Consumer Telecom Complaints Drop; Rogers/Fido and Bell/Virgin Account for Over 50%: CCTS

Canada’s Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) today published its 2021-22 Annual Report.

The CCTS is a national and independent organization dedicated to resolving customer complaints about telecommunications and television services, fairly and free of charge. It deals with complaints regarding billing errors, compliance with contract terms and commitments, service delivery, credit management, and collections issues.

Between August 1, 2021, and July 31, 2022, the Commission accepted over 12,000 complaints from consumers about their phone, internet, and TV services, down an impressive 25% year-over-year. Nearly 40% of complaints accepted by the CCTS during the period had to do with billing issues.

Even though they saw an overall decrease in CCTS complaints year-over-year, Bell and Rogers (along with their respective flanker brands Virgin Plus and Fido) still accounted for a little over half (50.7%) of all accepted complaints.

Rogers and Fido topped the charts with a combined 26.1% of the total complaints received by the CCTS. Meanwhile, Bell and Virgin together weren’t too far behind at 24.6.

Telus and its flanker brand, Koodo, were among the few providers to see a year-over-year increase in CCTS complaint volume during the 2021-22 period. However, Telus and Koodo only took home 16.3% of the complaints, handily beating national rivals Rogers and Bell (and their respective flanker brands).

Individually, the CCTS accepted 2,198 complaints against Bell (down 37.5% year-over-year), 2,014 for Rogers (down 14.7%), 1,328 for Fido (down 20.8%), 1,256 for Telus (up 2.9%), 941 for Virgin Plus (down 19.4%), and 828 for Koodo (up 10.5%).

Shaw, which is seeking a long-embattled acquisition by Rogers, accounted for 4.4% of the complaints. The company’s Freedom Mobile brand, which is set to be sold to Quebecor-owned Vidéotron if the Rogers-Shaw deal is approved, attracted 5.9% of complaints. Vidéotron was the subject of 4.8% of the cases for the period.

In its report, the CCTS’s once again noted that it received a large number of complaints in which it should have been obvious to the provider that it needed to fix the issue yet it failed to do so.

“We have been helping consumers resolve complaints with their communications service providers for almost 15 years. No matter how simple or difficult the case may be, Canadians can always reach out to us for help,” said Howard Maker, Commissioner and CEO of the CCTS.

Earlier this year, the CCTS released its 2021 Compliance Monitoring Report (CMR), detailing approximately 15,000 complaints of non-compliance against service providers.

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