2019-2020 Mid-Year Report

Executive Summary

About the Numbers

Complaints were down 12%.
Cogeco and Bell largely contributed to this decline, with Cogeco recording a 75% decrease while Bell recorded a 26% reduction. TELUS also had a 7% decline.
Fido (+29%) and Rogers (+6%) complaints increased despite the overall decline.
“Disclosure issues” and “incorrect charges” were the most complained-about problems, making up 26% of all reported issues.
Breaches of the Wireless Code decreased from 61 to 46, breaches of the Television Service Provider Code increased by 4 to a total of 5, and breaches of the Deposit and Disconnection Code, increased from 0 to 3.

About Our Activities

The CCTS staff prepared for the CRTC’s Internet Code, which took effect on January 31, 2020.
The CCTS terminated the participation of two Participating Service Providers that ceased operations, and referred one service provider to the CRTC for non-compliance with the requirement to participate in the CCTS.
The CCTS has initiated an external review of its complaint-handling processes and related technologies, to ensure that it continues to deliver the best possible service to consumers and service providers.

All comparisons are to Mid-Year Report 2018-19 unless otherwise specified.

8,621

Complaints accepted

8,637

Complaints concluded

90%

Complaints resolved

Confirmed Wireless Code breaches

Confirmed Television Service Provider Code breaches

Confirmed Deposit and Disconnection Code breaches

Operational Statistics

Figure 1: Summary of key statistics

There were 8,621 complaints accepted, with 8,637 being concluded. Out of the concluded complaints, 7,750 were resolved, 884 were closed, 2 Recommendations were accepted and 1 Decision was issued. 5,965 complaints were resolved at the pre-investigation level, 1,785 complaints were resolved at the investigation level. 319 complaints were closed at the pre-investigation level, 565 complaints were closed at the investigation level.

Complaints by Service Provider

Table 1: Top 5 Participating Services Providers by complaints accepted

wdt_ID	Participating Service Provider	Mid-Year Report 2019-20	Mid-Year Report 2018-19	Change
1	Bell	2,235	3,033	-26.3
2	Rogers	969	915	5.9
3	TELUS	696	746	-6.7
4	Fido	647	502	28.9
5	Freedom Mobile	585	637	-8.2

All statistics are as at February 1, 2020 and are subject to audit. See Appendix A for complaints accepted for all service providers.

Issues Raised in Complaints

Table 2: Number of issues by service^[1]

wdt_ID	Service	Issues	% of all issues	Change in number of issues
1	Wireless	10,527	44.2%	28.0%
2	Internet	6,329	26.5%	2.8%
3	TV	3,451	14.5%	-14.7%
4	Local phone	3,228	13.5%	-9.7%
5	Other	304	1.3%	69.8%
6	Total	23,839	100%	7.5%

Table 3: Top 10 issues raised in complaints

wdt_ID	Issues	Wireless	Internet	TV	Local phone	Long distance	Total issues	% of all issues
1	Disclosure issues	1,613	780	514	383	13	3,303	13.9%
2	Incorrect charge	990	792	543	449	55	2,829	11.9%
3	Intermittent/Inadequate quality of service	694	884	226	174	10	1,988	8.3%
4	Breach of contract	772	322	177	156	2	1,429	6.0%
5	Credit/refund not received	585	321	189	150	8	1,253	5.3%
6	Legitimacy and amount of early cancellation fees	288	325	127	224	7	971	4.1%
7	Credit reporting	418	186	116	81	3	804	3.4%
8	Regular price increase of monthly price plans	156	229	183	149	2	719	3.0%
9	Complete loss of service	245	224	89	129	9	696	2.9%
10	Material contract change	318	152	120	84	6	680	2.9%

Table 4: Breakdown of disclosure issues

wdt_ID	Issues	Wireless	Internet	TV	Local phone	Long distance	Total issues	% of all issues
1	Agreement conflicts with what customer agreed to	1,065	510	307	247	7	2,136	9.0%
2	Misinformed about promotions	321	150	124	69	5	669	2.8%
3	Service provider’s right to make unilateral changes	105	78	61	49	1	294	1.2%
4	Customer doesn’t meet eligibility requirements	81	36	19	16	0	152	0.6%
5	Customer agreed to change in service within trial period and it was not done	41	6	3	2	0	52	0.2%

Table 5: Top 5 out-of-mandate issues

Customers often raise issues that fall outside of the CCTS’ mandate. This table identifies the top 5 issues.

wdt_ID	Issue	Number	% of total out-of-mandate issues
1	Customer service (e.g. wait times, rude representative, etc.)	4,992	38.0%
2	Service provider general operating practices and policies (e.g. the contents of plans and packages, the terms of fair use policies, etc.)	2,885	21.9%
3	Pricing (e.g. prices set by service providers)	840	6.4%
4	Plant/poles/towers	637	4.8%
5	Privacy issues	601	4.6%

Code of Conduct Reporting

The CCTS does not investigate every alleged breach of a Code. Complaints that are resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the customer and service provider do not receive additional analysis to determine whether a breach of the Code has occurred. These are described as “not requiring investigation” in the figures in this section.

The CCTS publishes an Annotated Guide to the Wireless Code and an Annotated Guide to the Deposit & Disconnection Code.

Terminology

Alleged breach: When a customer claims that the service provider failed to perform an obligation under any of the CRTC’s codes of conduct, or when a CCTS staff member identifies a potential code breach based on the details of a complaint. Each breach references an individual section of the Code. Thus, more than one alleged breach may be recorded in a complaint.

