Canadian telecom service providers showed a higher level of non-compliance with consumer complaint guidelines in 2021, according to the industry’s arbiter of consumer complaints.
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) published its 2021 Compliance Monitoring Report, and found that the nation’s wireless, internet, phone and television service providers were more frequently in violation of the CCTS Procedure Code. The report found 2,400 violations arising out of 15,000 complaints. The 2020 report found just under 2,000 violations on more than 16,000 complaints.
CCTS was established to resolve consumer complaints that service providers are unable to resolve, at no cost to the consumer. The code sets the rules for complaint-handling processes. CCTS also publishes an annual report on the types of complaints filed, including breakdowns by services and by providers.
In 2021, the CCTS report details “a considerable increase in compliance breaches related to (providers) incorrectly informing the CCTS that a complaint has been resolved directly with a customer” and an almost doubling of the “number of compliance breachers flagged in which (providers) did not submit complete responses to complaints they had been unable to resolve with the customer.”
CCTS indicated it would continue to engage with providers to improve their responses in these areas.
The CCTS also cited significant progress on other areas. Only one provider was found to have threatened customers with legal action or disconnection because of a CCTS complaint, and it only verified three instances in which the provider asked a customer to withdraw a CCTS complaint.
The CCTS report also reviews the efforts of service providers to make their customers aware of its dispute resolution service. This includes an audit of provider web site information to ensure customers can learn about CCTS.
While more providers are providing CCTS information on their sites, fewer than half had the CCTS information on their complaint page, as required, and sites with search functions rarely (11 of 38) returned required CCTS results.