory CRTC codes of conduct. It found 48 violations of the Wireless Code, down from 65 in the year prior. Virgin Plus committed the most violations of any provider. CCTS found 14 breaches of the Television Service Provider Code, (up from nine the year prior) eight of the Internet Code (down from 22), and one violation of the deposit and disconnection code.
CCTS updated its complaint-handling process, effective May 23, 2023, which means it no longer issues recommendations and decisions as part of that process. Complaints accepted by CCTS start with a request to the service provider to provide documentation, then a conciliation phase which involves informal mediation. If the mediation does not resolve the problem, an investigation follows. The investigation will produce a written report, and either the customer or service provider can request a case review if they believe an error of fact or interpretation has been made. They may recommend service providers make a payment to the customer to compensate for any loss, damage or inconvenience (but not punitive damages) up to a limit of $5,000 per issue.
CCTS is funded by all participating telecom and TV services providers as required by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Customers who are unable to resolve an issue directly with their wireless, internet, TV or phone service provider can file their complaint online for free at ccts-cprst.ca