Wireless Services Complaint Rate Continues to Rise

Complaints about telecom services rose again this year, with wireless services topping the list of complaints for the fourth consecutive time, according to Canada’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).

“Nearly 11,000 consumer complaints were filed with us. That represents an increase of 35 percent over last year,” said commissioner Howard Maker in a statement announcing the release of the CCTS’s annual report for 2011/2012.

According to the CCTS, which is tasked by the federal government to resolve customer complaints in the telecommunications industry, around 60 percent of the issues raised were related to wireless services, with most of them resulting from billing errors or contract disputes.

Some of the more common billing complaints included errors in customers’ monthly plans, issues relating to the 30-day notice for cancellation of service, and premium text messaging charges.

Contract disputes included cases of customers complaining they were charged early termination fees or claiming they were signed up to contracts by their service provider without their consent.

Rogers and Bell Canada accounted for the largest percentages of the complaints at 26.6 percent and 25.4 percent respectively, followed by Telus and Fido at 11.2 percent and 7.6 percent respectively.

According to data from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, an organization representing wireless companies, Rogers Wireless (which includes Fido) accounts for 35.8 percent of the wireless market in Canada, followed by Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility at 28.5 percent each.

Wind Mobile, which holds a 1.8 percent of the market share, received 3.6 percent of the complaints, and Videotron, holding 1.3 percent of the market share, took 2.2 percent of all the complaints.

Complaints-to-Market Share Ratio Table

Wireless Service Provider	Wireless Market Share	Complaints*	Complaints* to Market Share Ratio
Wind	1.75%	3.61%	2.07
Videotron	1.33%	2.23%	1.68
Rogers (including Fido)	35.76%	34.18%	0.96
Bell	28.51%	25.36%	0.89
MTS	1.88%	1.02%	0.54
Telus	28.48%	11.17%	0.39
SaskTel	2.29%	0.46%	0.20

* Complaints are those filed with the CCTS against the mother company, expressed as a percentage of all the complaints received by the CCTS.

Compiled by The Epoch Times with data from the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.

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