Yahoo Finance Bell angers the most customers again, as overall telecom complaints soar 44%
More Canadians are telling an industry ombudsman they are fed up with their phone, internet and television services, with billing mistakes and misleading contract terms topping the list of gripes.
Complaints against telecom providers are up 44 per cent, according to a mid-year report from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS).
The industry-funded group mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to resolve consumer spats with telecom companies said on Tuesday it received 9,831 complaints between Aug. 1 and Jan. 31, up from 6,849 during the same period a year earlier.
Bell Canada, a division of BCE Inc. (BCE.TO), once again represented the overwhelming majority of grievances with 3,034. Thats more than three times Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI-B.TO) in second place with 915. Cogeco Inc. (CGO.TO) ranked third, followed by Telus (T.TO) and Freedom Mobile, formally Wind Mobile, now owned by Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR-B.TO).
The figures for the largest providers do not include sub-brands such as BCE’s Virgin Mobile and Lucky Mobile, Rogers’ Fido and Chatr, and Telus’ Koodo and Public Mobile.
"Incorrect charges" and "non-disclosure of terms" were the top two complaints, accounting for a combined 29 per cent of all grievances in the six months covered by the latest CCTS report. “Intermittent/Inadequate quality of service,” “credit/refund not received,” and “breach of contract” followed on the list of most common objections.
CCTS said it resolved 8,877 of the complaints received.
Freedom Mobile joined the top five most-complained-about companies on the list for the first time, racking up the most breaches of The Wireless Code at 34 per cent.
Overall, Wireless Code breaches jumped 42 per cent versus the same period last year.
Wireless services accounted for 37 per cent of all issues handled by CCTS, while 28 per cent related to internet service, and 18 per cent of the issues were about television.
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