Canadian consumer complaints about telecommunication companies decreased 26% between August 1, 2021 and January 31, 2022 compared with a year earlier, according to a new report from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS).
The agency, which was created to resolve telecom-related complaints, said there were 6,682 new complaints in the most recent six-month period.
The CCTS report found that a lack of disclosure remains the top issue across services and platforms. There were 2,070 disclosure complaints filed over the six months, with 'contract conflicts with agreement' leading the way.
The second-largest number of complaints was around billing, with 2,061 incorrect-charge complaints filed. The report also found that wireless users raised the most issues overall, followed by internet, television and landline phone customers. Nearly half of the complaints came from wireless users.
Those complaints about wireless raised 7,683 issues and 24 confirmed wireless code of conduct breaches. The most common wireless code of conduct breach involved service providers not giving reasonable notice to customers before disconnecting them.
While Bell (BCE) had the most customer complaints at 1,182, accounting for 17.7% of total complaints, the number of issues filed dropped by 36.1% for the telecom giant. Complaints about Rogers (RCI) went down 16.5% to 1,003, while Telus (TSE) complaints decreased almost 17% to 535.
Nearly nine out of 10 complaints were resolved within 30 days, according to the report.
