By Ahmad Hathout and Linda Stuart
A watchdog that handles complaints for telecom and television services reported Wednesday that it received the highest number of complaints in its latest annual report, but its leadership stopped short of attributing the increase to more awareness of the organization.
Between August 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Servies (CCTS) said it accepted 20,147 complaints, a 38 per cent increase from the 14,617 complaints a year prior. Because each complaint can raise more than one issue, the 20,147 complaints translated to a total of 38,874 issues.
Despite the significant increase, the organization, which counts over 400 service providers among its membership, said it managed to have 88 per cent of those complaints resolved without much fuss – 87 per cent within 20 days – thanks in part to tech improvements and an updated complaint management system instituted in May 2023 that made the process more efficient.
Wireless problems led the way, accounting for 52 per cent of all issues and up 27 per cent over the year, followed by internet at 29 per cent of all issues and 50 per cent over the year, and then television at 11 per cent of all issues and 46 per cent year-over-year.
Billing-related issues topped the list of complaints, with the CCTS receiving 17,306 billing issues in the 2023-2024 period, compared to 11,379 in the previous year, a 52-per-cent increase. Top billing issues included unexpected charges or price increases for phone, TV and internet services – the first time in five years this was the most-complained-about issue – and service providers’ failure to provide promised credits or refunds.
“We saw this year a 261-per cent increase in the trend of monthly service price plans increasing,” Janet Lo, the CCTS’s assistant commissioner for legal, regulatory and stakeholder affairs, said in an interview with Cartt. “They are surprised, as in they didn’t think it was contractually possible or they wondered if the provider does have the right to change their prices.
“Providers have an obligation to notify their customers about price increases,” she added. “We can look at whether they have met their obligations to notify customers or if there is a code of conduct rule that prohibits such changes. That is where we would also be able to help determine whether the provider has followed the rules.”
Service delivery and contract disputes were the next most complained-about issues, at 10,860 and 9,285 issues, respectively.
Customers continue to raise concerns about service interruptions, slower than expected internet or wireless data speeds, poor audio quality or dropped phone calls, the CCTS said in a summary of its report. This year, 43 per cent of service quality issues came from wireless customers and 36 per cent from internet customers, according to the CCTS.
Complaints from telecom and TV customers about a lack of contract clarity increased 35 per cent this year across all service types, the CCTS report showed. Customers continue to complain about “mismatches” between what they expect to receive and what they actually receive, such as not being aware of contract details, service level expectations or promotional pricing limitations, the CCTS said.
In addition, complaints about problems with cancelling services and switching service providers, as well as concerns about termination fees, all increased this year, according to the report.
Late last year, the CRTC launched a trio of consultations related to more service transparency, including a broadband label outlining exactly what the consumer is getting, and possibly cutting out certain fees when switching or cancelling services.
“What we see from our experience, handling thousands of consumer complaints a year, is that there is a lot of opportunity for more clarity and ensuring customers and providers understand what is being sold and what they’re agreeing to purchase and the terms of that going forward,” Lo told us. “I think we are well-placed to continue applying that experience as rules get updated, so we’ll participate in those proceedings, we’re watching, obviously, very closely to see how they unfold so that we are well-placed to administer any requirements that the CRTC asks us to.
Eighty-eight per cent of all accepted complaints were from customers of just 10 service providers, the CCTS said in the latest report, noting that of the 436 telecom and TV service providers participating in the CCTS, Rogers, Bell and Telus remain in the top three spots for complaints received.
“As Canada’s largest wireless and national cable company, we work hard every day to do the right thing for our customers and to deliver a great experience,” a Rogers spokesperson told Cartt in a statement. “We have millions of customers interactions every month and while only a small number result in a complaint, we know we can do better.”
A Bell spokesperson told us that the telecom is focusing on the root cause of the complaints and trying to make the experience better. “Our approach has helped us reduce our industry share of complaints as referenced in the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) reports by 44.3% over the past 5 years. While we always strive to do more for our customers, we are taking some positives from the most recent report: Bell’s share of complaints increased 5.6% year-over-year; which is much less than our biggest competitors; for our full group of Bell companies, our share of complaints decreased 5% year-over-year, with a 26% decrease for Virgin Plus; when comparing results by subscriber base, Bell is now the best of three largest service providers with 2.2 complaints per 10,000 subscribers.”
A Telus spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that: “We’re grateful to our customers for their loyalty and feedback, and to our team members for delivering exceptional customer experiences, resulting in TELUS achieving the fewest complaints amongst national carriers for the 13th year in a row. The only acceptable achievement for our organization is zero complaints – which means we can do better to resolve customer issues the first time, long before anyone feels the need to file a formal complaint. We will not be satisfied until we achieve that goal.”
In a statement to Cartt, the Canadian Telecommunications Association, a trade group representing the largest telecommunications companies, said: “Customer satisfaction is our industry’s top priority. While the CCTS notes an annual increase in the number of complaints it accepted, it has also been very clear about its efforts to increase its awareness among Canadians.
“Despite this, the number of complaints remains relatively low, with the number of issues raised representing less than 0.08% of high-speed broadband and 0.05% of mobile phone subscribers in Canada. While 88% of complaints reported to the CCTS are resolved directly between the service provider and the customer without requiring CCTS to investigate the merits of the complaint, our members remain committed to improving customer experience so that all interactions are positive.”
‘No silver bullet answer’ for complaint increase: Lo
In January 2024, the CCTS launched a public awareness campaign – which includes social media, digital and other media outreach for the first time – to get the organization in front of Canadians.
The awareness campaign came before a March report, conducted by Nanos Research and commissioned by the CRTC, which found that only two per cent of participants who had an unresolved complaint were made aware of the organization by their service provider. The research was backed by annual CCTS reports from 2015 and 2023, which show only eight and 13 per cent of customers who contacted the CC TS about an unresolved issue learned about it from their service provider.
When asked if more awareness of the CCTS is largely driving the record number of complaints, Lo said because the awareness campaign came five months into the CCTS year, “it’s still fairly early … to draw a direct line from the activities that we have started and are important and that we intend to grow to the 38 per cent increase in complaints.
“There are many, many reasons why customers file complaints or why there are more or less complaints year-over-year,” Lo continued. “It’s very hard to pinpoint exactly one thing that drives complaints in, and when we look at this year’s data, there is no silver bullet answer to that question.”
Lo did contextualize the complaint against a backdrop of higher inflation and Canadians having to choose carefully what they spend their money on, making them more sensitive to price increases they don’t expect. For example, complaints related to price increases of monthly mobile wireless plans in this year’s report increased 360 per cent compared to the year prior.
“We’ve been hearing more consumer concern, particularly when we talk with our consumer group stakeholders about the cost of services and household budgets being stretched and the cost of living,” she told us. “We work hard to make sure that our operations remain efficient, and we hopefully reduced wait times this year and ensure that we were able to provide fast services to consumers.”
For the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the results tell an “embarrassing” story for the “big players, the regulator, and our political leaders.”
“Customers have to go through a lot and be very motivated to engage in the CCTS process, so these terrible numbers are only the tip of the iceberg,” Geoff White, executive director of the public interest group, told Cartt.
“These terrible results show that we continue to have a problem with incumbent customer service, sales and marketing practices, and that more black-letter consumer protections need to be imposed,” White added. “We would also like to see the CCTS given authority to require service providers to change practices, which it currently can’t, meaning that bad behaviours can be written off as a cost of doing business and be taken as a calculated risk if the net result of a change that aggrieves customers is cash positive and the blowback relatively minimal given consumers can’t be expected to have the time, knowledge and energy to prosecute their complaints.”
