Service Delivery – Inadequate/Intermittent

A customer complained that they were not receiving the internet speed that they were paying for. The PSP contacted the customer and arranged for a technician’s visit to test the service quality. The technician concluded that the speed the customer was receiving fell below parameters of their plan most of the time, likely because of network congestion occurring in the area. The technician informed the customer that their service area was scheduled for an infrastructure upgrade in the next year which should resolve the issue. The PSP followed up with the customer and offered a 50% discount on the monthly fees until the upgrade was completed. The customer refused the offer because it did not resolve the underlying service issue, and so the PSP reported the complaint as unresolved.

What did the PSP include in its response? The PSP’s unresolved response included a signed copy of the contract and related documents, a copy of the technician’s work order and diagnostic tests and usage records covering the timespan during which the customer alleges that they have been experiencing problems, as well as explanation accompanying each of these documents.

Was the response complete? Yes. The PSP provided a copy of the signed contract and related documents which demonstrated what plan the customer agreed to, the speeds included in the plan, and the service terms associated with the plan, including a clause that explained that the PSP could not guarantee the quality of its service. The signed contract and related documents also demonstrated that the PSP obtained the customer’s informed and express consent to the aforementioned terms. The technician’s work order and diagnostic tests confirmed the PSP’s explanation of what was actually happening with the customer’s service. The PSP also provided copies of speed tests it had conducted with the customer over the past few months, detailed usage records to show how much use the customer was able to get out of the service despite the speed issues, as well as an internal document demonstrating the available plans and their associated speeds. The PSP told us that based on the known network issues, the speed test history, the usage records, and the available plans, the customer was experiencing a lower quality of service during peak hours and that this appeared to coincide with a drop in monthly usage. For those reasons, the PSP offered the 50% discount, which reduced the month fees below the regular price of the lowest available plan.

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. We will also consider the reasonableness of the PSP’s offer by analyzing the impact of the service delivery issue on the customer’s ability to use the service. If the complaint remains unresolved, it will likely end up being closed further to section 9.1(f).

Key Message

When PSPs provide a complete response, we are able to review a complete picture of PSP’s obligations to the customer and if it was able to meet those obligations. In the case where a provider has not met its obligation, but has offered a remedy, we can review the available information to determine if that remedy is reasonable or not. Why pursue resolution if the customer refused the offer? PSP has to be willing to provide a reasonable resolution, even if the customer doesn’t accept it; We’re reasonable though – sometimes after completing an investigation and communicating the analysis to the customer, the customer “sees the light” and agrees to accept the remedy.

We start our assessment of the offer by weighing the consequences of the PSPs failure(s) against the requested resolution and any offers that the PSP has already extended to the customer. We then consider what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances. Consequences of a PSP’s actions can vary widely, from limitations on the customer’s ability to use their service(s), incorrect billing and associated collections activity, including late payment fees incurred, to inconvenience. If we conclude that the PSP was at fault, the minimum expectation is that PSP the will “put the customer back to where they were when they started”.