For the 2nd year in a row… CCTS says billing errors are the main compliant

Canada’s independent and industry-funded Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications (CCTS) has announced their annual report. The agency was established back in April of 2007 and has a mandate to resolve complaints regarding telecommunications in Canada.

Last year they stated the majority of consumer complaints related to wireless was billing errors. This year, Commissioner Howard Maker said “Over the past year, Canadians contacted CCTS over 17,000 times – an increase of over 183 percent from the previous year. It is obvious that Canadians have become increasingly aware of CCTS and our role.”

I checked out the annual report and this year was the same as last year with billing being the big issue. Actually, the report states “more consumers complained about wireless services than anything else”. Specifically 38.01% of their total complaints were from the wireless sector. Regarding the number of complaints, here’s a list of how many are from each notable telecom company: Bell Canada 1,239; Rogers 672; TELUS 579; Videotron 72; Virgin 56; MTS had 16 and SaskTel 5.

Broken down the complaints looks like this:
Billing issues with 1,525 complaints
Charged after disconnection with 111 complaints
Credit management with 217 complaints
Overcharged with 50 complaints
General billing issue with 1147 complaints
Contract dispute with 1,209 complaints
Misleading representative with 31 complaints
Service delivery (installation, repair and maintenance) with 737 complaints
Unauthorized transfer of service (slamming) with 267 complaints
Other: 637 complaints