Canadians’ complaints about wireless, internet, telephone and TV services surge 73%, watchdog says
TORONTO — Canadians’ complaints about their wireless, internet, telephone and television services surged in the last half of 2017, an uptick that came amidst allegations of misleading sales practices by telecommunications providers.
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services accepted 6,849 complaints between Aug. 1, 2017 and Jan. 31, 2018, a 73 per cent increase from 3,955 complaints in the same period a year prior, according to the independent telecom ombudsman’s mid-year report released Tuesday. Ninety per cent of complaints were resolved.
“That’s huge for an organization like ours,” CCTS commissioner Howard Maker said in an interview. “We didn’t project that kind of an increase.”
The CCTS cannot pinpoint exactly why numbers are up. But Maker said the CCTS has actively been trying to increase consumer awareness of the organization, which exists to help consumers who can’t resolve disputes directly with their provider. The increase could also stem from changes in the marketplace that cause friction with consumers, he added.
“It’s always cause for concern when complaint numbers go up,” Maker said. “We can’t really say to what extent this is because of bad service provider behaviour, because there’s other factors. There’s consumer behaviour, there’s awareness of CCTS. All of those things factor into it.”
This is the first report that includes complaints about television services after the CCTS’S mandate was expanded on Sept. 1. But TV’s inclusion doesn’t account for the increase. Of the 846 complaints that included TV, only 230 were solely about TV with the remainder involving bundled services.
Instead, the increase came from more complaints about internet (up 209 per cent to 2,789) and wireless service (up 70.5 per cent to 3,604).
The top complaint was non-disclosure or misleading information about terms. The second and third most persistent complaints were incorrect charges and inadequate quality of service, respectively.
Non-disclosure complaints were predominantly about wireless services, likely due to “all the different twists and turns that customers have to make in navigating their wireless service and what they want to buy,” Maker said.
The numbers do, however, indicate that service providers are increasing efforts to comply with the Wireless Code and the Deposit and Disconnection Code. Confirmed breaches of the codes dropped to 43 and two, respectively, from 52 and seven in this period last year.
BCE Inc. received the most complaints at 2,275, followed by Rogers Communications Inc. at 707 and Telus Corp. at 511. Bell’s proportion of all accepted complaints dropped 2.5 points to 33.2 per cent, Rogers’ dropped 1.5 points to 10.3 per cent and Telus’ increased 0.5 points to 7.5 per cent.
The increase in complaints came during a period of heightened scrutiny over telecom sales practices stemming from a CBC investigation into Bell and subsequent reports about Rogers. Many of these reports publicized the CCTS as an avenue to help for consumers who believe they have been treated unfairly.
In January, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to launch a formal inquiry into “aggressive, inappropriate and potentially misleading” sales practices, such as upselling and overselling.
The CRTC declined the request in February, stating Canadians already have options to seek redress — including the CCTS’s dispute resolution process.
In an emailed statement, Bell noted that its proportion of overall complaints decreased.
“All major service providers experienced increases in complaints, which is largely due to greatly increased awareness of the CCTS and its services,” spokesman Marc Choma said. “It’s surprising the commissioner highlighted Bell as having the most complaints considering we do have the most customers by far and our proportion of overall complaints continues to decrease more quickly than our competitors.”
Rogers also noted its proportion of complaints decreased.
“We strive to deliver the best possible experience to our customers including a key focus on being clear, simple and fair in every interaction,” spokeswoman Samantha Grant said in an email.