Customer Complaints To Telcos On The Rise, But Still Better Than Last Year

The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has revealed (to little surprise) that complaints about telcos increased 29 per cent in January to March this year, but dropped 13.8 per cent from the same time last year.

The results were released today in the Complaints in Context report by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and Communications Alliance. Think you know who took out the “top spot”? Think again.

Image: Shutterstock

The January to March quarter generally sees an increase in complaints, according to the TIO. “Seasonal factors” contribute to increased complaint numbers, including summer weather events that can disrupt fixed line services. And you know, entire mobile networks going down, again and again.

Complaints per 10,000 Services In Operation (SIO) increased for Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and amaysim during the January quarter, with Pivotel staying stable.

If you thought Telstra would have copped the most complaints, you thought wrong. While Telstra did jump from 4.9 to 6.4 complaints per 10,000 SIO, Optus took the lead no telco wants going from 5.9 to 7.9 complaints per 10,000 SIO.

Vodafone only rised slightly to 3.7 from 5.5, and Pivotel maintained its downward trend holding the lowest number of complaints per 10,000 SIO at 0.8.

The total complaints per 10,000 SIO for all participating providers was 6.2, representing a 13.8 per cent decrease on the same time last year (down from 7.2). The January to March 2016 figure of 6.2 represents an increase of 29.2 per cent from October to December 2015.

During the same quarter last year there was a 7.4 per cent increase in complaints across all telcos as a proportion of telcos’ SIO, from 6.7 to 7.2.

[Complaints in Context Report]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.