People crowd around a Starbucks coffee shop to use its free wifi on the Bell network, during a major outage of Rogers Communications' mobile and internet networks, in Toronto, on July 8.CHRIS HELGREN/Reuters
The number of complaints that Canadians lodged with the federal telecom ombudsman fell by 25 per cent this year, with internet-related complaints down by 40 per cent.
The federal Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said that, between Aug. 1, 2021, and July 31, 2022, it accepted more than 12,000 complaints from consumers.
The CCTS is an independent body funded by the industry that helps consumers settle disputes with phone, internet and TV services providers. Consumers must attempt to resolve their issues with their providers before escalating the complaint to the CCTS, and this process can take several weeks or longer.
The latest annual report, published Wednesday, includes the second full year of the pandemic. However, it does not reflect the full fallout from the Rogers July 8 outage that affected service across the country. The CCTS received most of those complaints after the reporting period ended.
Howard Maker, the commissioner of the CCTS, said that while the overall decrease could be seen as an improvement, it does not necessarily provide an accurate picture of consumer satisfaction.
“I would be very, very cautious about judging the state of the telecom environment in Canada by whether the number of complaints in a given year went up or down. Some service providers are doing better in some areas, while other service providers are doing not as well in others,” he said.
Mr. Maker said the decrease can be attributed to a number of factors that the independent body does not study, and therefore he said he could not comment on specific factors behind the trends.
However, industry observers noted that the decline could be related to a return to the office or in-person work following pandemic lockdowns. While internet complaints were down this year, roaming issues rose 130 per cent to prepandemic levels.
The decreases could also be linked to new guidelines published in several codes of conduct released over the past few years by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the telecom industry regulator.
For instance, the number of disclosure-related complaints – such as the terms or costs of plans – has dropped significantly since the Wireless Code required providers to be more clear in their offerings, Mr. Maker said.
The report also identified some new trends, including a surge in the number of cellphone financing-related issues, which rose by 142 per cent. Consumers who made these complaints said they were unaware of early cancellation fees, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars, in order to change phone plans after the initial contract was over. While they still only make up a small part of all complaints – just 2 per cent – Mr. Maker said the rate of increase is concerning.
“Canadians are anxious to have the hottest, greatest new smartphones and service providers are anxious to put them in our hands. But consumers are struggling to understand all the risks and rewards and complexities of these plans,” Mr. Maker said.
Complaints about Bell Canada were down by 38 per cent this year, the greatest decrease of all the providers and notable compared with the 25-per-cent average decline. Rogers received 15-per-cent fewer complaints since last year. Telus was the only company of the three that received more this year, with complaints increasing by 2.9 per cent.
When combined with their other wireless brands, the three companies drew nearly three-quarters of all accepted complaints this year.
While the Bell and Rogers brands account for about the same share of all complaints – 28 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively – their trends have moved in opposite directions since the CCTS’s 2018-2019 report.
During this period Bell’s share has steadily decreased, from 40 per cent three years ago. Meanwhile, Rogers’s share increased from 15 per cent.
“It’s worth noting that we are the largest communications provider in Canada and therefore we serve a greater number of customers overall than many of our competitors listed in the report,” Bell spokesperson Éliane Légaré said.
Rogers spokesperson Nilani Logeswaran said that the company is committed to listening to customers and using their feedback to improve.
The Telus brands accounted for 17 per cent of all accepted complaints, up from 14 per cent in 2018-2019.
“While we are proud of our longstanding leadership position, we are focused on finding ways to improve and we will not be satisfied until we receive zero complaints,” said Zainul Mawji, president of customer excellence, in a statement.
Telus did not answer specific questions about their complaints.
In a letter posted Wednesday, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a consumer advocacy group, called on the CCTS to improve public awareness of its services, following “disturbing” statistics in its report that show that most providers are not telling consumers about the services it offers.
“The industry has an obligation to refer customers to the CCTS when their complaint is escalated and not resolved adequately, but the CCTS found in nearly 9 out of 10 of these cases they do not,” noted John Lawford, PIAC’s executive director and general counsel.