CCTS helps record number of customers with unresolved phone, TV and internet complaints
Ottawa (January 15, 2025) – The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) has released its 2023-24 Annual Report which details customer complaint data, trends and emerging issues across Canada’s telecom and TV landscape. The report covers the period between August 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024.
The CCTS successfully responded to a 38% increase in complaints this year, helping a record number of Canadians and resolving almost 90% of complaints. The new report reveals that consumers continue to raise concerns about:
- Unexpected charges or increases to bills for their phone, TV and internet services
- Lack of clear and timely information from their service providers
- Slow or interrupted quality of service for wireless phone and internet services
“Billing-related issues top the list again this year as customers try to manage the rising cost of living and continue to be frustrated by what they are seeing on their service bills,” says Howard Maker, Commissioner and CEO of the CCTS. “Complaints we receive often have many layers of complexity and include issues such as unexpected fees or promotion end dates, incorrect charges, or price increases. The CCTS is here to help with these and other issues. We assess whether service providers have followed the rules, and if they haven’t done so, we work to make things right for the customer.”
Among the highlights in the 2023-24 Annual Report:
- Billing is the leading complaint issue: We received more than 17,000 billing-related issues, up 52% from last year, when billing accounted for 39% of all issues raised. Top billing issues include unexpected charges, unexpected price increases, and failure to provide promised credits or refunds.
- Customers are experiencing service performance problems: Customers continue to raise issues about service interruptions, slower than expected internet or wireless data speeds, poor audio quality or dropped phone calls. This year, 43% of service quality issues came from wireless customers and 36% from internet customers.
- Contracts are unclear and missing important information. Complaints expressing concerns about lack of contract clarity increased 35% across all service types. Each year, telecom and TV customers complain about ‘mismatches’ between what they expect to receive and what they actually receive, such as not being aware of contract details, service level expectations, or promotional pricing limitations.
- Troubling increase in problems with service cancellation and switching service providers: Being unable to cancel a service appeared in complaints 47% more often this year, after a 31% jump last year. Complaints about being unable to transfer wireless or phone services to another provider increased by 25%, while concerns about termination fees increased by 35%.
- Nearly 90% of all accepted complaints were from customers of just 10 service providers. Of the 436 telecom and TV service brands participating in the CCTS, Rogers, Bell and TELUS remain in the top three spots for complaints received.
- Rogers remains the most complained-about service provider: This year, complaints from Rogers customers increased by 68%, representing almost one-quarter of the CCTS’ total complaint volume.
“We strongly recommend that service providers review their practices and contracts so that all details are clearly disclosed, such as discount periods, cancellation fees, financing plans and circumstances where prices can be modified by the service provider,” states Mr. Maker. “We also encourage customers to seek clarity from service providers before agreeing to a service and to contact the CCTS if they have a complaint they can’t resolve with their provider.”
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About the CCTS
The CCTS is Canada’s national, independent telecom and TV ombuds organization dedicated to working with consumers and service providers to provide impartial, fair, and effective complaint resolution services. As of the end of 2023-24, 257 of these brands had zero complaints, and 95 brands had three or fewer complaints.
For over 16 years, the CCTS has kept customers connected by handling over 190,000 complaints – most of which are resolved within 20 days. About 9 out of 10 customers find a satisfactory resolution through our free service. Customers continue to be overwhelmingly satisfied with the service received from CCTS staff and the ease of filing a complaint online. We encourage customers to reach out to us for help if they are unable to resolve a dispute with their service provider.
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Media contact:
Nasha Brownridge
Director, Communications and Stakeholder Affairs
communications@ccts-cprst.ca