Law Professor Fights Telus Plan to Make Telecom Complaints Harder to File

Telus wants Canadians to show paperwork before Canada’s telecom complaints watchdog will take their case, and a University of Ottawa law professor is pushing back.

Marina Pavlović, an expert in consumer protection, argues the idea would leave customers at the mercy of their own carrier, the Toronto Star reports.

In an October 7 CRTC submission, Telus urged that the CCTS turn away cases unless people can show written proof they reached a second tier of support. Today, customers need to give their provider a fair shot at fixing things, with no evidence required.

“Consumers should not have to understand their provider’s organizational chart,” Pavlović told the paper.

Her objection lands as volumes surge. The watchdog logged a record 53,195 complaints in its latest reporting year, a 79 per cent jump, and its prior annual report showed Telus complaints rising 77.9 per cent.

Telus leans on a September poll it paid for, in which 81 per cent of 1,100 Canadians said carriers deserve a chance to fix problems first. Pavlović counters that the survey never asked about rejecting undocumented complaints. That poll also showed 57 per cent of people didn’t know the CCTS existed, and 24 per cent recognized only its name.

With two law students, she asked the CRTC to make carriers mention the CCTS the moment someone complains. Her worry is that tougher filing rules “could reduce the count without resolving those problems.”

Telus told the Star it wants providers to get “the first, reasonable opportunity” to resolve issues. The carrier has also challenged the CCTS’s legal authority outright.

Comments close November 13, with a CRTC hearing on consumer protection codes set for November 30 in Gatineau.

Should carriers be able to make you prove you escalated a problem before the CCTS steps in?