Service Delivery – Complete Loss of Service

A customer experienced a complete loss of their home phone, internet and television services for three business days. The customer incurred extra data overages because they had to use their wireless phone as a hot spot so that they could continue to work from home while they were waiting for the services to be repaired. The customer asked the PSP to credit the residential service fees for outage period, to waive the extra data overage charges, and to provide the customer with a larger data plan for protection from bill shock in case of future incidents

What did the PSP include in its response? The PSP acknowledged that the customer did experience a service outage, confirming that faulty wiring in the area was the cause. The PSP explained that it has waived one month’s worth of service charges for all customers who were impacted by the outage. To demonstrate what happened, the PSP provided a copy of its service terms and a copy of the invoice covering the downtime period. In addition to the one-month service credit, the PSP agreed to waive the data overages that the customer says they incurred as a direct result of the outage. The PSP also offered to change the customer’s data plan, but at full cost to the customer.

Was the response complete? No. The PSP failed to provide the account records, including the relevant technical support/repair records.

What will happen to the complaint next? The complaint will escalate to Investigations and a Complaint Resolution Officer will review the available information and before contacting the customer and the PSP to explore the possibility of resolving the complaint and to obtain the missing information. If the complaint remains unresolved, it will likely end up being closed further to section 9.1(f).

Key Message

Service delivery complaints are often complex, and the investigations can be time consuming. Whether or not the PSP admits fault, the customer’s account records are necessary to complete the investigation.  The CCTS is an independent, neutral third-party agency. In order to maintain our integrity in the eyes of the customer, and our stakeholders, we cannot rely solely on what the PSP says in order to complete our investigation. As such, reviewing the applicable account records and technical support/ repair records would help us to confirm whether or not PSP failed in its obligations. If these documents are provided with the unresolved response, this will help us to match the provider’s response regarding what it says happened to what actually happened in a more timely manner.