In its latest annual report, which has just been released, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), an independent Canada-wide organization dedicated to resolving consumer complaints against telecommunications and television services, paints an encouraging picture of the situation. For one, it reveals that the number of complaints received is down 25 per cent compared to last year.
Some 431 brands from 313 service providers are included in the report. Of these, 235 were not the subject of any complaints and 118 were the subject of fewer than three. The remaining 78 brands shared the rest of the 12,790 complaints, with 83 per cent of complaints directed against just 10 brands.
While billing issues are the main source of complaints for mobile and television service customers, it is service delivery issues that are most common among Internet and telephony customers. The report also reveals that 88 per cent of complaints were resolved.
Unsurprisingly, the two largest providers top the list when it comes to the percentage of complaints expressed by consumers. Bell was the object of 17.2 per cent of the complaints and Rogers is behind 15.7 per cent of them. In third place is Fido, a Rogers brand, with 10.5 per cent of the complaints. It is important to note that the major outage of Rogers services earlier this year was not taken into account, as it occurred after the reporting period. Its impact on complaints will only be known when the next annual report is published.
Telus and Virgin Mobile, a Bell brand, complete the top 5 with 10.4 and 9.8 per cent of complaints respectively. The top ten list is completed by Koodo (Telus) with 6.5 per cent of complaints, Freedom Mobile (5.9 per cent), Videotron (4.8 per cent), Shaw (4.5 per cent) and Xplornet Communications (1.5 per cent).
Finally, the report reveals that 51 per cent of complaints were about wireless services, 27 per cent about Internet services, 11 per cent about television services, and 10 per cent about wired telephony services for a total of 99 per cent. The remaining one per cent of complaints – 165 in all – were about other services.
The detailed report is available on the CCTS website.