Ottawa – 19 November 2020 – Canadian telecommunications companies are unacceptably failing to comply with resolutions and in some cases falsely claiming to resolve consumer complaints to Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS), according to the 2019 Compliance Monitoring Report, says consumer advocacy group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
“We are shocked, but not surprised, at the companies’ variety of non-compliance with a simple complaint resolution scheme for telecom customers,” stated John Lawford, PIAC’s Executive Director and General Counsel. “Consumers have told us for years that problems exist with the process.”
The 2019 CCTS Compliance Report, found:
1 – PSPs (“Participating Service Providers”) indicated to CCTS that complaints from customers were resolved when they actually remained unresolved in the opinion of customers. The Report notes a reduction in these issues (in particular for one major PSP) after education and communication with the CCTS.
2 – Failure to implement resolutions, recommendations and decisions is widespread amongst PSPs.
3 – In two documented cases, PSPs threatened customers, either by imposing an additional fee on a customer, or even with a lawsuit for having filed a complaint with the CCTS. In other cases, the PSPs were found to pressure customers to withdraw their complaints (18 instances).
4 – Widespread failure by PSPs to properly present the option to complain to the CCTS on their website.
“PIAC has asked CCTS for some years to add a new complaint category for ‘failure to action’ complaint resolutions and that this should be logged and treated as a new complaint, as is done by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in Australia,” added Lawford.
For more information:
John Lawford
Executive Director and General Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
Tel: 613-562-4002 ext. 125
Cell: 613-447-8125
jlawford@piac.ca