Report: Small increase in consumer complaints about telcos

The Communications Alliance has released its Complaints in Context report for the April–June 2020 quarter, detailing the complaints received by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) per 10,000 services in operation (SIO) for participating service providers for each quarter. This enables comparison of the customer service and complaint handling performance of providers, regardless of their size.

For all participating providers, there were 7.4 complaints per 10,000 SIOs — an increase over the previous quarter’s ratio of 7.1. This means that one service in every 1351 services in operation experienced an issue that resulted in a complaint to the TIO. Communications Alliance CEO John Stanton attributed the disruptions for telcos and their customers to COVID-19, noting that despite this, there was only a small increase in the overall complaint ratio for the most recent quarter.

Stanton revealed that some providers achieved improvements in their ratio, despite the challenging circumstances. “Many telcos have offered additional assistance to those impacted by the pandemic or who are having difficulties paying their bills, and financial hardship assistance is always available to any customer who needs it. We encourage you to check your provider’s website to see what is available,” Stanton said.

The industry-driven report uses complaints data provided by the TIO and SIO data supplied by participating providers. The number of participating service providers increased in the July–September 2019 quarter, meaning that the ratios for all participants and individual providers are not directly comparable to the results published prior to that quarter.

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