We listen. We help. Annual Report 2011-12 www.ccts-cprst.ca [email protected] 1-888-221-1687 CCTS Annual Report 2011-12 Contents Message from the Chair of the 2 Participating Service Providers 20 Board of Directors, Mary Gusella Signing Up Service Providers Message from the Commissioner, Howard Maker 3 Working with Service Providers to Improve Who We Are & What We Do: Our Mandate 4 Process and Resolve Complaints Our Complaints Process: How it Works 5 Penalizing Customers for Complaints to CCTS The Year in Review – Highlights of 2011-12 6 List of Participating Service Providers Dealing with Customer Complaints Customer Survey 23 Deposit and Disconnection Code What Customers Said About CCTS A National Wireless Code What Customers Said About Service Provider Public Awareness Update “Public Awareness” Activities 2011-12 Complaints 8 Who We Are 27 2011-12 Operational Statistics Report Our Board of Directors Summary of Leading Complaint Issues Our Team Summary of Issues Raised in Complaints Statistics 30 Topics + Trends 12 Definitions Billing Detailed Analysis of Issues Raised in Complaints Case Study #1 – Phantom Service Analysis of Closed Complaints Case Study #2 – But it’s all in my bill… Compensation Analysis Case Study #3 – Why didn’t you just tell me?! Out-of-Mandate Complaints Contract Disputes Contact Centre Activities Case Study #4 – Contract? What contract? Complaints by Service Provider Case Study #5 – Where did it say that? Complaints by Province Case Study #6 – I didn’t ask you to Contact Us 47 make that change Service Delivery Case Study #7 – Constant Dropped Calls Case Study #8 – How slow is too slow? 30-day Notice for Cancellation of Service Case Study #9 – Can we please get it straight? Case Study #10 – Can we please get it straight – Part 2 Cell Phone Theft Case Study #11 – The phone is gone but the bill remains “Unlimited” Service Plans Is Your “Unlimited” Plan Really Unlimited? Case Study #12 – There are limits to “unlimited” CCTS ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12 1 Message from the Chair of the Board of Directors, Mary Gusella Message from the Chair of the Board of Directors In January 2011, the CRTC ordered that all Canadian telecommunications service providers must participate in the CCTS process once a complaint is received from one of their customers. In 2011-12, 38 new service providers signed up with CCTS. CCTS was created, by design, with unique structures and This is in addition to the 23 service providers that signed up in approaches to governance, so as to ensure the independence the half-year following the CRTC’s decision. In all, 178 service of the organization while at the same time providing providers and brands now participate in the CCTS dispute appropriate stakeholder roles. The Board is now tasked with resolution process. trying to replicate this careful balancing of interests under a new piece of legislation which is extremely different from Our organizational growth is reflected not only in the the legislation that was in place when CCTS was created. increasing number of participating service providers, but also This exercise will be challenging for the Board and will likely in the increased number of consumer complaints received. result in substantial restructuring of our By-Laws and related In 2011-12, CCTS accepted 10,838 customer complaints, governance documents. The Board has begun this work, an increase of 35% from last year. with the objective of achieving CNPCA compliance, while maintaining the independence and careful structuring of In 2009 the Board developed a five year strategic plan, laying CCTS. It will remain a key focus for the Board for the coming out its goals for CCTS to 2014. This year we reviewed our year, and likely longer. progress towards meeting these strategic planning objectives and I am pleased to report that virtually all of the objectives In this year’s Report we are providing, for the first time, identified for completion this year have been met. In addition, enhanced statistical information about complaint issues, the Board considered the remaining objectives due for which we are now able to provide as a result of the rebuild completion in the next two years and prepared a plan to of our case management system. The Board hopes that monitor progress and ensure their completion. readers will find this data interesting and that it will prove helpful to all our stakeholders. Since its inception, the CCTS Board has actively engaged in a process of determining and adopting “best practices” for governance of non-profit organizations. This year the Board encountered a new governance issue of an entirely different type. The Government of Canada introduced the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNPCA), which came into force in October 2011. This legislation will profoundly affect the way all federally incorporated not-for-profit corporations, like CCTS, must be structured and governed. We have until October 2014 to become compliant with CNPCA. CCTS ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12 2 Message from the Commissioner, Howard Maker Message from the Commissioner Planning this year’s Annual Report, and this message, has been particularly challenging. There has been so much going on, both in the telecom community generally and at CCTS specifically, that it has been difficult to decide which issues should get the most attention. In this Report we have chosen to focus on a few key subjects: Preventing and Solving Complaints at First Instance – In the Statistics section we break down the issues that resulted in Growth – 2011-12 was a year of healthy but manageable growth the most complaints. In the “Topics and Trends” section we for CCTS. We again set new records for the number of com- provide examples of the types of complaints we receive. This plaints accepted and the number of customer communications year, we focus on complaints that we feel service providers received. We also saw continuing growth in the number of could have easily prevented at the outset. We also scratch service providers that signed up, thus extending the availability our heads about the number of complaints that come to of our independent dispute resolution process to an increasing us in which the solution seems so obvious that we cannot number of Canadians. From an operational perspective, we understand how or why the service provider did not resolve processed more complaints than ever and we improved upon them when first contacted by the customer. Addressing these our already high rate of successfully resolving complaints. issues at an early stage would save consumers aggravation and would save providers money. Statistics – We are pleased to produce our first Annual Report with enhanced statistical reporting, made possible Service Providers and the CCTS Process – We also share by our new case management system. The highlight is the our frustration with the extremely high number of complaints in-depth statistical detail about the nature of the complaints (almost 43%) to which our participating service providers we concluded this year. We are also providing increased detail simply do not respond, despite being required to do so under about other aspects of our operations, with a view to added our Procedural Code. This requires us to escalate these transparency. We hope that readers will find this data useful and complaints for investigation (often unnecessarily), increasing we look forward to your feedback on how it might be improved. delay for the customer, cost for the provider, and needlessly occupying the time of CCTS’ investigative staff. We also Wireless Legislation and Codes of Conduct – Again this year discuss the few service providers which do not cooperate we received more complaints about wireless services than with our efforts to sign them up to CCTS when we receive a all other lines of business. It has been a remarkable year for complaint from one of their customers – despite the regulatory wireless carriers and consumers. A number of provinces requirement that they sign up within 5 days – as well as the have moved forward with legislation designed to address efforts we have gone to, in cooperation with the CRTC, to perceived consumer issues with wireless services and products. ensure that their customers also get the benefit of CCTS’ The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications independent and impartial dispute resolution process. Commission (CRTC) was asked to develop a mandatory national wireless Code of Conduct, and in October 2012 decided to CCTS has a dedicated staff and management team, and they begin the process of developing a Code to address the clarity worked hard this year to ensure that we continue to provide and content of wireless service contracts and related issues. the best possible customer service to all users of our process. I offer my thanks to each and every one. In addition, I thank the Deposit and Disconnection Code – The CRTC approved a Chair of our Board, Mary Gusella, for her untiring assistance Code of Conduct for deposits and disconnections, applicable and dedication, which is shared by all our directors and which to local phone service. It came into force in mid-May, 2012. is evident in their very high rates of participation in Board and CCTS will use it, when applicable, in the resolution of relevant committee meetings. I also thank Jonathan Daniels, who in complaints and will provide statistical reporting related to July 2012 completed his term as the representative of the complaints that raise issues under the Code. incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to the Board, for his three-years of committed service to CCTS. CCTS ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12 3 Who We Are CCTS is an independent organization dedicated to working with & What We Do consumer and small business customers and participating Canadian telecommunication service providers to resolve complaints relating to most deregulated retail telecommunications services.