Confirmed breach: When the CCTS can confirm, based on its investigation, that a provision of any CRTC code of conduct has been breached.

No breach: When the CCTS has investigated an alleged breach and concluded that the service provider didn’t breach any CRTC code of conduct.

This report includes only those Code-related issues that arose in complaints which have been concluded and for which breaches have been confirmed in the reporting period.

The Wireless Code

Figure 2: Summary of Wireless Code breaches

There were 1,614 alleged breaches. 1,480 did not require investigation. 134 breaches were investigated. 46 were confirmed as breaches and 88 were verified as not a breach.

Table 6: Top Wireless Code breaches by section^[2]

wdt_ID	Section of Code	Total breaches
1	I.2. Service provider did not give reasonable notice to the customer at least 14 calendar days or/and 24 hours before disconnection and the notice did not contain all relevant information.	18
2	B.1. Paper or electronic copy of the contract was not provided to the customer; contract did not include all the information listed in the Wireless Code.	9
3	E.2. Service provider did not suspend roaming data overage charges once they reached $100.	9
4	G.5. Cancellation date	3
5	C.1. Critical Information Summary	2
6	E.4. Charges for device/service not purchased	2
7	D.2. Changes to other contract terms and conditions	1
8	I.1. When disconnection may occur	1
9	G.1. Early cancellation fees - General	1
10	Total	46

See Appendix B for a breakdown of the confirmed Wireless Code breaches by section.

Television Service Provider Code

Table 7: Television Service Provider Code breaches^[3]

wdt_ID	Section of Code	Total breaches
1	VII. Paper or electronic copy of the contract was not provided to the customer; contract did not include all the information listed in the Television Service Provider Code.	2
2	X. Service provider did not offer to send the customer a written summary of the requested changes to individual or discretionary channels.	3
3	Total	5

Figure 3: Summary of Television Service Provider Code breaches

There were 297 alleged breaches. 285 did not require investigation. 12 breaches were investigated. 5 were confirmed as breaches and 7 were verified as not a breach.

Deposit and Disconnection Code

Figure 4: Summary of D&D Code breaches

There were 79 alleged breaches. 70 did not require investigation. 9 breaches were investigated. 3 were confirmed as breaches and 6 were verified as not a breach.

Table 8: Summary of D&D Code breaches^[4]

wdt_ID	Section of Code	Total breaches
1	3.1. The circumstances to disconnect a customer's service were not present, but the service provider disconnected the service anyway.	1
2	3.2. Service provider did not give reasonable notice to the customer at least 14 calendar days before disconnection or the notice did not contain all relevant information.	1
3	3.3. Service provider did not give reasonable notice to the customer at least 24 hours before disconnection.	1
4	Total	3

Appendix A – Complaints by Service Provider

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

This list includes service providers that received at least one complaint during the reporting period. Overall, 384 service providers and brands participated in the CCTS during this reporting period (including 15 service providers that joined during this period). No complaints were received about 222 Participating Service Providers.

wdt_ID	Rank	Participating Service Provider	Mid-Year Report 2019-20	Proportion of all complaints accepted Mid-Year Report 2019-20	Proportion of all complaints accepted Mid-Year Report 2018-19	Change in proportion
1	1	Bell	2,235	25.9%	30.9%	-5
2	2	Rogers	969	11.2%	9.3%	2
3	3	TELUS	696	8.1%	7.6%	1
4	4	Fido	647	7.5%	5.1%	2
5	5	Freedom Mobile	585	6.8%	6.5%	0
6	6	Virgin Mobile	564	6.5%	6.2%	0
7	7	Shaw	408	4.7%	3.3%	1
8	8	Videotron	348	4.0%	3.9%	0
9	9	Koodo	316	3.7%	3.4%	0
10	10	Cogeco Connexion	200	2.3%	8.1%	-6

Appendix B – Confirmed Wireless Code Breaches by Section

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

wdt_ID	Breached Code Section	Confirmed breaches Mid-Year Report 2019-20	Proportion of all confirmed breaches Mid-Year Report 2019-20	Proportion of all confirmed breaches Mid-Year Report 2018-19	Change in proportion
1	A. Clarity	0	0.0%	3.3%	-3
2	A.1. Plain language	0	0.0%	2.0%	-2
3	A.3. Unlimited services	0	0.0%	1.6%	-2
4	B. Contracts and related documents	9	19.6%	18.0%	2
5	B.1.(i-ii). Permanent copy of the contract and related documents	9	19.6%	4.9%	15
6	B.1.(iii). a-e Key contract terms and conditions	0	0.0%	11.0%	-11
7	B.1.(iii). f-m Other aspects of the contract	0	0.0%	1.6%	-2
8	C. Critical Information Summary	2	4.3%	3.0%	1
9	C.1. Critical Information Summary	2	4.3%	3.3%	1
10	D. Changes to contracts and related documents	1	2.2%	2.0%	1

Footnotes

A single complaint may raise more than one issue for more than one service. The complaints concluded between August 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020 raised 23,839 issues.
See the CRTC’s Wireless Code for full text of appropriate sections.
See the CRTC’s Television Service Provider Code for full text of appropriate sections.
See the CRTC’s Deposit and Disconnection Code for full text of appropriate sections.

Mid-Year Report

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

About the Numbers

About Our Activities

Operational Statistics

Complaints by Service Provider

Issues Raised in Complaints

Code of Conduct Reporting

Terminology

The Wireless Code

Television Service Provider Code

Deposit and Disconnection Code

Appendix A – Complaints by Service Provider

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

Appendix B – Confirmed Wireless Code Breaches by Section

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020

Footnotes