Phone company complaints up 35 percent in Canada

The Commision for Complaints for Telecom-Television Service (CCTS) has had to deal with a lot more consumer complaints this year. The number grew by about 5,000 in just the last year alone, according to the Huffington Post.

Complaints have skyrocketed by 35 percent the consumer disputes show a pattern of being steadily on the rise. The CCTS annual report revealed that the agency received 19,287 complaints since July 31. It’s been a bad year compared to the 14,272 from the previous year.  A number which was even doubled the amount of complaints from the year before that.

“Record numbers of complaints, rapid industry change, and our own desire for continuous improvement have motivated us to focus on our dispute resolution process,” Howard Maker, the commissioner of the CCTS admitted in a recent statement.

91 percent of complaints were successfully resolved according to the commision, which is funded by the industry and mandated by the CRTC.

Which tele-company had the most complaints you ask? Bell came in first place, accounting for 30 percent of all complaints. Rogers got the silver medal with 9 percent of the complaints and last but not least was Telus coming in with 8 per cent.

“It’s concerning that the numbers are going up,” said Howard Maker, head of the CCTS.

Wireless services were the main source of the complaints according to the CCTS. Internet problems followed as well as issues in the complaints were billing and contact disputes.

Among the complaints specifics were customers being charged but not provided service, billed after service cancellation, and promised discounts and promotions not honoured.

Customers on a contract complained about being provided the wrong internet package and issues with misguided contract terms and prices.

The agency said that there were 158 confirmed breaches of the wireless code. A number that is up by a staggering 42 percent from last year. In 2013, the code was implemented in an effort to give clarity to consumers with regards to contracts and bill management.

The majority of code breaches belonged to Bell (29.1 percent), while Telus and Rogers accounted for an even 19.6 percent. Freedom Mobile was responsible for 15.8 percent. Fido, Virgin, Videotron and Chatr had fewer but also recorded breaches.

Although all these complaints seem alarming the agency did make a point of recognizing that there was still 182 service providers that had zero complaints and 107 more that had three or less.