Canada - Complaints about telecoms rose 17% year on year, mostly contract disputrs and billing errors

[vancouver sun] Canadians are continuing their love affair with digital communications, but it's a rocky relationship.

Complaints about telecommunications companies rose 17 per cent this year, according to the 2009-10 annual report of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), an independent body created by the federal government.

The report said that almost 80 per cent of the 3,747 complaints involved a contract dispute or billing error, with contract-related issues increasing to 35 per cent this year from 27 per cent in 2008-09.

"[Complaints] are up in all fields," CCTS Commissioner Howard Maker said in an interview about the report.

"And this is the first time that we've had one single line of business [wireless] that accounted for more than half of the complaints."

In its report, the CCTS said that 52 per cent of complaints involved wireless services, up from 38 per cent in 2008-09.

Another 24 per cent -- the same as the previous year -- involved local exchange or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), while complaints involving Internet access dropped slightly to 15.2 per cent.

Bell Canada, with 21.6 million customers in total, had the largest number of complaints with 1,428.

Rogers Communications Inc., with about 14 million customers, had 540 complaints.

Telus, with 12 million customers, had 657 complaints.

Maker said he's not surprised at the surge in complaints about wireless products, because it's the area of greatest growth in terms of subscribers, and involves the greatest pace of change, and the greatest degree of complexity at the retail level.

Maker said consumers are becoming much more aware that they can file complaints to the CCTS. "Before, they didn't really have anywhere to go."

Simon Fraser University Professor Richard Smith, a telecommunications expert in the school of communication, agreed that the rising number of complaints could be because of increased awareness among consumers.

"They're not super happy with the service, and never have been, but there's a growing awareness of an ability to complain to somebody and who to complain to."

Smith said he doesn't believe service is getting worse, but the report could prompt companies to ramp up their services.

Meanwhile the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission said Thursday that Telus Communications had agreed to review its policies and make a $200,000 charitable donation as part of an agreement with the CRTC over its use of automated calling devices.

Telus was using the devices to notify prepaid mobile customers of an actual or imminent service interruption and how to purchase more minutes to avoid one, the CRTC said Thursday.

Of the Telus agreement, the CRTC's chief telecommunications enforcement officer said she was pleased Telus acted swiftly when the commission's concerns about complying with the CRTC's unsolicited telecommunications rules were brought to the company's attention.

"[Telus] had just under 100 complaints," said Andrea Rosen. "Telus agreed, and very quickly, to stop using [the automated calling devices] as a result of the commission's concerns."

Under the agreement, Telus did not admit fault and the commission had not issued a formal finding of liability.

However, the telecommunications giant agreed to several conditions, including: immediately ceasing making those types of calls without obtaining prior consent; making a charitable $200,000 donation to establish a Telus scholarship at Carleton University in Ottawa to support graduate studies in the areas of policy and regulation; and reviewing its compliance policies to ensure continuing adherence with the CRTC's rules.

Michael Hennessy, senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs at Telus, said that Telus immediately stopped using the automated devices as soon as the company was made aware of the complaints, which were filed between October 2008 and July 2010.

Hennessey said Telus did not believe it did anything wrong by using the devices because they were only telling existing customers how to add minutes to their prepaid phones so they wouldn't be cut off.

Telecommunications complaints on the rise - Consumers unhappy with the service are becoming increasingly aware of their rights