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

46

Confirmed Wireless Code breaches

5

Confirmed Television Service Provider Code breaches

3

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

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[FOOTNOTE]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.[/FOOTNOTE]

 

Table 3: Top 10 issues raised in complaints

 

Table 4: Breakdown of disclosure issues

 

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.

 

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[FOOTNOTE]See the CRTC’s Wireless Code for full text of appropriate sections.[/FOOTNOTE]

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[FOOTNOTE]See the CRTC’s Television Service Provider Code for full text of appropriate sections.[/FOOTNOTE]
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[FOOTNOTE]See the CRTC’s Deposit and Disconnection Code for full text of appropriate sections.[/FOOTNOTE]

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.

Appendix B – Confirmed Wireless Code Breaches by Section

August 1, 2019 – January 31, 2020