The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) has highlighted the need for telecom and TV service providers to improve their compliance with customer complaint-handling requirements.
The 2022 Compliance Monitoring Report (CMR), published on Thursday, reveals a concerning increase in service providers failing to promptly implement agreed-upon settlements or remedies imposed by the CCTS.
The CMR, which covers data from January 1 to December 31, 2022, focuses on service provider compliance with the CCTS complaint-handling rules. These rules are crucial for the CCTS to investigate complaints efficiently and effectively. The report indicates that non-compliance significantly impacts customers, often requiring the CCTS to intervene to ensure customers receive the appropriate resolution.
“There are valuable opportunities for service providers to improve their compliance with the CCTS’ complaints process,” says Janet Lo, CCTS’ Assistant Commissioner for Legal, Regulatory and Stakeholder Affairs, in a statement. “We are seeing more instances where providers fail to respond to complaints within the prescribed timeline or provide relevant documents to our staff.”
The report also highlighted the need for service providers to raise public awareness about the CCTS. Most of the sixty audited service providers either lacked an easily-accessible website complaint page or did not provide information about the CCTS on their site, as required. These providers also failed to ensure that their website’s search function returned results for key complaint-related terms.
Despite these challenges, the CCTS remains committed to working with service providers to improve compliance, it says. In 2022, their efforts resulted in more service providers complying with public awareness rules, thereby increasing customer awareness of the CCTS’ free complaint-resolution service.
The Compliance Monitoring Enforcement Program guides Participating Service Providers (PSPs) in understanding and complying with their obligations. These include following the CCTS complaint-handling process rules, informing customers about their rights to escalate unresolved issues to the CCTS, and paying their fees to the CCTS.
The program includes enforcement measures such as public disclosure of non-compliant PSPs and the authority to terminate participation in the CCTS. In 2022, ICA Microsystems (ICA) was expelled from the CCTS for failing to comply with several mandatory requirements. However, in 2023, ICA is working with the CCTS to rectify its non-compliance and rejoin the CCTS as a participating service provider.
