Nearly one in three Canadians had a complaint about their internet, mobile, or TV provider last year, according to internal research commissioned by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Blacklock's Reporter says the complaints, which did not include grievances about pricing, primarily focused on service delivery and billing issues.The study, Understanding Consumer Awareness And Satisfaction With The Commission For Complaints For Telecom Services, found that 31.5% of telecom users had made a complaint in the past 12 months. Home internet drew the most dissatisfaction, accounting for 47% of complaints, followed by mobile phone service at 29% and television at 22%. The CRTC spent $112,943 on the survey, conducted by Nanos Research, which gathered responses from 1,295 Canadians.Among those who did complain, fewer than half — 48% — said their service provider resolved the issue. Despite the existence of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom Services (CCTS), a federally mandated agency that has handled customer disputes since 2007, awareness remains strikingly low.Of those who didn’t escalate their complaint to the Commission, 63% said they simply didn’t know it existed. Others cited reasons such as not seeing the point (11%), not being bothered (6%), or not knowing how (6%).The report emphasized the Commission’s lack of visibility, with fewer than 1% of telecom users saying they would think to contact the agency. A large majority—84%—said they would turn to their service provider instead, while 79% had never even heard of the CCTS.Even when customers failed to get their complaints resolved, 97% reported their provider never mentioned the Commission as an option for further help.The CRTC’s research suggests that greater public awareness of the CCTS is essential to ensure Canadians know where to turn when customer service falls short.
