Executive Summary

About the Numbers

  • Complaints are up 6%
  • Almost 9 out of 10 complaints resolved (often within 30 days)
  • Customers raised more internet-related issues since the start of the COVID pandemic, such as poor service quality and complete loss of service.
  • Bell accounts for 20.3% of all complaints accepted, followed by Rogers at 13.2%, Fido at 10.3%, TELUS at 7.1% and Freedom Mobile at 6.5%.

 

About Our Activities

  • The CCTS issued two Decisions: the first was regarding Bell Canada failing to honour a “lifetime guaranteed” price on a package for multiple services, and the second was regarding Comwave blocking the porting of numbers, suspending services without consent, applying an Early Cancellation Fee and continuing to bill following suspension.
  • The CCTS terminated the participation of Cinco Telecom, Suntel Networks and Roam Mobility for no longer offering services that fall within the scope of the CCTS.

All comparisons are to Mid-Year Report 2019-20 unless otherwise specified.

9,121

Complaints accepted

8,541

Complaints concluded

88%

Complaints resolved

28

Confirmed Wireless Code breaches

5

Confirmed Television Service Provider Code breaches

4

Confirmed Internet Code breaches

1

Confirmed Deposit and Disconnection Code breach

Operational Statistics

Figure 1: Summary of key statistics
There were 9,121 complaints accepted, with 8,541 being concluded. Out of the concluded complaints, 7,526 were resolved, 1,011 were closed, 2 Recommendations were accepted and 2 Decisions were issued. 6,183 complaints were resolved at the pre-investigation level, 1,343 complaints were resolved at the investigation level. 456 complaints were closed at the pre-investigation level, 555 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, 2021 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]Complaints can raise more than one issue. The complaints concluded between August 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021 raised 20,460 issues.[/FOOTNOTE]

 

Table 3: Top 10 issues raised in complaints

There were no issues raised regarding white page directories.

 

Table 4: Breakdown of disclosure issues

There were no issues raised regarding white page directories.

 

Table 5: Top 5 out-of-mandate issues

Customers can 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 did not 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 745 alleged breaches. 663 did not require investigation. 82 breaches were investigated. 28 were confirmed as breaches and 54 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]
Section of Code Total breaches
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. 10
C.1 Critical Information Summary 6
E.2 Service provider did not suspend roaming data overage charges once they reached $100 3
G.1 Early cancellation fees – general 2
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 2
E.3 Service provider did not suspend data overage charges once they reached $50 1
G.5 Cancellation date 1
E.4 Charges for device/service not purchased 1
F.3 Lost or stolen devices – service provider did not suspend customer’s service 1
A.1 Plain language 1
Total 28

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]
Section of Code Total breaches
X.2 Service provider did not inform customers if they could return to their previous programming options and if the same rates would apply during changes to programming options initiated by the customer; service provider did not offer to send to the customer a written summary of changes to programming options initiated by the customer 2
XI.1 TVSP changed customer’s contract without notice 3
Total 5
Figure 3: Summary of Television Service Provider Code breaches

There were 80 alleged breaches. 71 did not require investigation. 9 breaches were investigated. 5 were confirmed as breaches and 4 were verified as not a breach.

Internet Code

Figure 4: Summary of Internet Code breaches

There were 186 alleged breaches. 169 did not require investigation. 17 breaches were investigated. 4 were confirmed as breaches and 13 were verified as not a breach.

Table 8: Internet Code breaches[FOOTNOTE]See the CRTC’s Internet Code for full text of appropriate sections.[/FOOTNOTE]
Section of Code Total breaches
A.4 Charges for device/service not purchased. 1
B.1-5 Paper or electronic copy of the contract was not provided to the customer; contract did not include all the information listed in the Internet Code. 1
D.1 Changes to key contract terms during the commitment period. 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. 1
Total 4

Deposit and Disconnection Code

The only confirmed breach for the D&D Code was related to section 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.

Figure 5: Summary of D&D Code breaches

There were 18 alleged breaches. 17 did not require investigation. 1 breach was investigated. 1 was confirmed as a breach and 0 were verified as not a breach.

Appendix A – Complaints by Service Provider

August 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021

This list includes service providers that received at least one complaint during the reporting period. Overall, 408 service providers and brands participated in the CCTS during this reporting period (including 11 service providers that joined during this period). No complaints were received about 260 Participating Service Providers.

Appendix B – Confirmed Wireless Code Breaches by Section

August 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021