Telecom complaints are growing in Canada and Rogers has the most of all

Along with having to pay some of the highest bills for telecom services in the world, Canadians are also stuck with pretty shoddy service from our big three providers, as detailed in a new report that delves into just how much complaints have worsened in recent months.

According to the newly released data from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, the volume of grievances lodged against Rogers, Bell and Telus shot up significantly in 2022-2023 as residents grow ever more weary of sky-high costs and connectivity issues.

Rogers was found to be the worst culprit of the bunch, with a whopping 43.6 per cent more customer complaints between Aug. 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023 compared to the year prior. This is while the number of complaints overall against all carriers has increased by 14 per cent.

Rogers was also found to have the largest proportion of gripes, being the target of 19.8 per cent of the more than 14,600 complaints accepted in the time frame analyzed. A total of 16.1 per cent of all complaints were regarding Bell service, and 12.3 per cent, against Telus.

When issues with Fido and Chatr — both also under the Rogers umbrella — are taken into account, the wireless giant was the source of 36 per cent of all complaints. Bell, which owns Virgin Plus and Lucky Mobile, had 25 of all complaints, and Telus, with its Koodo and Public Mobile banners, held 19 per cent.

The survey from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services notes that one dispute can comprise multiple different issues, hence the disparity in the total above and the total number of complaints accepted.

The main service that clients called about was wireless (followed by internet, TV and local phone), most of them with billing concerns, followed by service delivery problems, contract disputes and credit management requests.

As the report notes, "wireless issues remain the most-raised issue, representing 55 per cent of all issues raised [and] increasing by six per cent compared to last year. Internet issues returned to the second most-raised issue, accounting for 26 per cent of all issues raised."

In recent months, both Rogers and Bell customers have faced further price hikes above already exorbitant levels, along with internet outages and MMS issues with Rogers in particular. (Fortunately for the company, the unprecedented nationwide outage of 2022 fell outside the timeline of this recent complaint survey.)

Members of the public and government alike have long been demanding more competition in the sector to help lower prices and improve service quality.

"While some progress has been made to lower prices, Canadians still pay too much and see too little competition,"Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said earlier this month in response to telecom bills going up yet again.

"I strongly urge companies and carriers to seriously consider customers over profits at this time."